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"As Spotify continues to ramp up its revenue efforts by launching its first branded advertiser page across Europe, the music-streaming platform is now readying to take things to the next level by introducing branded apps from big companies such as AT&amp;amp;amp;T, McDonald's, Intel and Reebok.\r\n\r\nAs AdAge reports, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is set to introduce the branded apps at the magazine's Digital Conference in New York next week, and they will be rolled out over the next few months.\r\n\r\nSince it launched in 2008, Spotify has been monetizing through subscriptions and advertising (on the free accounts), and as we've seen with the recent move towards Facebook and Twitter\u2019s model of launching fully-fledged brand pages, it's looking at ways to increase its revenue streams to offset the huge costs of licensing 16 million songs.\r\n\r\nIndeed, it emerged today that Spotify is hoping to hit $1bn in revenue this year, and getting big brands on board in any capacity can only help it achieve this.\r\n\r\nSpotify finally launched in the US last summer, and it's there that the branded apps will hit first. The music streaming service started morphing into a platform in November, integrating apps inside Spotify, beginning with the likes of Songkick, Pitchfork\u00A0 and Billboard. It has been gradually rolling out more apps since then.\r\n\r\nAdAge notes that the first brand apps will include AT&amp;amp;amp;T's 'Surround Sounds', which plots songs on key locations relating to the track, for example where they were written, recorded or performed. This means you'll be able to create playlists based on regions - perhaps in the neighborhood where you live. \r\n\r\nReebok's app, on the other hand, creates playlists to work out to, whilst Intel's 'Sifter' will recommend songs and artists based on what a user's Facebook friends are listening to.\r\n\r\nEarlier this week, Spotify launched its embeddable Play Button, letting bloggers and online publishers embed any Spotify song, album or playlist directly on their website. We later noted that whilst it was an awesome idea, it could've been a lot better, given that it still relies on the listener to have Spotify installed on their machine.\r\n\r\nHowever, it's indicative of how Spotify is really making the push to hit the mainstream and build a more profitable business as it continues to shell out millions of dollars each year to record labels. And it's still taking on investment too, recently securing more than $100m, which only adds more pressure to start bringing in the big bucks."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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