What's next for Spotify you ask (or rather it did)? Well, let us tell you - the music streaming company took to the stage in New York to announce that apps will now be part of the Spotify platform.

At an event that was simulcast via the wonders of the wide world web to a London location, Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek announced the HTML5 powered app platform - confirming a leak that Pocket-lint told you about on Wednesday morning.

Describing the "Spotify revolution" Ek stated that the inclusion of apps, that will be able to tap into the wealth of Spotify tracks (15 million strong and growing at a rate of 20,000 every day), signifies the "next big step for music".

The music apps will be created by the "best and the brightest" and there's plenty of big hitters on board for the launch including; Rolling Stone, TuneWiki, Last.fm, Songkick, Pitchfork, The Guardian and Fuse.

The apps show up in the left hand column of the updated Spotify in a section called "App Finder".

The Rolling Stone app, for example, pops up a UI in the magazine's style, with editorial content such as recommended albums and songs - with the songs mentioned playable instantly. TuneWiki is another cool app and basically turns your desktop Spotify into your very own karaoke machine.

Ek was keen to stress that the launch apps are just the tip of the iceberg and confidently stated that we "can't even imagine" the features that will be coming in the future.

The apps will be available to both freemium and premium Spotify users. A beta trial period will last a week - you can join in by grabbing the software from Spotify's website now. It goes live to the masses next week and will be part of an automatic update for existing users.

- Spotify with apps pictures and hands-on