- done

While i’m one of those lucky ones who have an premium account in germany, i thought it was impossible to get the Spotify app for the iPhone, but luckily there is a simple workaround. Just create an UK iTunes account and download it there:

• enter the iTunes Store
• log out
• scroll down to the footer, click “change country” (zu deutsch: “Land ändern”)
• select United Kingdom
• search for the Spotify app
• click the purchase button
• click “create new account”, accept disclaimer
• select the payment option “none” – this works because the spotify app is free
• fill out the form with any valid UK address, use a different email address to your original account
• check email, validate email
• enter the iTunes store again. now you’re in the UK Store
• search for the spotify app again
• purchase
• install
• done

Apple didn’t buy lala because of its genius technology, they have their own streaming technology and deliver billions of previews a day already through iTunes, probably much more data than lala ever did. And it’s probably not for hiring talent, Apple is surely one of the most attractive employers worldwide.

Instead: could it be that lala owns some kind of contract with the music industry that helps Apple entering the streaming music business? Surely it is not easy for Apple negotiating an arrangement with the majors, they know that if Apple starts a cloud music service, they are out of business.They fear the face-off and therefore hesitated to bring their own streaming service Spotify to the US.

Apple was well happy with selling downloads and did not want to jeopardize its own business. Until now, because the time has come and customers want a streaming service. So i wouldn’t be surprised if Steve proudly announces a new iTunes, maybe in January? And surprise, surprise, with a 10$/month flat fee for streaming music (unfortunately US only…). In this case, Steve again would have kicked ass the majors. And Spotify is doomed, just what i predicted 10 months ago. Sad. Hilarious?

Ok, maybe i’m just wrong… let’s see.

Thanks to hypebot, i found  this remarkable post from Umair Haque on Harvard Business Blogs. He calculates MJ’s royalty income to $12M per year, which is a lot of money, but astoundingly low considering MJs outstanding fame:

If the world’s biggest pop star only made $12 million a year from his recordings, why would anyone make serious music? Where did the rest of the money go? Why, straight into record labels’ pockets.

Did they make better music with it? Nope — they made Britney and Lady GaGa. And that’s how they killed themselves: by underinvesting in quality, to rake in the take.

It’s not the web that is responsible for the current desaster of music economy, it is the greed of those who conducted all this. The music industry deserves to disappear.

I’m not skilled to judge the quality of music. What does quality in art mean anyway? The sex pistols, did they make “good” music in the sense of a musician? Surely not. Have the been “good” musicians? *cough*. Was punk rock innovative? nope, it was just rock’n'roll, not even a fast one. So why have the sex pistols – at least – been so successful and why did millions identify with their music and why can be said: this is true art? Of course is the answer: because punk rock was an authentic, urgent and strong expression of an attitude towards society and life.

Authenticity is something that everybody carries inside, it derives from life itself, it is not manageable and cannot be created artificially. Authenticity is the key to art. I am convinced that the greatest and most common mistake in the music business is to influence and polish artists in order to reach marketing goals and therefore undermine and bury their authenticity. This is the true reason for the current disaster of the music industry.

Regina Spektor says: Don’t mess with art!

There is the suggestion that an album should cost $5, my guess is that in mid term the prices will even drop to around $3. This seems to be the amount a consumer is willing to pay on a voluntary basis. (Remember the Radiohead In Rainbows numbers. Divide $2,736,000 by 1,200,000 downloads, then you get $2.28 in average.)

Why so low? It’s not only random customer behaviour. The value of an mp3 file itself, as is with any digital information, tends to zero. It’s an economic fact, because the marginal costs for the production of a digital copy are nearly zero.

Despite this a digital download has a value for the customer, because of two reasons:

First, the service that provides the download is a value. If you pay, you save yourself hunting in file sharing networks and ending up with mistagged mp3s in bad quality. The better the service, the higher the value. iTunes is more convenient than amazon’s mp3 store, so they might be able to realize a higher price.

Second, people will pay because it’s fair. But you are not paying for the file, your want to support the artist. People (mostly) want to be fair. In this view, you are paying for the consumer-artist relationship. This means that probably a direct sale from the band’s website has a higher value for the customer – if they know that the money goes directly to the artist – that could equal much more than $3.

…that the best selling album of 2008 - Tha Carter III from Lil’ Wayne -  sold 2.88 million copies and

for the very first time since tracking album sales started under the current model in 1991, the number-one album didn’t clear 3 million copies (mediapost.com)

… but still, Lil’ Wayne alone…

sold more CDs than did CD Baby in 2008 (coolfer)

…which is interesting if you know that CD Baby has 277,000 Albums in stock. Does that mean that the Long Tail is a dead end? I doubt. Look at this:

Songs from Regina Spektor, an album that is available only from CD Baby has 2,257,765 plays from 161,533 listeners on last.fm, which is roughly the same as the 2,466,466 plays from 116,056 listeners for Lil’ Waynes’ Tha Carter III.

How come? Do Lil’ Wayne listeners use less computers? Are Regina Spektors’ fans a bunch of file sharing criminals? Or maybe – are the “official” sales numbers just a massive fake?

I won’t say that i regret having paid, i like it, but i really wonder how much time people spend on developing stuff that – on a mid term perspective – will surely be eaten up by the big fish in the pond?

Spotify isn’t difficult to understand. Basically, it’s  a streaming iTunes with a 9,99 € flatrate. The application is well made, slim (just 2.4MB) and in terms of interface design an iTunes copycat, even shortcuts like spacebar for play/pause work the same. Spotify is fast and search works fine.  Sound quality is good, a lot better than streaming from last.fm, but not as good as an 192kB mp3 downloaded from iTunes. One downturn for me: spotify cannot stream to my apple airport speakers. Feature request! Anything else is fine, but what’s new?

Surely, Spotify is doing what Napster should have been done in the past. But that does not justify its right to live. At the certain moment when it will be possible to clear royalties for an on-demand streaming for the US market (Spotify only works in Europe), it is very easy for Apple to enter the business, and that will be the sudden end for Spotify.

What I love about “Elephants … Teeth Sinking Into Heart” is you know for a fact that there was not a single A&R or P.R. or marketing person that was in the process remotely, because there’s not a single up-tempo song on the whole album. They’re all completely self-indulgent, in the best possible sense of the word, indulging in the beauty of the sadness.

I’m so thrilled when I hear that. There might be slight danger that a label would be trying to say “Let’s make sure there’s a radio song.” It’s a really healthy thing in this younger generation of artists…

No A&R, no PR and marketing remotely makes good music. Just think about it.

The new service will launch at music.myspace.com but will look completely different than the existing site. Users will be able to stream music for free, create playlists, download music from Amazon, buy merchandise and event tickets, and buy ringtones.

I love it. Thanks for the link, Matt.