Microsoft has teamed up with Spotify to announce the availability of the music streaming app on the Windows Phone platform.
Spotify launches today on the Windows Phone 6 platform and is available for download in the Windows Marketplace for mobile. Spotify will also be available for the upcoming Windows Phone 7 devices that launch in Europe on October 21. Users will be able to launch Spotify from the start screen or in the music hub and the app has been designed from the ground up to follow the design theme of Windows Phone 7.
“Spotify is a great example of software innovation emanating from Sweden and Europe” says Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. “We’re very glad to work in collaboration with Spotify to deliver a high quality, outstanding consumer experience on the Windows platform with Windows 7 and Windows Phone.”
Spotify is a multi-platform application which provides access to a free and legal barrage of online music. It's a streaming music player which has a similar feel to iTunes. Through it a user can get links to a large number of albums and tracks. Spotify use a peer-to-peer network along with streaming servers to provide their music. The Windows Phone app is free to download but will require a Spotify Premium account, priced at £9.99 a month.
Spotify is available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, France, Spain and in the UK. Versions are available for Mac users with OS X 10.4 or later, Windows XP users or later and it can also be run using the application Wine if you have a Linux based system such as Ubuntu.
The advertising funded version of the software is completely free of charge and can easily be signed up for by UK users. Spotify ask that the rest of the world wait for an invite to register, you can visit their invitation page should you wish to join the waiting list. Advert free versions of the software are also available: £0.99 for a 24 hour ad-free pass or £9.99 as a monthly subscription should you wish to get going straight away. Adverts come along roughly every half an hour and last for around thirty seconds. Spotify consider this to be considerably less than the amount you would hear on normal radio.
Spotify is only available for selected countries in Europe at the moment but is expected to launch in the U.S. later this year.
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