news Online music streaming label Spotify is currently hiring for at least one Australian staff member, following its high-profile launch in the United States.

The company has listed a role on its website which would see a staff member based in Sydney liaising with record labels and music distributors locally.

“The Label Relations team manages hundreds of label relationships across the globe with a network of Account Managers in different Spotify territories,” the site states. “The position will serve as primary point of contact for record labels, distributors & aggregators specifically in Belgium and the Netherlands, but also working closely with central international teams.”

“The Account Manager will focus on developing and maintaining excellent relationships with Spotify’s content providers locally by enabling them to maximise the service as both a sales and promotional platform, and by providing market research and consumer insight. This individual will also leverage this relationship to further Spotify’s marketing and distribution initiatives to the mutual benefit of Spotify and its label partners.”

Spotify was founded in Sweden by co-founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon (pictured), but is headquartered in the UK. The company offers a selection of streamed music through a variety of major labels — with names such as Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group and Universal having signed on to its roster. In the US, the organisation has recently launched through a partnership with Facebook and spearheaded by maverick dot com mogul Sean Parker.

However, the service is not yet available to Australians, and the company has repeatedly stated it didn’t yet have immediate plans to launch in Australia, giving iTechReport the bad news in July, although noting at the time that its long-term plan was to be available in every country, and that there was strong interest from Australians in the platform. It was a similar case in September.

The lack of a global service has caused a number of guides to spring up online to accessing Spotify outside of the US through technologies such as virtual private networks.

For its local hire, Spotify is seeking an executive with a strong music and technology background, including experience with an established digital music service, established record label or major media company. The successful candidate will also need a proven track record of “key results in marketing, strategy and infrastructure management/development”.

“At Spotify we try to give 110% in everything we do,” the company’s ad states. “We live and breathe Spotify. Spotify is an energetic company with many mountains to climb. You’ll find opportunities rather than boundaries wherever you look. We love solving problems, challenging old ways of doing things, working in a fast-paced dynamic environment and making a difference. Every contribution is appreciated. We specialise in using technology to create simple solutions to complex business problems. We’re focused on our vision, but pragmatic about the steps required to achieve it. If it’s not good for the user then it’s not worth doing.”

“Our hierarchy is very flat and we are an open company – to such an extent that bouncing ideas off the CEO is not unusual!”

opinion/analysis
Over the past decade I’ve read hundreds of job ads for local executives to represent global companies ahead of local launches, and this one’s a pretty clear example of the stereotype. All the hallmarks of a local launch are here — Spotify’s looking for an executive with multiple skill bases, existing local relationships and flexibility, but focused on interacting with the existing global team. However, it’s not looking for a managing director; that type of executive will join later, when there are some Australian staff to manage.

Following this ad, and given that Australia’s usually one of the global markets that follows US launches by European companies, I would expect a Spotify launch in Australia over the next 18 months. The time is ripe.

Image credit: Spotify

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4. Music service Rdio launches in Australia
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1. Goku Missile Crisis
   Posted 21/10/2011 at 2:50 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Spotify is one of those services that is amazing in theory, and pretty cool in practice (yes, I have been able to try it out). I still can’t see a rosy immediate future for this sort of business when the “content industry” still wants to segregate territories for maximum profit and expect people to practically beg for access to their wares.

2. Hugh
   Posted 06/01/2012 at 4:55 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Renai, this is the best news EVAR! I’m going to hook up ALL my friends with accounts – if you or anyone needs one, let me know, I have a kajillion invites!

3. derek
   Posted 20/05/2012 at 2:47 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Guys…just change your dns settings with the below given details and you will get backdoor (legal) access to one of the popular paid vpn service. With this you can watch unlimited movies, US popular channels like hulu, netflix etc. etc.

   Simply change your dns settings with the below one :
   Primary DNS to 23.21.182.24
   Secondry DNS to 184.169.139.227

   Refresh and its done. Check your netflix now and enjoy.