iTunes Chart-Toppers (a/o February 21st):
(#musicindustry) Think Spotify is getting ready to launch by the end of this year in the US? In this space, anything goes, though projected launch dates are best treated with caution. Here are just a few times that Spotify has miscalled its stateside arrival. We stopped at 10, enough for about a month of premium.
May 18, 2009
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek optimistically tells the BBC to expect a stateside launch by the end of 2009, or early 2010.
July 19, 2009
Ek tells the Observer to expect a US launch during the "third or fourth quarter [of 2009]," while also leaving the door open to "next year [2010]".
November 11, 2009
At the Monaco Media Forum in Monte Carlo, Ek points to a very tricky licensing process, while also projecting an 'early 2010' launch in US.
February 3, 2010
Ek, speaking to Billboard, points to a launch in "one month's time or two month's time." Similar statements were made at New Music Seminar in Los Angeles, though of course, nothing materialized.
March 26, 2010
Spotify SVP Paul Brown points Bloomberg to a third quarter arrival (now over). "We're buying server space in random parts of the states and there are licensing discussions too," Brown said. "But they are going fine because we're in a long-term partnership with the labels and publishers."
July 29, 2010
Billboard reports that Spotify licensing discussions have "reverted to square one," something Spotify denies. The company also took the opportunity to point to a "launch later this year."
August 12, 2010
"Spotify will be opened in the U.S. later this year," Spotify general manager of Europe Jonathan Forster tells HS.fi (translated from Finnish)
September 16, 2010
Spotify media representative Jim Butcher tells C|Net, "We are in fact in a good place with our label negotiations. We're confident in our U.S. launch later this year."
September 30, 2010
Sources at a Spotify party in Europe tell paidContent that a "go-live date between Thanksgiving and Christmas is in-the-works."
October 7, 2010
Sources to C|Net point to attempts by Apple to dissuade labels from licensing free versions of Spotify (or, worse).
Compiled by publisher Paul Resnikoff, while listening to Grooveshark.
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