Okay, okay, fine. In sheer — if reluctant — deference to TMT’s enormous Canadian readership and advertising base, this is me officially reporting to you that, as Billboard Canada reports, the (inferior-to-Canada-in-most-ways) Swedish music streaming subscription service Spotify is officially open for business in the Great White North, bringing the total number of Spotify-ified countries on Earth to a nice, round 58. O Canada, what took so long???
Well, as Consequence of Sound has kindly pointed out, Canada’s royalty agency is what took so long. See, they had initially requested “nearly 45% of a streaming site’s revenue.” But then, after they got laughed at for suggesting that figure, the Copyright Board of Canada eventually ruled that services need only pay “10 cents for every 1,000 plays,” opening the door for all the absurdly-named services that have snuck across the border into Canada recently, such as Deezer, Rdio, Xbox Music, etc. Enter the Swedes!
Spotify (pronounced “Spootify” up there) is now available for mobile devices, those bigger tablet things, and something called “desktops,” and it comes in a free version and a “$10 CAD per month for no ads and downloadable playlists” version. That’s right. I said CAD, and I don’t know why. Also, if you happen to be one of the country’s high number of French speakers, don’t worry! Even though you probably aren’t reading these English words too well right now, let me assure you that Spotify has added a “comprehensive list of French songs, both foreign and domestic” just for you (man, I hope they have that disco version of “Alouette” that I’ve never been able to find at the record store)!
Okay, Hooray. Now let’s all celebrate this momentous musical occasion with the liberal application of delicious grade-A maple syrup to frying pans full of poutine-topped andouille flapjacks.
• Spotify: https://www.spotify.com
