Spotify Appoint Ex-Skype Director To Disrupt US Market

Spotify have annouced on their blog the appointment of Faisal Galaria as their new Global Head of New Business Development.

Breaking the US market will be key to ensuring Spotify becomes a real contender to iTunes. Faisal’s experience with first Skype and more recently as Managing Director International of Kayak.com (where he was  responsible for building the EMEA and Asian businesses), will put the music streaming company in a perfect position.

At Skype, Faisal engineered partnerships with BT in the UK and Time Warner in the US. A partnership with Time Warner (the worlds 3rd largest media and entertainment conglomerate) would certainly help Spotify’s introduction to the US market.

Whilst at Kayak.com he oversaw the expansion of the site to nine countries.

Speaking on the Spotify blog Faisal said of his new position, “I am passionate about building disruptive companies. Spotify is changing the way we all enjoy music and the old paradigms of music ownership. It’s going to be fun.”

A tweet from the new man on 28th July whilst still at Kayak.com commented on the recent Apple denyal of the Google Voice app. Faisal said of this “Shame on Apple blocking applications on a phone you’ve already paid for.”

Did he already have a certain Spotify app on his mind?!

So as his latest tweet says -Faisal “has been Spotified”

5 Reasons Not To Use Spotify

5 Reasons Not To Use Spotify

1) Adverts. I do not want to have to listen to an irelevant advert half way through listening to my favourite tracks. This I feel is an invasion of my privacy. The reason I bought Sky Plus was so that I could begin watching programmes 10 minutes late and then fast forward through adverts. It’s the reason I refuse to listen to commercial, tin pot local radio too.

2) If you’re listening to it in an office or if multiple users are logged in – It stops if anyone else hits play! Rubbish. I don’t like unscheduled interuptions to audio delights…

3) The music choice is disappointing to say the least. Lots of tracks are covers or karaoke tracks. Many artists are not represented at all. If you enjoy new music or niche artists then Spotify is not for you. Having said that, if you like random versions of songs then Spotify is perfect.

4) Its invite only so you have to wait to be invite dto join the fun

5) The music is streamed but is not yet available on mobile devices (although this is coming shortly I am led to believe). So good for static music listening. If it successfully makes the jump to mobile…it will be very very good.

I’ll stick to Napster and i-Tunes for now thanks.

social media blog