Spotify brings deeper appreciation of local acts to streaming

In 2010, Spotify founder Daniel Ek gave a keynote address to the Interactive portion of South by Southwest where he argued that his online music streaming service represented the future of the industry, one where people pay for the right to listen to rather than own music. After the talk he promised that his company, already popular in Europe, would hit U.S. shores within the year. It took a little longer than that for Ek to secure licensing deals with the major music labels, but he finally got it done, and two weeks ago, Spotify launched in America.

There has been a lot of online chatter about how Spotify compares to services like Rdio and Rhapsody, which offer a similar product — access to an iTunes-like catalogue, with subscription options that allow streaming on a mobile device — but one main difference is a deeper catalogue, with 3 million to 6 million more songs. That might or might not be a big deal, depending on how much music a user consumes. If I'm going to pay $5-$10 for a subscription to a music service, I would rather it be for the one with more songs.

I went into that deeper catalogue and found that plenty of Austin artists, and not just the famous ones, are well-represented on Spotify. A quick search turned up albums from several locally based musicians, which I used to create a playlist (read it below). If you have a Spotify account, visit austin360.com/
musicsource or facebook.com/austinmusic
source for a link to listen to the playlist (you need an invite to get Spotify, which you can sign up for on spotify.com or find through various business, such as Coca-Cola, which are offering them in exchange for an email address).

What does this mean for bands? Spotify's social networking options make it easy for users to share music; it's another useful tool for independent bands, who can get their music on the service through an online music publisher such as CD Baby. A lot of this music is also available on Rhapsody, but Spotify allows users to share playlists on Twitter or Facebook, and users can send music directly to their Facebook friends. Rhapsody allows users to build playlists and share them with other Rhapsody users, but it's not as integrated with social media and it's not free. Rdio does offer more social elements, but it doesn't include music from independent artists.

It's hard to persuade people to buy your music if they haven't heard it. Independent bands can reach more people by encouraging their fans who are Spotify users to share music within their social networks. Sites like Bandcamp, which provide an easy way for bands to stream music (compared to an increasingly clunky MySpace) have become useful tools, and Spotify has the potential to make it even easier.

Amarah Ulghani, bassist for Austin-based pop rock group the Sour Notes, says that the little bit of money that her band makes selling music through iTunes or Amazon isn't worth as much as getting people to go to a show, where they might buy CDs or other merchandise. A site like Spotify might help bands reach audiences in other places before a tour. "You want to make it easier for them to find out about you." Ulghani says. "That way they won't have to strain so hard to find out what you sound like before you get there."

My Austin Spotify playlist:The Wooden Birds, "Too Pretty to Say Please"; the Zoltars, "Homicide"; Centro-matic, "All the Talkers"; Monarchs, "Business Casual"; John Wesley Coleman III, "Bad Lady Goes to Jail"; English Teeth, "Bloody Knuckles"; White Denim, "Drug"; Dikes of Holland, "Sunrise"; the Sour Notes, "Particularly Shrill"; Leatherbag, "Caroline"; Jesse Woods, "Ugly Dress."

Still rocking. The initial run of band Mission of Burma, which started in 1979, lasted only four years, cut short by guitarist Roger Miller's extreme tinnitus. After working on other projects for 20 years, the group unexpectedly reunited in 2002, playing shows and releasing three albums that are closer to the work of a young indie band than a bunch of middle-aged guys who could just as well be coasting along on the strength of their 30-year-old material. Friday night at Mohawk they unleashed an hour-plus of nonstop, no-time-to-catch-your-breath rock, reinforcing their rep as a lasting power in the music world.