Spotify announces new app platform

— -- At Spotify's first U.S. press conference in New York City, the streaming music service announced its new app platform.

The new version of Spotify will include access to applications built by third parties that take advantage of the Spotify library and community. Spotify Platform launch partners including Rolling Stone, Last.fm, Pitchfork and Billboard.

Apps take advantage of Spotify's vast music library, as well as its deeper social integration with Facebook.

The apps are built in HTML5, which conceivably means they will be easy to access in Spotify apps across platforms. Spotify says that the apps are available first and foremost for the desktop, but if it is a success, apps will come to other platforms. They'll be available in the Spotify desktop app and to premium and free users.

Spotify says it is open to all developers, but will still manually approve apps before listing them in the Spotify player. The Spotify desktop app has been updated and apps should appear shortly.

See the original story from Mashable here: http://on.mash.to/sgWXyE