Spotify says hello to the iPod
At Spotify it's always been our mission to provide you with the best all-round music experience on the planet. For Spotify Premium subscribers, a huge part of that experience is taking your playlists with you wherever you go.
Context & Ripple Effects
Two weeks after announcing upcoming changes to its free tier, Spotify is extending its Premium pitch to hardware: subscribers can now take their synced playlists onto an iPod. The move lands on a service that passed one million paying subscribers in March and was reported in February as racing Apple and Google to deliver a cloud music service this summer.
Music Ally framed the launch as a direct shot at iTunes — pairing iPod syncing with a music downloads store — which matters because Apple's device has been the moat keeping download buyers locked in. It also sets up the U.S. entry Spotify has been negotiating behind the scenes, with its Facebook tie-up still unconfirmed.
First-order effects
- Spotify Premium subscribers gain playlist portability on the iPod without going through iTunes, weakening Apple's grip on the sync step between computer and device.
Second-order effects
- Apple now faces a streaming rival courting its own hardware's users, sharpening the three-way race with Google reported in February and pressuring both incumbents to answer with cloud offerings of their own.
Third-order effects
- If subscription streaming absorbs the sync-and-portability functions that justified owning downloads, the iPod-era model of per-track purchases loses its structural advantage — the outcome hinges on whether labels license the same catalog to all three racers.
The trend: Subscription streaming services are absorbing the device-sync features of download stores, eroding the lock-in that made iTunes the center of portable music.