User:Togna bologna/Tony Sandbox

Catalogue
As of July 2011 the catalog provides access to approximately 15 million songs via searching for artists, albums, titles, labels and genres, and gives users access to tracks from many major and independent labels. Some artists have opted not to be added to Spotify. Additionally, some artists are missing in certain regions due to licensing restrictions imposed by the record labels. For example, The Beatles are not available because of a digital distribution agreement that is exclusive to iTunes. The Spotify desktop client allows music to be imported from iTunes, with the option of syncing with a mobile device. Users from the UK, France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands can also buy most tracks, if available, from Spotify's download partner 7digital.

Playlists
Users can set up playlists and share them, or edit them together with other users (see collaborative software). For this purpose the playlist link can directly be dragged into an email or an instant messaging window. If the recipient follows the link, the playlist will be downloaded into the Spotify-client of the recipient. Downloaded playlists will then auto-update if the author adds or removes tracks. Like normal links, the playlist links can be used everywhere. The same principle also works for single tracks, which can be used via drag and drop on applications and websites at will. There are a number of websites for sharing of Spotify playlists and songs where users can share, rate and discuss them.

Last.fm integration
While Spotify does not automatically create preference-based playlists, it does integrate with Last.fm. This integration allows Spotify users to send songs from Spotify to their Last.fm account and "scrobble" them. Scrobbling via Last.fm integration allows Spotify users to learn which songs or artists they listen to the most. In turn, Spotify users can add a Spotify link to songs in their Last.fm library and send them to the Spotify client.

Radios
Spotify also includes a Radio feature available to Spotify Free, Unlimited and Premium accounts, which creates a random playlist of songs chosen based on specified genres and decades. An Artist Radio feature creates a random playlist of songs by artists related to (and including) the selected artist. Artist Radio channels on Spotify provide background information on the selected artist, ranging from its history to a list of the artist’s most famous singles. The Spotify radio function demonstrates distinct differences from its competitor, Pandora. With the Spotify radio function, users are allowed to skip as many tracks as desired, while Pandora places limits on the number of tracks that can be skipped. Additionally, Spotify does not allow users to lend “star ratings” to tracks, thus, limiting the ability to organize the radio function based on user preference.

Social Media Integration
Spotify allows registered users to integrate their account with existing Facebook and Twitter accounts. Once a user integrates their Spotify account with other social media profiles, they are able to access their friends’ favorite music and or playlists. Additionally, Facebook compatibility allows Spotify users to share music with Facebook friends through the use of the service’s inbox. Spotify users are able to send tracks or playlists to friends, who in return, are able to access this music through their Spotify account.

History


Spotify has been developed since 2006 by a team at Spotify AB, Stockholm, Sweden. The company was founded there by Daniel Ek, former CTO of Stardoll, and Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of TradeDoubler. The parent company is now Spotify Ltd in London, while research and development remains carried out by Spotify AB in Stockholm.



The Spotify application was launched for public access on 7 October 2008. While free accounts still remained available by invitation only in order to manage the growth rate of the service, the launch meant that paid subscriptions were opened to everyone. At the same time, Spotify AB also announced licensing deals with many major music labels. The company reported a $4.4 million loss for the year of 2008.

The first step towards offering free accounts to the public without an invitation was taken on 10 February 2009, when Spotify opened for free registration in the UK. Due to a surge in registrations following the release of the Spotify mobile service, Spotify closed its open registrations in the UK for part of 2009, and went back to an invitation-only policy.

In February 2010 Spotify received a small investment from Founders Fund where Sean Parker sits on the board and was recruited to assist Spotify with "winning the labels over in the world's largest music market".

On 4 March 2009, Spotify announced that there had been a security flaw in the Spotify service, by which private account information (including email addresses and hashed salted passwords) of members registered prior to 19 December 2008 were potentially exposed.

On 28 January 2010, Symantec's antivirus software marked Spotify as a Trojan horse, disabling the software across millions of computers.

On 18 May 2010, Spotify announced that two more types of accounts were available. Spotify Unlimited is the same as Spotify Premium but no mobile and other features. Spotify Open is a reduced feature version of Spotify Free which allows you to listen to up to 20 hours of music each month. Spotify Free remains by invite only.

On 1 September 2010, the World Economic Forum announced the company as a Technology Pioneer for 2011.

Roberta Maley also known as "Roberta from Spotify" was the Premium Services Director of Spotify. She is known for her appearance in some Spotify advertisements.

On 25 March 2011, Spotify temporarily removed display advertising from external sources on its open and free accounts due to an attack which used an exploit in Java to place malicious code on the victim's computer.

On 14 April 2011, Spotify announced via a blog post that they would drastically cut the amount of music a free member could listen to, with start on 1 May 2011. The post states that all 'Spotify Open' and 'Spotify Free' members would be moved onto a new product which limits the amount of streaming to 10 hours per month. In addition, a user can only listen to a track a maximum of five times. 'Spotify Unlimited' and 'Spotify Premium' members are not affected by this change. New users were exempt from these changes for six months.

On 17 June 2011, it was reported that Spotify had secured another $100 million of funding and planned to use this to support its US launch. The new round of funding saw the company valued at US$1 billion.

On 14 July 2011, Spotify launched its US service, which was a major milestone after delays and years of negotiation with the four major record companies.