Spotify is the darling of tech blogs, but the overwhelming media hype leading up to the service’s U.S. launch has seemingly not carried over to end users. According to a recent report from the New York Post, paid subscriber growth in the U.S. has failed to meet expectations thus far. Spotify launched stateside roughly nine months ago and the service amassed 250,000 paid subscribers in its first three months. According to the Post, Spotify is now home to 3 million users in the U.S., but only 600,000 are paying either $4.99 or $9.99 per month for premium service while the remaining 80% enjoy free basic service. “People aren’t 100 percent happy,” the Post’s source said, noting that Spotify plans to remove the limit of five plays per month on individual songs for free subscribers in an effort to bolster user loyalty.

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Spotify said Thursday that it now serves more than 3 million active paid subscribers per month, up from the 2.5 million subscribers it was serving in November. More than 20% of its active users pay for premium monthly access, the Financial Times said, which allows users to listen to an unlimited songs without ads or use Spotify on a smartphone. “We have achieved some pretty great results in terms of the ratio of paid users,” Spotify’s chief content officer and US managing director, Ken Parks said in an interview with the Financial Times. “We have an enormous internal effort to drive conversion and engagement with the service. We are very focused on growing in our existing 12 markets as well as expanding in other markets.” Parks also said that the company’s free-trial offer has helped convert users to paid accounts more rapidly. Spotify recently introduced “apps” for its service, which allows anyone, such as Rolling Stone or Billboard, to create playlists or add custom features.

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Apple’s Newsstand application, which allows iOS 5 users on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch to subscribe to and purchase magazines, has resulted in a surge of magazine subscriptions. According to paidContent, Condé Nast recently said its weekly subscription sales for nine of its digital magazines (Allure, Brides, Glamour, Self, GQ, Golf Digest, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Wired) increased 268% since the storefront made its debut alongside iOS 5. In addition, sales of single issues surged 142% in comparison to the eight weeks prior to Apple’s launch of Newsstand. “Putting all the magazines in one place just makes the most sense, in terms of allowing easy discovery for consumers,” Condé Nast executive vice president Monia Ray told paidContent. “Furthermore, the update from iOS 5 is terrific, especially the background loading. We have a lot of features embedded in our titles and they take time to load. Background loading helps ease the wait-factor. But for the most part, before, the App Store represented a wide-ranging bazaar. Now, it has clear aisles to make it simple for consumers to browse.”

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The NPD Group’s latest Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend report suggests consumers spent an additional $1.74 billion on video game content during the second quarter. NPD classifies this additional category of content as anything that involves gaming outside of new physical video and PC game software. Examples include purchases for social network games, downloadable content, mobile games, digital downloads, subscriptions, game rentals and used game purchases. Consumers spent a total of $1.44 billion on physical games for consoles and PCs during the quarter and, in total, spent $4.5 billion on video game content, hardware and accessories. That figure is up 1% from the same quarter last year. “While the new physical retail channel still generates the majority of industry sales, our expanded research coverage allows us to assess the total consumer spend across the growing number of ways to acquire and experience gaming, including mobile apps and downloadable content,” NPD Group industry analyst Anita Frazier said. Read on for the full press release from NPD.

RESEARCH SHOWS ADDITIONAL $1.74 BILLION SPENT ON VIDEO GAME CONTENT FOR SECOND QUARTER 2011
Total Consumer Spend on Hardware, Content, and Accessories in the U.S. Estimated at $4.5 Billion

PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, October 5, 2011 – According to the Q2 2011 Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend report from leading market research company, The NPD Group, in addition to the $1.44 billion spent in the U.S. by consumers on new physical video and PC game software in the second quarter of 2011, the total consumer spend on content via other monetization methods, including used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full-game downloads, social network games, downloadable content, and mobile games, is estimated at $1.74 billion. The total amount spent by consumers on hardware, content and accessories is estimated at $4.5 billion, an increase of 1 percent versus Q2 2010.

“While the new physical retail channel still generates the majority of industry sales, our expanded research coverage allows us to assess the total consumer spend across the growing number of ways to acquire and experience gaming, including mobile apps and downloadable content,” said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. “Through a combination of point-of-sale and consumer research tracking, The NPD Group is providing an expanded, more comprehensive measure of a dynamic and rapidly evolving games industry.  We are excited that we are expanding our coverage of the consumer spend in emerging distribution channels to cover the UK, France and Germany in early 2012.”

