Instead of reaching for their CDs or iPods, an estimated two million people instead quietly plugged in their headphones and logged on to Spotify, the current darling of the internet world.

There, they were able to listen to Jackson’s entire back catalogue without having to pay a penny, and the little known website from Stockholm caused work across Britain to grind to a halt.

In fact, in the 20 hours following Jackson’s death, Spotify users in the UK listened to more than 10 million Jackson songs in what many say was the online music service’s coming of age.

Spotify works rather like an online radio station, playing songs over the internet, known as streaming, rather than you buying then downloading them to your machine.

For consumers, this means a huge shift: rather than having a physical CD, you no longer actually own music, you simply rent it via your subscription. And there is one big benefit. If you’re willing to listen to adverts between songs, the service is completely free. An ad-free service, with higher quality music, is available for £9.99 per month.

Users pick the songs they want using slick software on their PC, choosing from eight million tracks in Spotify’s system. The software, clearly inspired by Apple’s iTunes, then plays the songs instantly. An added bonus is that you and your friends can create a playlist of your favourite tunes together, a gimmick that has led to an outbreak of “Spotify parties”.

The site responsible for decimating productivity in offices across London is the brainchild of 26-year-old Daniel Ek and his business partner Martin Lorentzon, both of whom had previous success with dotcom firms. Their business plan is as simple as the site itself: “Our dream is to collect all the world’s music and make it accessible to everyone,” they say.