Spotify is also social in other ways: it has a strong integration with Facebook, which makes it easy to share songs. However, I have not really experienced this aspect yet. Probably because there are only 18 other Spotify users in my Facebook network, of which less than half seem to be active. I can imagine that this will be different, once Spotify really becomes available in Belgium.
Access vs. Ownership
After a few days of browsing Spotify I was a bit confused. How to use Spotify efficiently? costa rica phone number list Just create playlists (or use playlists from others) or try to transfer my many thousands of CDs from iTunes to Spotify? For a moment I considered the latter, until I began to experience first-hand what it is to trade 'ownership' for 'access'. With Spotify you don't browse through your own playlists looking for something you want to hear. You think of something, search for it and it starts playing. It doesn't matter whether you have it or not, you always have access to it.
The Future relaunch the music industry. After all, every song that is played generates money for record labels and artists. And that is very different from the classical music business, where a decreasing group of people still pays 'full price' to buy music, while a growing group downloads music illegally. As I state in my book “Media Morgen” , I do not believe that the future of music lies in paying for songs and albums, but in paying for access (like Spotify) and experiences (like concerts). And for me, Spotify is on the right track with its approach.
For it to really work, every artist needs to be part of the platform. And that is not yet the case today: bands like Coldplay refuse to be on Spotify, because they earn more from 'sales' (for now). They do what they want. From now on, I will pay for music via Spotify. And if I really want the latest from Coldplay, I will download it illegally. And to end with a punchline; Spotify has already been officially launched in the Netherlands, but not yet in Belgium. But there is a strong rumour that Spotify will formally launch in Belgium on 16 November, so just a few more hours of patience.