Vinyl records to 8-track tapes, 8-track tapes to cassettes, cassettes to CDs, CDs to iTunes, but what comes next? The music industry doesn’t stick with one format for too long without moving on to the next best thing. iTunes has enjoyed their time at the top, but it is about time for the next player to step up. Spotify has entered the market hedging their bet on consumers valuing instant access to millions of songs for a nominal fee every month. Customers can even access music for free if they are willing to sit through commercials and a limited number of skips. Subscription services in other industries are rampant (Netflix, Amazon Prime, and even Cirrus Insight), but adoption for access to music has lagged behind a bit. However, Spotify has now brought their expertise in the subscription-based business model to the music industry, and they are here to stay.
What makes Spotify so revolutionary? Other companies have tried to push the music industry toward subscriptions services, but Spotify has risen to the top. Spotify separates from its competitors through their ability to build upon the successes of other internet platforms, such as Facebook and Salesforce.com. Nearly everyone uses Facebook, and Spotify understood that. Nearly everyone also listens to music, but up until now music and social media have been on two different spheres. Music is inherently social, and Spotify wanted to integrate the two. Through a very close collaboration with Facebook, Spotify allows users to share songs, albums, and playlists on Facebook. Tapping into the social arena has been critical to Spotify’s tremendous success. Because of their ability to naturally integrate music with the world’s largest social network, Spotify has grown exponentially over the past 5 years. Such quick expansion can cause many rifts in communication, but that is where Salesforce’s Work.com stepped in. Spotify and Salesforce embrace the necessity of collaborative workflow, and Work.com provides that. By giving team members constant feedback and instant access to valuable information, Spotify has been able concentrate on providing customers music and less on growing pains.
At Cirrus Insight, we are proud to help Spotify communicate between Google Apps and Salesforce through our #1 rated Salesforce Gmail plugin. To learn more about what we do, check out some of our features here.