Spotify Platform is a new Spotify app store that offers things like music recommendations, song lyrics for karaoke nights, concert calendars and ticket listings, all from within the Spotify client. Spotify Apps will be available to all Spotify users (both free and paid) and over a dozen different apps have already been created for launch. These will all be free to use, with content provided by the likes of Rolling Stone, Last.fm and ShareMyPlaylists. Spotify will approve all submitted apps, which show up in a new Apps section in the sidebar. The platform launches on desktop first, but Daniel Ek was confident a Spotify mobile version would be inevitable.
The Spotify apps page is here, with the full Spotify press release below.
Also see the app-by-app lowdown: Unboxing Spotify Apps.
Spotify, the largest and fastest-growing music service of its kind, today opens up a new world of possibilities with Spotify Platform.
Spotify Platform gives third party developers the opportunity to build innovative, engaging music-based apps. To us, it’s the next big step in musical enjoyment.
These free apps integrate beautifully with Spotify, both visually and functionally, and can be accessed and shared by millions of Spotify users through the new App Finder, launching today as a preview at http://www.spotify.com/download/previews.
The first generation of Spotify Apps features 16 partner apps, with 12 available from launch today. We’ve been lucky to partner with some of the brightest and best brands in the world to create engaging, fun, and social apps.
The 13 global partners launching on the Spotify App Finder include Billboard, Fuse, The Guardian, Last.fm, Moodagent, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Songkick, Soundrop, TuneWiki and We Are Hunted, with Top10 and ShareMyPlaylists apps coming soon. We also have 3 Nordic regional partners including Tunigo in Sweden, with Gaffa in Denmark and Dagbladet in Norway apps coming soon.
Our integration with Facebook in September has made more people than ever excited about sharing music again, adding more than 7 million new Spotify users in just over 2 months. And our users have now created more than 500 million playlists, a number which has doubled since just July.
With Spotify Platform, we want to enable innovation on top of music. Add many more layers of music enjoyment. We want DJs to create the best lists, and virtual clubs where people can gather together to hear them, dance, and sing along. We want fans to get closer to their favorite artists, and give great editorial partners and tastemakers a way to recommend music to you.
It’s also what Spotify users have been asking for. Now we can all enjoy great music reviews, buy tickets for gigs, sing along with the lyrics, all inside Spotify. Curate the apps you want and make Spotify yours… and the launch apps are just the beginning.
Music is many things to many people. With Spotify Platform and a whole bunch of clever apps, we hope we can all get more out of music than ever before.
Speaking at the conference, Spotify CEO and Founder Daniel Ek commented:
“Once you take a look, you’ll see why we believe this is truly the beginning of something game-changing for digital music. We think this will lead to integrations that keep Spotify beautiful and simple, but layer in great musical experiences designed to be social and fun. It’s what our users have been asking us for.”