British broadband supplier and TV broadcaster Virgin has signed a deal with music streaming software Spotify to bring music on demand to their customers.
Virgin's customers will have the ability to access Spotify's 13-million track music catalogue through the "connected" TV service that Virgin will provide through its new TiVo boxes.
There will be two ways to get Spotify on your box. First is the Unlimited tariff which offers unlimited ad-free music listening. And then their will be premium which will allow users to use it on a host of devices including iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Web OS and Symbian devices as well as the Virgin TiVo box.
Existing Virgin customers will be the first to gain access to the service, and existing Spotify users will be pleased to hear that they’ll be able to keep their existing accounts if they sign up for the service too – so you shouldn’t lose your playlists.
There’ll also be exclusive content – but it thought that this will be the same content that Premium subscribers are already getting, which is usually access to albums a week before it see’s its physical release.
Pricing is yet to be announced, though Virgin insisted to that the bundles would be “great value”. A launch date hasn’t been finalised either – but it’s expected to land in “the coming months”.
However, the service won’t be available for Virgin customers who have the old V+ PVR since it doesn’t support applications. Users wishing to take advantage of Spotify through their TV will have to upgrade to the new TiVo box.
Since the publication of Lord Carter's Digital Britain report in 2009, plenty of ISPs have tried and failed to create a viable music streaming services to prevent piracy.
Sky's own version of Spotify, Sky Songs, failed to takeoff and was subsequently scrapped by Sky last year due to weak demand, there have been very few initiatives from the ISPs since.
We’ve always thought that Spotify was a perfect match for other media outlets like TV and computer games. Unfortunately we haven’t seen anything on consoles yet. But we’re sure Spotify would love to get their service on Xbox, Playstation and even Nintendo devices. Let’s hope the Virgin deal is a success and paves the way for more devices soon.
Because if the music industry is going to survive we need consumers to use services that are legal and that benefit artists rather than illegal channels of distribution.