Spotify

Services/Value/Rivals

Spotify offers a free service which allows users to stream music and shows an advert every few songs played. However this becoming increasing less available and before was only available in the UK. It also offers a premium service, which offers the music without advertising and of a better quality. It also offers mobile, offline and travel access. Mobile access is now available on several major operating systems for mobile phones. It also offers a 24 hour pass cheap as an alternative for occasional use. This wide range of different services, but still considerable free access available means that Spotify poses as competition to several different websites and stores.

Spotify rivals YouTube for free access to music as well s various other similar sites, however it also rivals high street stores and Apple’s ITunes Store as people could see paying for unlimited streaming of music as an alternative to buying music in other ways. Spotify however does not view Last Fm as a rival, instead the services compliment each other, Spotify used it’s Last Fm compatibility as a selling point to draw in more people. Although nothing more has come of this Last Fm don’t view Spotify as competition, in a poll 50 percent of people used Itunes over 11 using Spotify and 7% using Last Fm.

Spotify has been valued by the financial times at around 148 million after having raised 30 million in investments. It has fallen under criticism as pays poorly to independent artists, who earn very little off the service.