MANILA, Philippines – Conceived in Stockholm, Sweden in 2008 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, commercial music streaming service Spotify clearly hit the sweet, well, spot among music lovers around the world—opening the doors for on-demand access to a mind-numbing 20 million songs, and redefining the notion of music enjoyment and ownership.
The award-winning digital music service on desktops, tablets, mobile devices, and home entertainment systems is now available in 58 markets, and boasts some 50 million active users and over 12.5 million paying subscribers. What makes the service different from notorious peer-to-peer file sharing services is that Spotify renumerates record labels in exchange for the use and webcast of albums from their portfolio.
In an exclusive interview with this writer sometime back, Spotify Singapore Pte. director for Asia Sunita Kaur said that the “one very clear vision was to build a service better than piracy,” basically overhauling the adversarial relationship of music vis-à-vis the Internet. “A lot of people thought that they (Ek and Lorentzon) were crazy,” she continued. Today, largely through its partnership with Globe Telecom, Spotify has found widespread acceptance in the country.
Obviously cognizant the popularity of the platform, auto brands BMW and MINI have taken the Spotify experience on-board its vehicles. Motorists can now access their Spotify music (including playlists), and access features like Radio and Browse on the high-resolution control display via the iDrive Controller. Premium subscribers have an even better experience through high-quality, on-demand music that is ad-free and can be accessed even when offline.
“We’re very excited to be partnering with BMW to bring Spotify to their lineup of Premium automobiles,” said Spotify VP for global business development Jorge Espinel in a statement. “BMW ConnectedDrive brings the popular features of the Spotify mobile app to life in the dashboard with safe access to all the music you could ever want. Whether you want to listen to your own music, browse for a curated playlist, or just sit back and enjoy Spotify Radio, Spotify will always deliver the perfect music for any journey.”
“With the aim of enabling safe and comfortable use of apps in cars, the BMW Group was an early driver of smartphone integration and has already certified numerous apps for access in BMW and MINI vehicles,” continued the release. “These apps have been optimized for use during a journey, can be operated via the iDrive Controller or MINI Controller without distracting the driver and are viewed in the Control Display or the MINI Center Instrument, respectively.”
One could say that this move is spot on.