Will Spotify kill the download star?

Monday 07 September

Spotify - sounding the death knell for downloads?

Spotify surprised us all this morning when it threw the covers off not one, but two new mobile apps – one for the iPhone and one for the slightly geekier (but no less great) Google Android phones.

On top of that, we learn that Spotify are going to get Nokia and more than likely BlackBerry owners listening too, plus maybe letting PC and Mac users download tunes to their hard drives rather than just streaming them, Internet-radio style.

Could this be Spotify’s big moment – or if not Spotify then some other upstart startup? It was a brave move by Apple to let Spotify stream music to iPhone owners, but they probably assumed that this would have only a minimal effect on iTunes sales while still driving people to buy a few more iPhones so they can get at Spotify’s streaming services. Will the gamble pay off?

iTunes and similar MP3 stores have sold us on the idea that we might not need physical CDs in order to ‘own’ music. Spotify already sell 24-hour passes to all the advert-free music you can stream, which is ideal for throwing a party. Maybe casual listeners don’t even need to own the MP3s, either?