Free online music provider Spotify is currently providing a much more positive picture of the free music movement than its non commercial, illegal download nemiseis Pirate Bay.
Spotify has provided a framework where music labels make money and users can listen to more than a million tunes free of charge. It was been warmly welcomed by the record industry, which has been fighting a very public battle to find ways of generating revenue since the advent of illegal peer-to-peer file sharing, online downloading services and also the impact Myspace has had on the way in which music is now accessed.
Registered users are rising fast despite no official marketing spend and 1 million have thus far signed up, with 250,000 of these in the UK.
Described by some as a serious rival to iTunes, Apple may well be keeping a close eye!
Spotify UK sales director Jon Mitchell recently said,