Spotify brings in apps to further world expansion

Spotify are ending their terrific year at the top of the music streaming pile with a new addition called “apps”, it has been announced at a conference in New York. It’s a step in the direction of Facebook and, of course, the iPhone, and the aim of the Swedish streaming megasite is to transform Spotify from a site on which you play music to one on which developers build little applications to turn that little green disc into the gateway to lots of new and interesting things.

These new and interesting things are necessarily difficult to predict, but featured in the announcement were Rolling Stone and Pitchfork, who “curate” playlists for users, or Songkick, which uses your choices to pick out local concerts.

“We’re opening up our platform in a way that lets you curate the apps you want,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said at a launch event in New York City. “We have a lot more in the works, but more than anything we look forward to being surprised by our developers,” Ek said. With regards to charging for apps, Ek was undecided: “We’re creating this platform knowing it’s the early days, and we’ll figure things out along the way,” he said. “Right now, there’s really no monetization within this platform.

Beta testing opens tomorrow, with a full roll-out to the Swedish companies 10 million users very soon. Obligatory cutesy video below.