Spotify has responded to criticism of its increasingly close links with Facebook, claiming that it is “creating an amazing new world of music discovery”.

As previously reported, Spotify came under fire earlier this week when it announced that new users would only be able to sign up with a Facebook account. There was also some anger that new settings that allow the streaming music service to post details of every song users listen to back to their Facebook profiles were not clearly explained.

In a statement yesterday, Spotify said: “To us, this is all about creating an amazing new world of music discovery. As most of our users are already social and have already connected to Facebook, it seemed logical to integrate Spotify and Facebook logins. We already use Facebook as part of our backend to power our social features and by adopting Facebook’s login, we’ve created a simple and seamless social experience”.

It continued: “From today, all new Spotify users will need to have a Facebook account to join Spotify. Think of it as like a virtual ‘passport’, designed to make the experience smoother and easier, with one less username and password to remember. You don’t need to connect to Facebook and if you do decide to, you can always control what you share and don’t share by changing your Spotify settings at any time”.

The music service finished by saying that it is “constantly trying new things” and would “make changes based on customer feedback” wherever possible. It also published a blog post clarifying how to control what information is shared externally by its software, though if the comments on that blog are anything to go by, critics of the changes – who are probably just a very vocal minority – are unlikely to be placated.

Read the blog here.

Sections: Digital | Tags: Facebook, Spotify

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