Spot the new feature
UK ISP, cable TV provider and MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) Virgin Media has announced a partnership with cloud music service Spotify, to offer its functionality across all its services.
Of course people can already get Spotify on their PCs and mobiles if they want, but Virgin looks set to offer special deals and bundles, the details of which have yet to be revealed. But the TV angle is a novel one, and will be another feature Virgin will use to differentiate its offering from Sky's.
The news comes within a week of Virgin launching a major advertising campaign around its TiVo TV service, which offers a 1 TB hard drive, three TV tuners, and the ability to anticipate and record entire series of TV programmes. With less unique content than Sky, extra services such as Spotify will be a key part of Virgin's armoury in this market.
"We are delighted to have united the Virgin Media brand with the world's best music service," said Jon James, broadband boss at Virgin Media. "Spotify will help our customers to fill their world with music, whether it's at home or on the go, and provide a unique way to get even more out of Virgin Media's leading digital services."
Just to remind you, Spotify is currently available in three flavours: Open - which is free but has a limit on the amount of music you can stream per month; Unlimited - which is, er, unlimited, costs £4.99 per month and also doesn't have ads; and Premium - which works offline and on mobile devices and costs £9.99 per month.
Incidentally Virgin Media is also working on an iPad app to augment its TiVo service. No details have been released to date, but here's an image that gives you an idea of the sort of functionality the app will have.
