One of the biggest winners of last week's launch of Spotify in the United States was General Motors
GM's Chevrolet signed up to be one of Spotify's first advertisers, in a layered marketing deal to promote Chevy's Sonic, a new entry-level subcompact that the automaker plans to roll out later this year.
For starters, the mad scramble for Spotify invitations attracted online music buffs to Sonic's Facebook page. The first 150,000 requests received through the Chevrolet Sonic tab on the Chevrolet Facebook page were promised access to Europe's popular digital-music service.
Things didn't go smoothly. A lot of registrants complained about not receiving invitations, and initially, Chevy mistakenly offered six months of premium Spotify access -- the highest tier that offers ad-free streams on mobile devices and more for $9.99 a month. GM and Spotify are doing the right thing by honoring those early requests.
Either way, more young music fans know about Chevy's new subcompact, which will retail for as little as $13,735, than they did earlier this month -- blunders and all.
The next phase of the partnership should be integration. After all, if Chevrolet is onboard as the exclusive automaker advertising partner, why wouldn't Spotify eventually work its way into the Sonic's dashboard technology? There's nothing official on that front, but folks are already starting to speculate out loud on that front.
Woe is Pandora Media
I've kicked the tires on Spotify enough to know that it's superior to most of the music services out there, but it's not in the same league when it comes to value proposition of Pandora or the in-car accessibility of satellite radio.
The reason Pandora has been prominently incorporated into Toyota's
The cover charge is less than what Sirius XM charges, but one also has to rely on iffy wireless-carrier connectivity. AT&T
Is Spotify a threat to Pandora or Sirius XM? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.