Jones+B+Report+Proposal

Jones B

TO: Proximity Video Team FROM: Brian Jones DATE: April 4, 2010 SUBJECT: Proposal for report Spotify Online

Spotify is a virtual digital jukebox and has been Europe's largest legal online music website for quite some time. Upon entering the third quarter of the fiscal year Spotify will open it's doors to the U.S. Spotify has revolutionized the way consumers acquire music. It gives you instant access to all your favorite bands and songs, with over 8 million tracks in it's digital library. Create and share your own customized playlists with anyone else who uses it. Spotify also offers mobile services so you can listen on the go. I propose to write a report on how Spotify plans to target americans and the outcome and/or collateral damage it may have on it's American competitors such as Itunes and LimeWire.


 * Need**

In the "Information Age" digital media has changed the ways and general outlook on how people acquire information and other media.


 * Pirating digital media is increasing over the years.
 * Record labels and music industries are beginning to support and partner themselves with online music sites.
 * Peer-to-Peer sharing applications are the new generation.
 * Purchasing CD's at local retailers are a thing of the past.
 * Information and media are becoming more digitized by the day.
 * Governments are being urged to pass laws against illegal downloading.

Spotify, which has 325,000 users paying a monthly 9.99 pounds ($14.48) for the service ad-free, is partially owned by the biggest record labels. The site has had more than 10 million euros in ad turnover since starting in October 2008 and users are buying “tens of thousands” of tracks each week through a third party, Brown said.


 * Topics**

The proposed report, "Spotify targets the U.S" will cover the following topics:
 * Competition Overseas
 * The effect it could have on the American media sharing community
 * Pricing and advertisement
 * Current and future piracy laws
 * Spotify's target market

Here is a preview of some of the sources for the report.
 * Sources**

Schweizer, Kristen. Spotify Online Music Site Targets U.S. Start in Third Quarter (2010, March 26). Business Week. Retrieved March 31, 2010.

Schweizer reports Spotify's intentions of extending their services and music library overseas. Includes a preview of how they plan to market their product to the American Gen-Y as well as prices for subscribers and possible warehouse locations for their operations. Schweizer also touches on Spotify's new competition, government legislation, and the music industries position on whether or not to support Spotify and other Online Music websites.

Bonanos, Paul. Spotify is the New Napster, but Which One?" (2009, September 20). Business week. Retrieved March 31, 2010.

Bonanos identifies Spotify as "the latest potential 'Itunes killer'". Discussing some of Spotify's recent technological advancements (mobile caching) giving users the ability to acquire songs offline, "will essentially fulfill the long-awaited dream of any song, anytime, anyplace, on demand". Bonanos also mentions the most recent controversy with paying a subscription fee for the service since customers are technically only renting the music through streams. "Is the ace in the hole-unlimited acces to on-demand mobile music-really worth $10 per month, especially if consumers won't own their songs if they stop paying?".

Arrington, Michael. Google And Spotify Dance Over U.S Launch (2010, January 4). TechCrunch. Retrieved April 3, 2010.

Arrington discusses the possible partnership between Spotify and Google. As google continues to expand far past a basic search engine, Spotify is just what Google's looking for to get it's foot in the "peer-to-peer digital music" door. There is discussion of Google's Nexus One phone being launched with a built in 2.1 version of Spotify's Android application, which allows offline syncing of songs. This would give Google, as well as Spotify, a well needed competitive answer to Apple's iTunes. Spotify also looks to add new social elements to it's application for better competition with MOG.