“..Why Sweden rules the web..”
“..Phone calls, movies, music, TV –
- Stockholm has emerged as the epicentre of an online revolution, giving us all what we want, instantly, for free..”
….
“.. Meanwhile, on the other side of Stockholm, a new internet company has turned this demand for free media into a viable business model ..
.. that the music industry seems willing to stomach.
Spotify, launched in October last year, is a piece of music software that looks not unlike iTunes..
.. yet allows you to listen to a vast, growing catalogue of streamed tracks for free –
- as long as you are prepared to endure around a minute of advertising per hour.
A premium version, costing £9.99 per month, suppresses the ads and offers exclusive content.
Listeners can exchange their favourite playlists with one another online.
This internet jukebox’s global user numbers reached a million this week and are increasing by 20,000 a day..
.. while its catalogue of tracks grows at a similar rate.
At least 250,000 Spotify users are in the UK, where the service recently became freely available for download.
And, in February, it executed its first big industry coup..
.. giving users the chance to hear U2’s new album a week before its physical release.
Spotify has harnessed a voracious appetite for sharing free culture online ..
.. to create a legitimate alternative to online piracy.
But it’s a model that would never have been embraced by the entertainment industry ..
.. without the likes of The Pirate Bay forcing labels and studios to confront the future.
Both sites are part of an ever-fertile technology community in Sweden’s melting pot of expertise, experience and innovation;..
.. Stockholm is, in attitude and actuality..
.. the capital of a new virtual world..”
go to source/story>>Why Sweden rules the web - Features, Gadgets & Tech - The Independent