Methodology
The estimates are published in NPD’s new report, Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend –released by The NPD Group in late September 2011 – and are derived leveraging NPD’s portfolio of physical POS tracking (Retail Tracking Service) and consumer research including the Games Acquisition

Amazon has updated its Kindle for iOS application with support for magazine and newspaper subscriptions. iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users can now browse, purchase, and read from more than 100 newspapers and magazines, complete with high resolution color photos, and the company confirmed that more content is on its way. Amazon customers with existing subscriptions can find recent issues under the “Archived Items” menu inside the application. The update also removes Amazon’s Kindle Store button from the the app now allows users to share quotes and passages with Facebook and Twitter friends. Kindle for iOS version 2.8 is available in the iTunes App Store for free.

According to a new research report from Gartner, consumers are on track to spend a record $2.1 trillion on digital information and entertainment products this year. That figure is expected to hit $2.8 trillion by 2015. $1.2 trillion — 62% — is spent on subscription-based communication services such as mobile, voice, and data services, broadband packages, video services, online gaming, and cable TV subscriptions. $600 billion, 28% of the total $2.1 trillion, is spent on devices themselves, and 10% is spent on content such as computer software, video on-demand, and pay-per-view services. “The three key technology areas that will offer the best opportunity for vendors during the next three years are: wireless broadband, which will enable constant connectivity; location-based services (LBS), which will personalize and take advantage of the constant connected state; and operating systems, which are the foundation for integration applications that can bring it all together,” Mikako Kitagawa, principal research analyst at Gartner, said. Read on for the full release.

Gartner Says Consumers On Track to Spend $2.1 Trillion Globally on Digital Information and Entertainment Products and Services in 2011

STAMFORD, Conn., June 27, 2011— 

In 2010, consumers globally spent $2 trillion on digital information and entertainment products and services, and this will increase to $2.8 trillion by 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide consumer spending on digital information and entertainment products and services is projected to reach $2.1 trillion in 2011.

The trend among vendors to offer a diversified portfolio of products and/or services puts them in a better position to seize a larger share of the consumer wallet. Gartner defines consumer wallet spending as the money spent by consumers for digital technology devices and services that are for accessing, consuming and creating content. This wallet is divided into three basic spending types — content, devices and services.

“While a vendor can be a leader in specializing within just one segment of the consumer wallet, there are a mounting number of examples that suggest diversification may be the optimal path forward in the consumer electronics industry,” said Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Vendors that diversify their offerings across multiple consumer spending segments earn revenue across the full ecosystem and take legacy services to transform to newer products and services.”

Of the $2 trillion consumers spent globally in 2010 on digital information and entertainment products and services, the largest spending segment (62 percent) was for communications subscription-based access and usage services. The $1.2 trillion included mobile and wired voice services; mobile data services, such as SMS/TXT and broadband; fixed broadband services; video services, such as subscriptions to pay TV; and online gaming.

The second-largest spending segment (28 percent) was for devices. The $600 billion is made up of consumer electronic devices, such as mobile/handheld devices, PCs and related devices, and stationary entertainment equipment, such as television sets and game consoles.

The smallest spending segment (10 percent) was for content and software for a total of $200 billion. Video content that has been purchased/rented/streamed/downloaded, as well as premium channel/pay per view (PPV)/video on demand (VOD), and that portion of pay TV subscriptions allocated to licensing fees made up half of this segment, while the other half was for PC and gaming software, digital music and books, and purchases from mobile apps stores.

“There are two basic strategies that vendors have used to capture consumer spending that will enable their interconnected consumer experience,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal research analyst at Gartner. “The first is to concentrate in one consumer spending segment, and the second is to diversify into other consumer spending segments.”

“The challenge to vendors choosing to be hyperfocused on one wallet spending segment is the relentless pursuit of innovation required to maintain segment sales leadership in this one specific segment,” Ms. Kitagawa said. “There are two ways to achieve leadership in this instance: by diversifying the portfolio suite of offerings and by expanding the target audience or usage model of the products and services.”

Vendors choosing to diversify into other consumer spending segments can benefit from the fact that consumers are increasingly using alternative services that will move their spending from one segment to the other, such as fixed voice to mobile voice; fixed broadband to mobile broadband; physical content, such as CDs, DVDs and books to online/digital versions; and linear broadcast TV to over the top (OTT) video. All of these alternative services provide business opportunities that would replace or would be in addition to legacy products and services, thus enabling a vendor to pursue the consumers’ spending in more than one segment.

“Technology innovation opens windows of opportunity for vendors to consider diversification,” said Ms. Kitagawa. “However, technology innovation also opens a window for change among consumers to switch vendors in the pursuit of cost savings or lifestyle-changing technology.”

“The three key technology areas that will offer the best opportunity for vendors during the next three years are: wireless broadband, which will enable constant connectivity; location-based services (LBS), which will personalize and take advantage of the constant connected state; and operating systems, which are the foundation for integration applications that can bring it all together.”

