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Spotify launches in America, with ASCAP on board

By | Published on Friday 15 July 2011

Spotify

So, as Spotify finally arrived in America yesterday I bet at least some of you – you know, the tedious people. I mean the tediously pedantic people. No, I mean the admirably aware people – were thinking “so we know all the major record companies and Merlin have signed up (actually, we’d not reported on Merlin signing up, but it has), but what, my dear, about the publishing rights, we’ve not heard much about them now have we?”.

Well, good news, people, that’s all sorted. Well, some of it’s sorted. Well, the rights represented by one of America’s three publishing collecting societies are certainly sorted, even if that doesn’t include any EMI songs any more. Yes, as Spotify went live in the US yesterday lunchtime (our time) ASCAP confirmed it had signed a licensing deal with the European streaming service to cover the lyrical and musical rights in the songs it represents.

And just in case you don’t believe me, we stalked ASCAP CEO John LoFrumento for several hours yesterday until he gave us this quote: “ASCAP is delighted to have entered into an agreement with Spotify that is consistent with our commitment to negotiating fair payment for the public performance of our members’ music. Spotify understood the benefits of obtaining an ASCAP blanket license in advance of their much-anticipated launch in the US, creating a healthy environment for the growth of their business while recognising that music creators should be paid fairly for their work”.

And if you thought LeFrumento was going to be the only quote we’d have in relation to Spotify’s US launch, you’d be very wrong. No, we also door-stepped the service’s American MD Ken Parks for comment, which was somewhat pointless given he’d already issued this statement: “Spotify was founded as a better, simpler alternative to piracy. So making sure that the people who create the music prosper is hugely important to us. We have full catalogues from all the major labels and a raft of independent labels including those represented by Merlin, which means all of their artists are being fairly compensated for their creativity every time people enjoy music through Spotify”.

“But what about the Ek-meister?” you’re almost certainly thinking. Well, he’s a very social guy, so he focused on the social networking elements of the Spotify service, noting: “We believe that music is the most social thing there is and that’s why we’ve built the best social features into Spotify for easy sharing and the ultimate in music discovery. Even if you aren’t a total music freak, chances are you have a friend who is and whose taste you admire. I’m looking forward to connecting with some of you in Spotify and discovering some cool new tracks”.

As expected, Spotify has launched in the US with pretty much the same offer as in the UK, though charging five and ten dollars a month for its two paid-for packages, rather than five and ten pounds, which, of course, actually makes it a bit cheaper. The free service, as is now the case in Europe, is limited in terms of number of hours of listening a month, and how many times any one track can be streamed, though various marketing partners are distributing special invites which provide unlimited PC-based streaming (so, basically the five dollars a month package) for free for six months.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the arrival of Spotify in the US caused Pandora’s share price to wobble a little, down nearly $1.50 at one point, though by the end of the day it had recovered a bit, so that it ended the day just 33 cents down. There are, of course, some differences between Spotify and Pandora in terms of functionality, and they possibly therefore appeal to different parts of the market. Though if Spotify ever hones its ‘interactive radio’ function – currently the weakest part of its service, and something some Americans are reporting to be missing entirely from the software – it might start competing more head on with Pandora.



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