Spotify

Another music distribution example with possible relevance for film? - Spotify is a music distribution service that some people believe could spell doom for iTunes (www.apple.com/ itunes) or even for the CD. It launched last October and already has a million users.

Spotify works like this: users download a small application, which allows them to listen to any track from a total of thousands of albums at any time. The key difference between this and iTunes is that customers never actually own the music.



Spotify is the most talked-about start-up of the last year, not just because it provides a service that is much in demand, but also because of its interesting model for financing itself. Premium users, who pay £9.99 a month, do not see advertisements served up to them every 20 minutes. But you can enjoy the music for free if you are willing to watch the commercials.

In other words, the service is funded by both advertisements and subscription, which doesn't leave it solely dependent on one or the other method......