Spotify to join the social bandwagon
27th April 2010 by Sarah Howard
Online music provider Spotify has announced important changes to align its website with the likes of social content generation sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Morphing into a musically driven social networking site, Spotify has released a new application to allow users to access their Facebook account whilst browsing the music site. Users will be able to bring their friends over from Facebook, sharing playlists and musical preferences with them.
Tracks can be placed in an inbox system, allowing friends to rate and suggest track choices, providing a socially interactive tool on the music site.
Accommodating users of Twitter, Spotify is also reported to be providing a link to enable users to share their top artists or tunes via a Tweet system.
The Guardian reports that the Spotify profile also allows users to import tracks off their own personal music library to their music collection and in addition, export playlists to the music sharing site’s iPhone, Symbian and Android mobile apps.
ITProPortal believes that such innovations have put Spotify in direct competition with Apple’s iTunes, as well as shaking up the music industry as a whole.
Apple is set to move to a cloud based music service and this move by Spotify is reported to prevent the success of such a move.
Spotify founder and chief executive, Daniel Elk was cited in The Financial Times, as commenting on the new applications, saying: ”Our ultimate goal is to get people to manage their music collection with Spotify.”
”We know that this is a huge shift. People are used to owning music – but more and more people are becoming comfortable with accessing music and services in the cloud.”