Industry News

What to Expect from Spotify's 'New Direction' Press Conference
-- Spotify sent out an announcement Monday morning for a "global press conference" that will take place on November 30 in New York. The event will be hosted by CEO Daniel Ek and will feature "a special guest or two," according to the email.

So what's next for Spotify? Let the guessing begin.

Early speculation is the event has something to do with the addition of downloads in the US, a partnership with mobile carriers or ISPs and the inclusion of ticketing and merchandise ecommerce on the Spotify platform.

But those guesses have one big problem: they don't explain why Spotify would do a global press conference. Spotify users in some European countries can already buy MP3 downloads. Partnerships with a mobile carrier or ISP are done on a country-by-country basis. Any news about a mobile partnership in Austria would naturally be of little concern to people in the US.

Ticketing and merchandise seem to always come up in discussions about music platforms. But when I spoke with Ek two weeks ago and asked him specifically about integrating items other than recorded music into the service, he was clear in his belief that Spotify is focused on its music platform. "We believe there are great companions to what we're doing," he told me. "With that said, though, it's not Spotify's core (mission) to be doing merchandising or ticketing or things like that. We're focusing now on getting people to listen to more music."

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We know two things about Spotify: it wants to be a dominant platform and it is holding a global press conference. As Ek said, its focus is getting more people to listen to more music. So it would make sense that Spotify is about to unveil something that would further its goal to become a dominant, global music platform. How would it further that goal? By making a more active push for developers to create apps using its API. Or maybe by launching new mobile apps, although there's nothing wrong with its current apps (tablets could be a greater focus, however) and that doesn't seem worthy of a press conference. Or there could be a pending partnership with a major platform like Twitter, although it would be hard to imagine Spotify jumping from the arms of Facebook so soon after the f8 conference in September.

Of those three possibilities, the API strikes me as the most likely option. Any other ideas?

7Digital Links Up With T-Mobile
-- 7digital will power the MP3 downloads in T-Mobile's digital storefront, the T-Mobile Mall. Customers can choose from millions of songs from all four majors and dozens of independent aggregators, choose between new releases and catalog titles, and enjoy high-quality, DRM-free MP3s.  This partnership is the latest example of 7digital extending its footprint. Already this year it has launched an MP3 download app for Android tablets running the Honeycomb operating system, an MP3 download app for the HP TouchPad and a music store on BlackBerry's PlayBook tablet. ( The Next Web)

Penguin Suspends OverDrive
-- It's not just record labels that are pulling out of digital services. Book publisher Penguin has suspended new releases from OverDrive, a service that allows libraries to offer ebooks to their customers. OverDrive also has a music service http://www.overdrive.com/Resources/MediaFormats/music.aspx that allows libraries to distribute DRM-protected music files. Its website claims a version with DRM-free MP3 downloads, called Libtunes, is "coming soon."

Penguin cites not the economics of ebooks but "new concerns" about the security of its digital editions, according to a statement from the company. "Penguin's aim is to always connect writers and readers, and with that goal in mind, we remain committed to working closely with our business partners and the library community to forge a distribution model that is secure and viable." ( OverDrive blog, The Digital Shift)