MANILA, Philippines – His favorite song on Spotify – the one that pumps him up in the mornings – is “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor. Jonathan Nadiranto, Spotify’s Account Director for Asia, answers this question I posed without knowing that it’s one of my favorite songs on Spotify for that same reason.

The Spotify music streaming service uses a “freemium” model for its operations, allowing any signed up users to stream music from their library for free, though with ads. Users can also pay Spotify a small premium subscription – P129 monthly in the Philippines – to remove advertisements, get better quality tracks, and sync tunes to your phone for offline listening.

I had a talk with Nadiranto earlier this month to ask him for his thoughts on music streaming in the country, as well as what Spotify sees as the future for music around the globe.

Access and ownership

“In the past, the way the music has rolled out has been about ownership. Owning CDs, records, and whatnot,” Nadiranto explained to me when asked about Spotify’s stance on the the differences between owning and accessing music.

It would seem that for many, listening to the music that appeals to them is more important than owning a song for their personal collections.

After all, when the world’s music is in the cloud, available for streaming on your computer or smartphone via an app, the difference between owning a song blurs a bit.

He continues, saying the the future people are going towards is less about owning a song. “They just want a simple way to consume music or listen to music, and that’s the access part. The fact that you can access music at your fingertips, whether it be your mobile device or on your computer.”

Figthing piracy with freedom

“If you remove piracy, you need to provide an alternative,” he tells me when pressed on the issue of access and ownership. “One way to do so is in a free and legal way, and that’s music streaming,” he added.

People who pirated songs – or perhaps used to pirate songs – did so because there was no other way of getting that music.

I remembered a time in college when a teacher of mine let me listen to a Brazilian music group called Karnak, and I enjoyed the eclectic music that came from them – the result of mixing diverse sound styles with pop and rock. Finding their music was next to impossible in the Philippines unless you looked really hard.

These days, I could listen to that entire album my teacher lent me 11 years ago through Spotify. As Nadiranto explained, “Streaming kind of alleviates those channels.”

Popularity and vision

When asked about competition in the scene, whether it be from local players or alternatives like BitTorrent’s creator-friendly Bundles, Nadiranto noted that competition was a good thing, while focusing on how Spotify can improve and expand.

“For spotify,” he explained, “our vision is really to play everywhere. With that attitude, we really focus on us, making the music experience as unique and as amazing as possible for a music fan, and when other mediums open to those channels, it’s positive.”

To wit, their year-long growth in Asia appears to be a testament to the popularity of wanting to get good music with fewer barriers.

The service has 50 million listeners worldwide, with 12.5 million of them running a Premium subscription. In the Philippines, the growth has also been phenomenal, with Nadiranto saying that Filipinos have made a million playlists in 6 months – a feat that usually takes a year in other countries.

Having music moments

Nadiranto goes on to say that since the vision for Spotify is to play everywhere, the company is looking for ways to expand and to have those memories and feelings that music evokes spread through the expansion of the service.

“Our vision is to have music moments everywhere, and I think it’s going to be having a larger footprint in asia, launching in more markets globally so that any music fan can access that music wherever they are.”

If that means more people take on Rocky training montages or go out into the streets enacting their own own music moments with their favorite songs, then I’m all for it. – Rappler.com