Spotify, my favorite social music streaming service, announced a new app platform for its desktop client so that third parties can add in functionality. The core of this new platform is Spotify’s “app finder”, designed to bring more information to the fingertips of users, including concerts, lyrics for songs, and reviews of album. This service is the next logical step for Spotify in its quest for social music network dominance that began with its Facebook integration. Last.fm, Billboard, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and Pitchfork are already on board with this platform.
Spotify also intends to add a new bevy of much-needed features with this update, enabling users to see what their friends are listening to on the fly. Anyone can submit apps to Spotify’s new platform but like the iTunes App Store, Spotify has final approval over any app submitted by third parties.
While Spotify has a long way to go before all of these features are fully integrated and well-implemented, this is a positive step in the right direction for music. Spotify has many areas to improve on, especially in playlist creation and finding new and exciting music, but this deepening level of social integration is a big move that will hopefully come to fruition sooner rather than later.
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