Spotify on Monday sent out invites for a Nov. 30 press event that the company said will include details on a "new direction" for the music service.
The invite is sparse on details. "What's Next for Spotify?" it teases.
"At Spotify, we continually strive to innovate and deliver exciting new experiences for our users," a spokeswoman said in a statement when asked for more information. "In New York on November 30th, we are holding our first press conference to unveil the latest major development from Spotify—and a new direction for the company."
Spotify said CEO and founder Daniel Ek will be in attendance, as will "special guests."
The invite comes several days after the release of Google Music, which includes free, cloud-based music storage and an MP3 store within the Android Market. Earlier this month, Apple also unveiled iTunes Match, which allows users to store their entire music library in the cloud, or iCloud, for on-the-go access to music from any iOS device or computer—for $24.99 per year.
Could Spotify be trying to compete with Google or Apple? All Things D speculated that Spotify might unveil its own MP3 store, a feature that currently exists for European users.
Spotify launched in the U.S. in July. It provides access to the company's library of 15 million songs, and you can also import MP3s you already own. You can create and manage playlists, and discover new music via the 250 million playlists posted by other users. When you find new tunes, you can share with friends on Spotify or through social-networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, as well as email and text. Your Spotify profile will display top tracks, artists, and playlists; people can subscribe to your playlists and vice versa and there's the option to drop specific tracks in a friend's inbox.
Recently, Spotify linked up more formally with Facebook to allow users to share their listening activity on the social network—a move that helped it add 250,000 new listeners per day in the wake of the announcement. Some users, however, didn't like having all their listening activity broadcast on Facebook, so Spotify later provided the option to de-link the two services. A recent report said Spotify had 250,000 paid U.S listeners; in September, it confirmed that it had 2 million paid global subscribers.
For more, see PCMag's full review of Spotify and the slideshow below. Also check out Google Music vs. Apple iTunes vs. Amazon Cloud Player.