SXSWORLD

Spotify's Daniel Ek Battles Piracy with Legal On-Demand Alternative By Andrew McNeill a cell phone or streamed over Internet radio. But digital music consumption can also be frustrating. It is practically impossible to combine all of the previously mentioned features in one place, so you have to use different services and devices to achieve the same goal: listening to your music. And with all of the various devices and music services come a number I n today's information age, music consumers have many ways to consume music digitally. Songs can be ripped from a CD and played on a computer or mobile device, downloaded from the Internet, copied from a friend's library, preloaded on of restrictions. Maybe that downloaded song can only be placed on five devices. Maybe the "skip song" button can only be pressed a certain number of times per hour. The point is that the music is not completely in the user's control, as it was when people bought and played records, CDs and cassettes. Daniel Ek understands these frustrations with online music, and he is doing something about it. Ek, 26, is the CEO of Spotify, a European company that provides a streaming music application that offers legal access to millions of free music tracks. "We offer a way to play whatever music you want, whenever you want to, and wherever you want," says Ek. The name Spotify is a combination of the words "spot" and "identify." The application itself is a blend of Pandora's personalized Internet radio application and iTunes' desktop music purchasing client. Spotify allows listeners to stream songs and albums on demand and if they choose, to add that music to different playlists. These playlists can then be shared and collaborated on with friends and importantly, can even be used across multiple computers with the same account. "Martin [Lorentzon, Spotify Co-Founder] and I started Spotify because we saw a big need for a legal, on-demand music service," Ek explains. "People had clearly shown that they wanted access to large amounts of music at affordable prices, but the market didn't provide a solution, and this drove a lot of people towards piracy." Spotify has already made progress in its quest to bring pirates to Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify free, although currently there is a waiting list for this advertising-sup- ported service. In addition, it offers a premium service option to paid subscribers that includes some of the highest streaming bit rates of any online service. Spotify offers paid subscribers a mobile application for supported smartphones. The service has become quite popular since launching in October legal behavior. In the U.K., two-thirds of over 2,000 respondents to a national survey who admitted to having illegally downloaded music said that the service offered an attractive alternative. Since launching, Spotify has offered its basic service in Europe for 2008, currently counting over five million users in the six European countries where it is available. Very soon, Spotify will bring its product across the pond and make it available in the U.S. "We're working hard right now to ready a launch in the U.S.," Ek " We offer a way to play whatever music you want, whenever you want to, and wherever you want." music and technology," Ek said. "Spotify is not well known in the U.S. yet, so the main goal of my keynote is to raise awareness and explain to people how Spotify is different from any other service that is currently available in the U.S." But a trip to Austin can't be all work and no play, can it? "It's my first time at SXSW, so I'm really looking forward to seeing said. "Obviously, one obstacle is securing label rights to stream music. We encountered a similar issue in Europe." To prepare for that launch, Ek will make his first trek to Austin. "SXSW combines two of the topics that we're most passionate about - 18 SXSW ORLD / F EBRUAR Y 2010 what it's all about," Ek said. "Hopefully I'll have time to see a few bands and also meet up with some great new people in the industry." n Daniel Ek will serve as the Tuesday, March 16 Keynote Speaker for the SXSW Interactive Festival. PHOTO COURTESY OF SPOTIFY

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