Spotify has today proven its power as it hits the one million (users) mark. With the music streaming service having such a huge impact in Europe all eyes are on the US, but when will Spotify US happen and what's next for the service as a whole?
There's been talk about Spotify US for a long time now with a variety of theories and rumours stemming from uncooperative record companies, to the threat of Pandora. The truth is they need money to set up camp. $100m in fact, which Spotify is in the process of raising.
As you would imagine, the majority of users are on the free, ad-supported version. We'll be seeing a huge push from Spotify to get more people signed up for premium. (Smartphone users offer a huge market.)
At best we see the price of the premium service slashed, at worst they get rid of the free service all together but that won’t happen anytime soon.
What we are also likely to see is more social integration similar to the Spotify Facebook playlist feature, and more artists as big companies realise its money making potential and little-known artists use it as a platform for success. Maybe we will see an unsigned band service to fill up the whole left by dying MySpace music?
And if we're lucky, they celebrate the million milestone with some new features.
What would you like to see?