Infinite Path

Spotify has announced that it is planning on launching a mobile application in the near future, subject to approval by Apple’s iTunes App Store. However, herein lies the real issue with the Swedish music streaming service’s plans, since Apple may not be too happy with the prospect of giving Spotify free license to allow users to download the service to their iPhones.

Spotify has long been hailed as fierce and serious competition for iTunes as it offers users the chance to search for a song before listening to it free of charge. The service’s mobile application will allow users to store playlists on their iPhone for times when there is limited connectivity. This particular feature has been spoken of as a key selling point and is likely to attract many more consumers to the service.

The hype surrounding the service has been difficult to ignore over recent months and it now boasts more than 2 million users across Great Britain. Plans to launch in the USA later this year are likely to be boosted if Apple approves the application, something which the Spotify CEO expects to happen as a matter of course.

The developers may well have stuck to the stringent guidelines set out by Apple for the creation and development of apps but the simple fact remains that Apple may just view Spotify as too close a rival to encourage it to flourish across multiple platforms.

If Apple refuse to approve the app, though, the repercussions could be extreme. It is not in Apple’s interests to be accused of behaviour which would so blatantly fly in the face of allowing healthy competition and attempts such as these to maintain their dominance would undoubtedly be frowned upon by the industry and music fans alike.