Droidify pulled from App Market

21 August 2009 16:29 GMT / By Duncan Geere

That didn't last long. The Droidify unofficial Android Spotify application which made its way onto the App Market the other day has already been pulled.

The developer of the app said on his Twitter page: "Just talked to @gustavs of Spotify and we agreed on me removing Droidify because it violates Spotify's arrangements with the music labels". He then added "Otherwise consequences could be that the labels would start removing music from Spotify, something that would be a great loss to us all".

The developer referenced, Gustav Söderström, replied: "Thanks Oscar! This is much appreciated by us at Spotify and we promise to work even harder to get an official client out :-)". He later tweeted: "Want to apologize to all who went premium for #droidify . Please bear with us. Working HARD on getting an official client out to you", indicating that an Android client might appear soon.

It's interesting that Spotify has treated the app developer with plenty of respect, considering that he was directly breaking their terms and conditions. Reading between the lines of Söderström's tweets, and also those of CEO Daniel Ek, it seems that they want to encourage third parties, but are limited by contracts with rights-holders.

Given that the rights-holders are also shareholders of the company, Spotify is undoubtedly finding itself in a difficult situation. Apple's reticence to give the company a fast-track through the application approval process isn't helping either.

Some have commented that if Spotify releases its Android application before the iPhone version gets approved, and Apple continues to umm and ahh about whether to allow it into the App Store, then it could give Android a serious boost in its fight against its entrenched rival.

We'll keep you posted of the progress of both the iPhone and Android Spotify applications.

Via: macworld.co.uk

Full tags

Audio, Spotify, Websites, Apps, Android, Google, Droidify