Spotify and the Future of Intellectual Property: Public Debate, 7 Oct

You've probably heard of Spotify. It's the music streaming service that now has over 2 million folks in the UK subscribed, despite only having launched here last year. It is an online portal on your computer that allows you to listen to a massive - if occasionally patchy - range of tracks from major labels, medium labels, and some smaller labels, on demand: it is as simple as 'click and listen' to what you want. Listeners have two options, to subscribe by paying £10 a month, or to listen ad hoc and be subjected to adverts much like on the radio. Most people, it seems, are going for the latter. The Skinny runs its Classic Rock Thursday playlists through Spotify (here's one) - and if you haven't had a look yet, you should at least be aware of what this 'free music' service offers (the software is downloadable here).

Of course, anything tagged 'free music' is problematic, and Spotify poses a number of important questions: how do they manage to pay the artists; are they devaluing music; what is the future of the service? As they plan to launch in China and America in the coming months, it becomes more likely that Spotify will be one of the leading music platforms in the world, at least for a while. So these questions matter.

The Scottish Society for Computers and Law are putting on what looks set to be a fascinating and topical debate, titled 'Copyright law and market economics: who does the dancing and who calls the tune?'. On the panel will be Will Page, Chief Economist at PRS for Music. Will spoke brilliantly at The Skinny's 'ON:07 - The Challenge of the New Reality' music conference a couple of years ago, as well as at the Television Festival in Edinburgh this August. Joining him will be Niklas Ivarsson, Director of Content at Spotify - quite the man in the hot seat.

As if that wasn't interesting enough for those of you interested in the mechanics of the music industry, the event will feature the exclusive release of information on the 'long-tail' breakdown of how Spotify works, as well as a comprehensive survey of who is on Spotify. Both should prove to be revealing, and shed new light on one of the most unique internet phenomena of the last couple of years.