Spotify Trolls Beats Music on Twitter, Tries to Win Back Users

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Macklemore (right) arrives at the Beats Music launch party this week in Los Angeles, Calif.

Image: Richard Shotwell Invision/Associated Press

By Seth Fiegerman2014-01-26 17:59:25 UTC

Spotify, like most major music-streaming businesses, has tried to play down the threat posed by Beats Music, a streaming service that the popular headphone maker launched this week.

"It's a competitor, for sure," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. "But my way of looking at it is, if it gets people to understand the value of streaming, it is ultimately good."

See also: Streams by Dre: Beats Music Launches, But Don't Expect Many Free Tunes

That may be a nice way of framing it for the public, but Spotify is clearly keeping an eye on Beats and its potential to lure away customers. Perhaps the most obvious example can be found on Twitter.

Someone in charge of Spotify's Twitter account appeared to be trolling for the keywords "Beats Music" this week, replying to dozens of users who were complaining about early glitches with the new music service:

In some cases, Spotify found itself trying to win back old customers:

Like we said, Spotify's Twitter account has been busy this week:

Spotify and Rdio, another music-streaming service, both published blog posts this month touting their free offerings, a move that some suggested was an attempt to capitalize on the lack of free options with Beats Music. Meanwhile, Pandora introduced personalized station recommendations just days before Beats Music launched, perhaps in response to Beats' emphasis on personal curation to improve music discovery.

Not every music-streaming service has taken an aggressive stance against Beats Music, though. At least one actually offered some kind words to the service on Twitter, as it experienced technical glitches:

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Topics: Beats Music, Business, Music, spotify, Twitter