Spotify app approved for iPhone

The company hopes to launch the service in the US soon

Apple has approved the Spotify iPhone application, allowing users to stream music to their handsets.

The company submitted the application to Apple's iTunes App Store for its approval in July.

The application will be free, but will require the user to have a premium Spotify subscription, which costs £10.

The Swedish music streaming service is looked on as a rival to Apple's iTunes store because of its comprehensive, free library of millions of songs.

Apple currently dominates the digital music market, which led many to speculate that the app may not be approved.

However, many in the music also industry regard Spotfiy as an alternative, and a credible business model for an industry which has had difficulty adapting to the online world.

"We're not surprised but we're thrilled," founder Daniel Ek told BBC News. "We had a great dialogue with Apple from day one."

'Scaling up'

The application is designed to search for new music and will allow users to temporarily store playlists on their phone for use when there is no connection. It will also allow users to stream playlists.

The premium service, which currently costs £9.99 a month, allows users to run Spotify on their computers without adverts.

Mr Ek told BBC News that he was confident the app would bring a big surge in premium subscribers.

"We're scaling up the systems because response has been tremendous even before the app is available," he said.

The service, which launched last year, now has more than two million users in the UK, and more than six million across Europe.

It has not yet launched in the United States but says it intends to do so by the end of the year.

The company has already demonstrated an application for mobile phones running Google's Android software, though that has not been made available to the public.

Source