This story doesn’t surprise me very much at all. While speaking at AllThingsD’s D10 conference, Spotify director Sean Parker claimed that Apple was the reason it took so long for US residents to get access to Spotify.
Up until this point, it was widely believed that Spofity was delayed here in the States because of licensing issues with record companies.
When asked directly if Apple was to blame for Spotify’s late launch, Parker said,
“There was some indication that that might have been happening…You hear things, people send you emails. There was a sense in which Apple was threatened by what we were doing.”
Parker notes that the revenue Apple earns from the iTunes store is minimal in comparison to the rest of the company’s offerings. It’s much more likely that Apple simply didn’t want to lose its monopoly on the online music industry.
Unlike Pandora, Spotify lets users listen to any song they want on command, for free. It makes perfect sense that Apple would feel threatened.
Luckily for us, regardless of who was responsible, Spotify did end up launching the the US and has since grown incredibly popular. I still prefer the iTunes experience for my mobile devices, but whenever I want to play songs from my computer I choose Spotify.
Are you surprised by Apple’s efforts against Spotify? Do you still prefer iTunes or has Spotify taken its place? Let me know in the comments section below
