Will Developers Create Apps for Spotify If They Can't Make Money from Them?
Now that music apps like TuneWiki, Pitchfork, Songkick and Rolling Stone are emerging on Spotify, we wonder if developers and brands will flock to Spotify.
In the "What's Next for Spotify" event today, Spotify CEO and founder Daniel Ek said that while developers won't get any revenue from their apps, they can get value in earning clout simply by being visible on the Spotify platform.
Now, any developer can build an HTML5 app for Spotify's desktop version. But similar to the Apple App Store process, Spotify will approve each app before making it available on the platform. Unlike Apple and Android, however, all of the apps will be free meaning that developers still can't monetize apps on the platform.
While Spotify apps could pose a threat to Apple, Amazon and Google, the company might have a hard time attracting developers to the platform without monetization opportunities.
"Developers are happy to mess around with these things but people want to see a return on the investment," founder of tech website Pocket-lint Stuart Miles told BBC. "If you can't charge for your app, that's going to put a lot of people off."
CNET reporter Greg Sandoval recently wrote that apps for Facebook and iTunes succeeded because they are all-purpose platforms.
"Will I really go to my music service to keep my calendar or store my phone numbers, post my resume, or organize my life?" Greg writes. "I suppose I might, if I weren't already doing those things at Facebook and iTunes."
But the apps on Spotify seem to be strictly music-related. For instance, Spotify offers an app for concert tour date tracking and discovery, Songkick, and we wouldn't be surprised if the app added ticket-buying options as an in-app purchase or if Ticketmaster created an app for the Spotify platform.
Back in November, we reported how Ron Conway hinted that Twitter will soon sell tickets for music concerts but Twitter has yet to make an official announcement.
Developers have been able to create apps powered by Spotify for a while and in August, started letting iOS developers embed Spotify on top of iOS apps. Some of those apps include Spotibot, Spotiseek for iOS and Stalkify.
SCREEN SHOTS