Slowly but surely Swedish streaming service Spotify has just about made its way across the Atlantic and onto US shores, the arduous process of gaining numerous record company’s signatures may finally be over.
The online music service currently has around 10 million European users and, although many members aren’t happy about it, the recent limitation on the number of hours permitted for use of the free service was necessary in order to get the final agreement from American record company’s, in particular Warner Music.
Spotify’s expansion to the U.S was delayed because of the doubt about the streaming services money making capabilities concerning record labels, many online services similar to Spotify are often criticised for the lack of credit artists get per play. For example it was calculated that on Spotify the average pay an artist receives per play is £0.002, hardly flattering.
Although Spotify will have challenging competition awaiting them in the US, already established US streaming services ‘Pandora’ and ‘Rdio’ to name a few, the award winning music service is expected to be a hit.