Additional information is available in the Gartner report “Market Trends: Diversification Trends Capture More of Consumer Technology Spending.” The report presents what products and services make up the consumer wallet, and a high-level analysis of the varying strategies to capture that spending within and among the various segments. The report is available on Gartner’s website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1717114.

Could all the recent hoopla stirred up by Apple’s decision to enforce its existing App Store subscription policies be much ado about nothing? Earlier this month, Apple announced that its new App Store subscription service became available to all publishers. In a related note prior to that announcement, Apple noted that it would begin cracking down on content providers who had been skirting a rule stipulating all apps providing links to Web-based content purchases must also make the same content available using Apple’s in-app purchase mechanism — therefor forcing them to cough up Apple’s 30% cut. As a result, developers were enraged. Apple’s typically unclear wording left each developer guessing as to whether or not it might be affected by the policy. Some publicly jumped to conclusions while others went further still and announced that they would abandon iOS all together. One developer recently decided to email Apple CEO Steve Jobs and inquire about the matter, however, and claims to have received a response. Both emails are found after the break.

Hello Steve,

As a full time iOS developer, I am concerned (and confused) withe the new App Store guideline regarding “Apps offering subscriptions” (section 11.12).

Most of the iOS apps I have developed, as a contractor for other businesses, have been free apps that had login screens to allow the user access to some amount of private data. and/or service. These businesses have all been well established companies that sell some kind of service to their customers (Software As a Service companies) and the iOS app was merely another “portal” for their users to access their data/services (in many times, in a limited i.e. “mobile” fashion)…. for example; SalesForce. I am concerned that most of these businesses will choose to not develop an iOS app for their customers if the IAP & subscription policy was in place.

Would these type’s of free apps be still be allowed in the App Store or will they now be expected to use IAP?

Steve Jobs’ alleged response:

We created subscriptions for publishing apps, not SaaS apps.

Sent from my iPhone

Jobs’ purported response is still a bit vague but it does indicate that Apple intends to enforce this rule for “publishing apps” and not Saftware as a Service (SaaS) apps such as Dropbox or Netflix, which allow users to purchase a subscription service and not published content.

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Just one day after Apple made its App Store subscription service available to publishers, Google has already responded by announcing a similar service for its Android platform. The solution will also work in Web-based clients, allowing publishers to reach users on multiple platforms with a single solution. Much like Apple’s implementation, Google’s One Pass provides users with a single interface where they can access and manage all of their digital newspaper, magazine and other content subscriptions. Unlike App Store subscriptions, however, Google gives publishers much more freedom with regard to pricing models and flexibility. Publishers will also be able to give free or reduced subscriptions to paid print subscribers, and they can even utilize a freemium model if they so desire. Hit the break for a video from Google outlining the One Pass product.

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Apple on Tuesday announced that its new App Store subscription model is available to all publishers. First introduced with News Corp’s The Daily, Apple’s new subscription model allows publishers to charge a recurring fee for content such as digital magazines and newspapers. The feature has been highly anticipated by publishers, who often claimed that the lack of a subscription model for publishers on the iPad was the main reason magazines and newspapers have not gained the traction many had hoped for. Subscription models now available to publishers include weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly and yearly subscriptions. On the user side, iOS device owners will be able to manage all of their App Store subscriptions from a single page. Hit the jump for Apple’s full press release.

Apple Launches Subscriptions on the App Store
CUPERTINO, California—February 15, 2011—Apple® today announced a new subscription service available to all publishers of content-based apps on the App Store℠, including magazines, newspapers, video, music, etc. This is the same innovative digital subscription billing service that Apple recently launched with News Corp.’s “The Daily” app.

Subscriptions purchased from within the App Store will be sold using the same App Store billing system that has been used to buy billions of apps and In-App Purchases. Publishers set the price and length of subscription (weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly). Then with one-click, customers pick the length of subscription and are automatically charged based on their chosen length of commitment (weekly, monthly, etc.). Customers can review and manage all of their subscriptions from their personal account page, including canceling the automatic renewal of a subscription. Apple processes all payments, keeping the same 30 percent share that it does today for other In-App Purchases.

“Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app. We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers.”

Publishers who use Apple’s subscription service in their app can also leverage other methods for acquiring digital subscribers outside of the app. For example, publishers can sell digital subscriptions on their web sites, or can choose to provide free access to existing subscribers. Since Apple is not involved in these transactions, there is no revenue sharing or exchange of customer information with Apple. Publishers must provide their own authentication process inside the app for subscribers that have signed up outside of the app. However, Apple does require that if a publisher chooses to sell a digital subscription separately outside of the app, that same subscription offer must be made available, at the same price or less, to customers who wish to subscribe from within the app. In addition, publishers may no longer provide links in their apps (to a web site, for example) which allow the customer to purchase content or subscriptions outside of the app.

