Spotify launches in U.S. today
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A digital music service for which Europeans have gone nutso launches in the U.S. today, after a couple of years of promises and waiting.
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"If Apple's iTunes ushered in digital music's first phase as a large-scale business, then Spotify and other services like it could be its future," writes Ben Sisario on the New York Times.
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Rather than selling individual tracks to be downloaded, subscription services sell monthly access to vast catalogs of music, with whatever songs a listener wants to hear streamed directly to his computer or mobile phone.
Spotify will be offered in the same three-tier plan that it has in Europe: a free, ad-supported version; a basic ad-free version for $5 a month; and a premium service for $10 a month that adds access on a mobile phone, higher audio quality and other perks.
Spotify will be available first to U.S. customers who got themselves on a waiting list beforehand.
Spotify is the best music service of its kind, says the lifehacker site.
Will Spotify be able to duplicate its European success? Probably not -- the marketplace is more crowded with like services than when it launched across the pond in 2008. But I will be trying it for sure.
