Musical merger
Microsoft has teamed up with Spotify to bring the music phenomenon's desktop and mobile service to Windows music fans.
The collaboration will give Spotify Premium users in the UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Spain, France and the Netherlands access to their music library through their PC and mobile.
Microsoft said the partnership expands its ability to offer Windows users ‘cross-platform access' through their desktop or mobile. Microsoft is big on collaborations of late and linking to other popular services.
Its Windows Live has just partnered with WordPress to offer a better blogging service and replace Windows Live Spaces. Dharmesh Mehta director of Windows Live Product Management said a few months ago that Microsoft would focus on "letting consumers connect their experiences across the web to what they are doing in Windows Live, and vice versa."
Mehta added the Microsoft plans to work with Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube among others to bring their services to Windows Live users.
Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, said: "We're very glad to work in collaboration with Spotify to deliver a high quality, outstanding consumer experience on the Windows platform with Windows 7 and Windows Phone."
Spotify has launched on the Windows phone 6 platform and is available to download from Windows Marketplace for mobile. It is also sure be a popular feature on Windows Phone 7 too, which is set to debut next week.
Microsoft said Spotify for WP7 has been designed ‘from the ground up' to follow the design theme of the phone and its dynamic tiles.
"With Spotify on the start screen or in the music hub, you'll get a different music experience in a mobile phone, with instant access to the music you love," it said.
The WP7 version allows user to create shortcuts to their favourite Spotify playlists and control it from the taskbar. There are also options to share tracks and playlists with Windows Live contacts.