Protecting customer privacy is a key feature of all App Store transactions. Customers purchasing a subscription through the App Store will be given the option of providing the publisher with their name, email address and zip code when they subscribe. The use of such information will be governed by the publisher’s privacy policy rather than Apple’s. Publishers may seek additional information from App Store customers provided those customers are given a clear choice, and are informed that any additional information will be handled under the publisher’s privacy policy rather than Apple’s.

The revolutionary App Store offers more than 350,000 apps to consumers in 90 countries, with more than 60,000 native iPad™ apps. Customers of the more than 160 million iOS devices around the world can choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

News Corp’s iPad-only newspaper The Daily is finally official and we couldn’t be happier to put this drawn-out ordeal behind us. News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch was on hand at a press conference on Wednesday to introduce his new pride and joy, and details are as follows: The Daily, as one might assume, will ba a daily paper — available only on the iPad to start — and new issues will be available 365 days each year. The Daily will be interactive, packed full of 360-degree photos and original video content, and some articles will even be read aloud from within the app. There will also be Web-friendly versions of articles to share on Twitter, Facebook and so on. The publication will include crossword puzzles, Sudoku puzzles and customizable content such as weather forecasts and scores from your favorite sports teams. More interesting than The Daily itself is the imminent introduction of Apple’s new App Store subscription option for publishers, which will allow companies to build apps that serve subscription-based content. The new functionality is only available on The Daily for the time being, but Apple VP Eddy Cue said an announcement on availability is forthcoming.

The Daily app will be available in the App Store starting at 12:00PM EST today, and subscriptions will cost $0.99 per week or $39.99 for a one-year subscription. Interested parties will also be happy to learn that the first two weeks of The Daily will be free thanks to a sponsorship agreement with Verizon.

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Did the UK-based paper Guardian just tip Apple’s rumored iOS subscription service? In a post today, the Guardian acknowledged some of the frustrations users of its iOS application are having. After issuing its mea culpa, the publication went on to note that it will be releasing a new and improved application, one that will right some of the previous apps wrongs and, among other things, be subscription based.

“We’ve already announced that the new app will have a new price point: £2.99 for six months and £3.99 for 12 months,” reads the post. “We’ll be launching the new app globally for the first time and although we can’t confirm exactly when it will be available, we’re working towards a pre-Christmas release.”

While the report does not explicitly state how the company will be billing for its services, the timing of the announcement is interesting. Speculation amongst technology insiders has Apple releasing an iOS update, version 4.3, around December 9th. The update’s payload will, purportedly, bring content subscriptions to the iOS platform.

Apple is also rumored to be working with media giant News Corp. on a daily, iPad-only, subscription-based publication titled The Daily.

[Via AppleInsider]

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A sometimes overlooked feature that has been made incredibly simple on the iPhone is the ability to subscribe to a variety of calendars. Many are familiar with CalDAV as it adds a quick and easy way to keep your iPhone or iPod touch in sync with your Google Calendar, but did you know you can also add a wide range of publicly available calendar subscriptions in a matter of seconds? One of the more common subscriptions is the US holidays calendar but you can also quickly and easily add TV show schedules, network premier schedules, sports team schedules, movie releases, concert tour schedules and plenty more to your iPhone calendar. Hit the jump to find out how.

The easiest way to add calendar subscriptions is to start by finding a good directory. There are a few decent ones out there but for the purposes of this quick how-to we’ll use iCal World (another popular one is iCalShare). Simply pull the site up in Safari on your iPhone and have a look through the various available subscriptions. When you find one you like — yep, you guessed it — click on it.

Provided the link is alive of course, Safari will ask you’d like to subscribe to the calendar in a pop up message. Tap “Subscribe” and your iPhone will do just that. Once you see a confirmation message you’re good to go, and you can even tap “View Events” in the pop up to see your new events in the Calendar app.

As with most things, there is a “but” involved. You’ll find that many of the calendars you try to subscribe to are no longer maintained. As such, it can take a bit of searching to find what you’re looking for. Once you do find it though, adding the subscription to your iPhone couldn’t be easier.

Amazon announced today that it has added a dedicated Xbox LIVE store to its myriad of electronic storefronts. This latest partnership allows customers to purchase Xbox LIVE Arcade games, subscription cards and Microsoft points directly from Amazon. Customers who purchase Xbox LIVE content from Amazon will be provided with a digitally-delivered code that they can redeem via their own console or give as a gift to an Xbox 360 owner. The ability to give a select Xbox LIVE Arcade game as a gift is a feature unique to Amazon’s store — previously, all Xbox LIVE Arcade games had to be purchased through an Xbox 360 console which made it difficult for a non-gamer to give such a gift. The Xbox LIVE store also features Amazon’s typical recommendation system and online customer reviews. Check it out and let us know what you think.

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