The music business has been facing huge challenges ever since Napster was launched in the late 90’s. Both major labels and smaller ones have had a hard time finding it profitable selling music due to the new technology for sharing music illegally. In the reggae world French label Makasound is the latest proof that it’s hard to make money running a label.
But things might be changing a bit due to the fast growing market for streaming music. The most well-known is probably Swedish Spotify. There are others as well. Rhapsody, Rdio, Simfy and Deezer to name a few. Google and Apple are also planning to launch Google Music and iTunes Live respectively. All these services make it easy for music fans to listen to their favourite tracks on the computer or via the phone.
Apart from the services mentioned above there is one new streaming service that seems interesting. It goes by the odd sounding name of Wimp.
Wimp is very similar to Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service with more than 6 million users and over 1 million paying customers. Wimp has around 100 000 paying customers. And here’s one of the major differences between the two competitors – Wimp is only for paying customers, while Spotify offers an ad financed version.
Wimp and Spotify have roughly the same prices and sound quality. Both are also connected to Facebook and available on computer and mobile (iPhone and Android).
Spotify is available on more markets though. Wimp is today only available in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Portugal. According to the company they’re in negotiations with potential partners all over Europe, so things might change.
But is it worth searching out Wimp and switch from Spotify or any other streaming service? It depends. Wimp certainly has its advantages. They have hired editors and artists to make playlists, something that makes it easier for the casual listener. Wimp also has a nice, clean and bright interface. It’s also connected to Youtube and to – this is nice – reviews from a wide range of magazines and newspapers.
For the reggae listener it’s also good to know that Wimp offers releases from great label Soul Jazz. I’ve also noted that Little Roy has more albums on Wimp than on Spotify.
Despite all these nice things there are some disadvantages. Wimp doesn’t have a reggae genre, which is actually a bit upsetting. And I would also like the programmers to make a search function for labels and incorporate an inbox so you can send tunes to your friends.
Wimp will probably face huge challenges when competing with the first mover Spotify. All the functions mentioned above are probably an easy task for Spotify to program. And I believe that Spotify has more music. I’ve not done a thorough comparison, but that is the feeling I’m getting.
I salute Wimp for trying and I hope that they make it so that we the users can have a broad range of services to choose from.
If you live in Sweden, Denmark, Norway or Portugal you can check out Wimp for free since the first 30 days don’t cost anything. But you have to have your credit card available and remember to delete your account after 30 days if you’re not satisfied. Otherwise you will be charged.
Reggaemani 