Spotify announces music app store Spotify Platform

Spotify announces app store
Spotify shows off its app-y face

Spotify revealed last week that it was going to announce a 'new direction' in the music market and after much rumour and speculation, the new direction is an app store for the service - called Spotify Platform.

In a global press conference, Spotify founder Daniel Ek explained the new initiative which sees the music service offer up its content to Facebook-style apps - which will link into Spotify and offer up content.

So, when you play a song you will be able to download an app that shows that song's lyrics, or another app will be able to give you reviews of the song you are listening too. You will also be able to look for gig listings and the like through Spotify.

The press conference was broken down into three sections, with Ek explaining Spotify's background, its move into social and its new launch.

Spotify platform

"We believe that Spotify is creating the history of music today. The online music landscape is filled with innovation and there are lots of great services," explained Ek.

"But there are 500 million people listening online and the majority do this illegally. So we need something better than piracy.

"It is all about access, so Spotify's mission was simple: give people access to all the music all of the time. And make it legal."

"At Spotify we are adding 20,000 tracks every day. The Spotify revolution is really to make access to an alternative to ownership.

"We are only three years but we have become the second biggest music resource and paid back $150 million to rights holders so far."

Spotify platform

After social, which Spotify managed with a link-up with Facebook, Ek explained that the next step was apps.

"Spotify is everywhere and we have decided to turn up the volume," said Ek.

"We felt that the true core of Spotify is making music available instantly. But we do want fans to get closer to their music.

"There are a lot of apps out there but not many are about music. Today Spotify brings music to the app party."

Spotify platform

Some of the partners for this include the Guardian, Pitchfork, Last.fm and Rolling Stone.

To make it easy to find apps for Spotify, Spotify has created something called an app finder on its site - here you can check out all the apps available and figure out which ones you want to download and link into the service.

The Spotify Platform service is available now.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.

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