Napster Founder Pushing For New Site In U.S.

Napster founder Shawn Parker has reemerged into the spotlight, and not just because of The Social Network being released in theaters. His new site, Spotify, is aimed at fixing the industry he helped take down with Napster. Parker recently spoke at the Reboot America! Summit, where he spoke of Spotify’s goal. “What I’m trying to do with Spotify,” Parker stated, “is finish what I started with Napster. The distribution model for music remains broken… I’ve dedicated the rest of my career to trying to fix what I broke.”

The basic service for Spotify is based around building a library of music. It essentially lures users by allowing them build a catalog of music on either the free, ad-supported version or the cheaper computer-only version. Then, when the user wants to make that collection portable, Spotify is able to charge more. As Parker noted, “You have no choice. We’ve got you by the balls, you’ll have to become a subscriber.”

Watch the entirety of Parker’s speech at the Reboot America! Summit below:

However, as Billboard notes, this claim is not exactly true. The website states:

Parker’s assessment is based on two requirements: that Spotify users truly are not content to have the service only on their home computers, and that there are no viable mobile alternatives. The service has over 10 million registered users in its seven active markets. Somewhere in the area of 500,000 of those users are paying subscribers. Spotify has not broken down how many paying customers have the more expensive mobile option.

At this point, it’s only been launched in the UK, but he hopes to bring it to the US by next year.

What do you think: will this site be another disruptive service for the industry, or will it actually seek to help it?