音樂(lè)：丹尼爾?埃克

Spotify公司CEO兼聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人

????數(shù)年以來(lái)，Spotify一直是最熱門(mén)的音樂(lè)服務(wù)網(wǎng)站，但美國(guó)人卻始終無(wú)緣享用。由于看好美國(guó)市場(chǎng)的發(fā)展前景，并且經(jīng)過(guò)深思熟慮，Spotify從斯德哥爾摩遠(yuǎn)涉重洋登陸美國(guó)的旅程可謂轟轟烈烈，充滿(mǎn)了承諾、猜測(cè)以及與唱片公司之間曠日持久的許可權(quán)談判。Spotify終于登陸美國(guó)（7月，Spotify在美國(guó)上線(xiàn)），這家由丹尼爾??？顺闪⒌囊魳?lè)流媒體服務(wù)公司已經(jīng)做好準(zhǔn)備，立意顛覆美國(guó)本土音樂(lè)愛(ài)好者音樂(lè)消費(fèi)的方式，復(fù)制它在歐洲的成功。

????美國(guó)一直都不缺“自助式”音樂(lè)服務(wù)，但沒(méi)有一家能像Spotify一樣，提供簡(jiǎn)單、快速、合法的獨(dú)立應(yīng)用，使用戶(hù)可以免費(fèi)收聽(tīng)和分享1，300多萬(wàn)張唱片。美國(guó)音樂(lè)訂閱服務(wù)商Rhapsody要求每月預(yù)付訂閱費(fèi)，而Spotify則使用一種免費(fèi)+增值的模式。免費(fèi)服務(wù)含廣告，且每月可以播放音樂(lè)的時(shí)間，以及同一首歌可以收聽(tīng)的次數(shù)都受到限制。而最佳服務(wù)計(jì)劃則可以使用戶(hù)在手機(jī)上存儲(chǔ)歌曲。Spotify利用廣告銷(xiāo)售的收入和訂閱費(fèi)來(lái)支付唱片公司和音樂(lè)家的費(fèi)用。

????而且，?？诉€創(chuàng)建了一種新潮的用戶(hù)體驗(yàn)，效果甚至超過(guò)了iTunes。盡管iTunes比Spotify提供的音樂(lè)多出一百萬(wàn)首，但它要求用戶(hù)預(yù)付費(fèi)，并且在完全收聽(tīng)之前，必須等待下載。而?？藙t相信，如果能夠?qū)⒄麄€(gè)音樂(lè)目錄免費(fèi)向用戶(hù)開(kāi)放，最終他們會(huì)被吸引進(jìn)來(lái)，愿意支付訂閱費(fèi)。哪種方法更優(yōu)秀？還得用數(shù)字來(lái)說(shuō)話(huà)。截至目前，Spotify在歐洲的用戶(hù)達(dá)到1，500萬(wàn)人，其中超過(guò)75萬(wàn)人為付費(fèi)用戶(hù)。

Music: Daniel Ek

CEO and co-founder, Spotify

????For years, Spotify was the hot music service that Americans couldn't get their hands on. Its journey across the pond from Stockholm was fueled by promises, speculation, and drawn-out licensing negotiations with record labels. Now that it's here (Spotify launched in the U.S. in July), the music streaming service founded by Daniel Ek seems poised to transform the way stateside listeners consume music, just as it did in Europe.

????"All-you-can-eat" music services have existed in the U.S for some time, but none of them work quite like Spotify, a simple, fast, and legal stand-alone application that lets users listen to and share the service's 13 million-plus tracks for free. Whereas Rhapsody requires upfront monthly paid subscriptions, Spotify uses a freemium model. The free tier is ad-supported and places caps on the number of hours that music can be streamed and the number of times a song can be listened to each month. Premium plans let users go mobile and store songs on their mobile devices. Spotify uses money from ad sales and subscription fees to compensate labels and artists.

????Ek also created a snappy user experience that outpaces even iTunes, which offers about a million more songs than Spotify but makes users pay upfront and wait for tracks to download before listening to them in full. Ek put stock in the belief that if you open up the entire music catalog to users for free, they will eventually get sufficiently hooked to pony up those subscription fees. The numbers speak for themselves. To date Spotify reaches 15 million users in Europe, more than 750,000 of whom are paying customers.