LONDON — Music service Spotify is set to take on the traditional iPod dock by working with major manufacturers to launch its own range of speakers, the company announced this morning (Sept 3).

In collaboration with major hardware companies including Yamaha, Phillips, Bang and Olufsen and others, the new Spotify Connect brand will see the music service built directly in to the Wi-Fi chip used in modern music players. A smartphone or tablet is required only as a remote control.

Bypassing the need for devices to act as players, users of the speakers and Spotify’s mobile app will not have their music cut when their phone rings because the speaker will be able to communicate directly with the service’s internet-based music servers, reported The Daily Telegraph.

The new range will also extend to other brands by the end of the year, and Spotify hopes it will address consumer frustrations with streaming music from the Web to speakers via phones and tablets, which can be plagued by loss of connections and buffering. The company claims its speakers will be able to offer more stable connections than mobile phones, and also allow the Swedish-based service to cash in on the growing popularity for high-quality Bluetooth speakers that allow users to play music previously limited to headphones.

It claimed consumers had repeatedly complained that simply broadcasting music from their phones resulted in dropouts, below-par audio quality, signal range and phone restrictions and battery drainage.

Mr Pascal de Mul, Spotify’s Global Head of hardware partnerships, said the company was aiming for access to Spotify’s millions of music tracks to “be as ubiquitous as the CD player used to be”. He said that while streaming via Apple’s AirPlay service to other docks “was cool, it was not cool enough for us”.

The service will be available for users of the company’s Premium serivce in the United Kingdom in the coming weeks, with updates for a growing range of devices to follow. AGENCIES