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Since its U.S. launch, Spotify -- a cloud-based music service -- has gained 400,000 new paying subscribers, bringing the service's total user count to 2 million paying subscribers and 10 million total listeners. Online music sellers should take note, because if Spotify continues to grow at this rate, it may become the latest service to disrupt the music industry.
The jukebox of your dreams
Spotify is a music-streaming service. After creating an account, users can get up to six months of free ad-supported music on demand. Once the trial period has expired, they're limited to 10 hours a month and a five-play limit on any track.
To continue the endless music buffet, users can sign up for one of two plans. The most basic plan costs $4.99 a month and eliminates the ads as well as the time limit. Spotify reserves its best goodies for the $9.99 premium service, which lets you listen on your mobile phone and other devices and download tracks to your computer or phone so you can keep listening offline.
OK, it may sound familiar
Spotify isn't the first subscription music service. Rhapsody, Microsoft's
Basically, two things set Spotify apart. First is its integration with Facebook. You can check out what your friends are listening to and share new tracks and artists you've discovered with a single click. Rdio and Mog have similar features, but neither has the following of Spotify. Second, the service just works. Searches come back quickly, music starts playing with almost no delay, and in all the hours I've spent with it, the stream has never stuttered or dropped out. It's almost indistinguishable from listening to my MP3 library.
In short, Spotify is what a cloud music service should be. Amazon.com's
Who needs to worry
Obviously, Apple, Amazon, and Google will continue thrive even if their music ventures shrink, but Spotify could do a lot of damage to Sirius XM Radio
Pandora Media
Foolish takeaway
Spotify is privately held, so I can't suggest you add it to your watchlist, but I would recommend keeping an eye on its publicly traded competitors to see how well they manage as our media consumption evolves. Add them to your watchlist and stay up to date with all the latest news and analysis.
- Add Sirius XM Radio to My Watchlist.
- Add Pandora Media to My Watchlist.
- Add Microsoft to My Watchlist.
- Add Google to My Watchlist.
- Add Best Buy to My Watchlist.
- Add Amazon.com to My Watchlist.
- Add Apple to My Watchlist.