As you may have heard, Spotify is planning a major press conference in New York on Wednesday (November 30) to announce the company’s “new direction.” Though it hasn’t been officially confirmed by the company, AllThingsD speculates that they are likely to announce the following:
The ability to let third-party developers tap into Spotify’s music library and make it available to their own users — as long as those users are already paying Spotify for a premium account. [AllThingsD]
So while Spotify is already tightly integrated with Facebook and also available on some other connected devices, this announcement could pave the way for Spotify to achieve a “Google Maps-like” ubiquity in the marketplace.
In other streaming music news, ST Holdings recently removed all but four of its 238 labels from music streaming services Spotify, Rdio, Simfy and Napster. Here’s a quote from the now altered STH post citing their reasons for dumping the services:
As a distributor we have to do what is best for our labels. The majority of which do not want their music on such services because of the poor revenues and the detrimental affect on sales. Add to that, the feeling that their music looses it’s specialness by it’s exploitation as a low value/free commodity. Quoting one of our labels “Let’s keep the music special, fuck Spotify. [stholdings.co.uk]
Having attracted an avalanche of press after their announcement, it appears as if STH may have had a change of heart; if you look at the now infamous post on their site today, here’s what you see:
Streaming services update
Pleased to say we’re working with some streaming companies on solutions that work as well for artists as they do consumers. [stholdings.co.uk]
Last but not least, the now out of beta Google Music, had some serious Cyber Monday deals today, selling full albums from the likes of Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Drake, Florence + The Machine, Mayer Hawthorne, She & Him, M83, Mariah Carey, Pink Floyd and others all for $1.99. It remains to be seen whether any of this pricing will remain in effect on Tuesday, but it’s after midnight ET and I’m still seeing those rock bottom prices. As an aside, I was pretty excited for the launch of Google Music, but so far I’ve been a little disappointed by the implementation. I’m having serious syncing issues on my iPad, iPod, and my Android phone, in fact, the only thing that seems to recognize my full music catalog is a web browser.
UPDATE: Most of the Cyber Monday deals are gone now, but you can still bag Coldplay’s X&Y for $1.99, if you think it’s worth that much.