Spotify restores invite-only system as mobile app creates massive demand

by Darren Davidson, Brand Republic 11-Sep-09, 09:00

LONDON - Spotify has reinstated its "invite-only" system in the UK on a temporary basis due to huge demand for its premium service just days after the music streaming service launched an app for mobile phones.

The move marks a return to when Spotify limited the number of people able to use its service when it first launched in October 2008. New users will only be able to sign up if they have been sent an invite code.

Spotify said it remains invite-only in all its other launch countries, but did not reveal when it plans to remove the need for an invite again.

Andres Sehr, a spokesman for Spotify, told Brand Republic: "We're not releasing user figures at the moment but the uptake of both the free and premium subscription has been large enough this week that we decided to reinstate the system to be on the safe side so that no existing user would experience service issues.

"We don't have a date yet when we'll be able to resume normal registrations but we're working hard to ensure that it won't be too long."

The ad-funded music service pays music labels for the rights to stream music on a per-stream basis, which means a sharp spike in traffic would necessitate a rise in its payments.

Sehr said: "We're extremely conservative when it comes to growth and we've had the invite system on in all our other launch countries since day one.

"We compensate the owners of the recordings and songwriters on a percentage of revenue basis so any sharp uptake is more of a technical challenge rather than anything else."

Music fans without an invite from an existing member can sign up to a waiting list.

A search on Twitter using the hashtag #spotify reveals that scores of Twitter users are already asking other members of the micro-blogging service for an invite to join the service.

Launched on Monday, Spotify's mobile app allows Premium subscribers paying £9.99 per month to transform their iPhone or Google Android device into an on-demand jukebox containing more than 5m songs -- thousands of which can even be "cached" to be played when no phone signal is available.