Top 10 exports to the US to inspire Spotify as it heads stateside

Europe is desperate to match the US for technology innovation. There are Silicon Roundabouts, changes to intellectual property laws to try to boost innovation and creativity like the US, and even Wills and Kate have pitched in to talk up London as an investment centre.

But Europe has plenty to be proud of already, and Spotify heading to the US is the latest example of yet another European export showing the Yanks how it's done - in this case online music streaming.

The service has every chance of succeeding; it's swish, slick and genuinely innovative, but of course there's no guarantee the US will like what has so enthralled Europeans. Look what happened to Cheryl Cole.

However, the team in green can take considerable solace from a series of notable successes enjoyed by other European adventurers - from innovative technology start-ups to Victorian inventors and literary heroes - as we round up the top 10 European exports to the US.

Honourable mention: Language
Among the many things Europeans have given to the Americas, the English language is possibly the most long lasting and far reaching.

Sure, illness, war and repression were also part of the package, but English has endured. Noah Webster may have removed the 'u' from words like colour and flavour, and standarised on 'ized' instead of 'ised', but it's still a huge common bond between the two continents.

It means that any major US firm or European start-up can launch a service to almost 700 million people and know that everyone will be able to pick it up instantly thanks to the popularity of English.

Honourable mention: Posh film heroes
Is Bourne the new Bond? Who cares? Bond is Bond and the super-suave spy is the best damn man for a crisis. He's taken he States by storm on more than one occasion, and in A View to a Kill helped stop Silicon Valley being flooded by an evil mastermind. Phew!

Then there's Harry Potter, the 13 year-old with a scar on his forehead. Not really the most appealing figure for a nation obsessed with super-sizing but the boy from Privet Drive is a phenomenon in the US, the last film released this week a timely reminder of his impact.

And let's not forget Hugh Grant, the floppy haired, hack-busting luvvie beloved for his bumbling role as Charles in Four Weddings and a Funeral, but less so in Nine Months.

Top 10 exports to the US to inspire Spotify as it heads stateside

10. ARM
Google and Android, Apple and iPhone, RIM and BlackBerry, Microsoft and Windows Phone 7 - all world leading and world changing.

Yet many of these devices would be nothing if it wasn't for the tiny chips inside designed in a small office complex in Cambridge by ARM. The business is leading the charge for innovation in the mobile space, catching US chip giant Intel asleep at the wheel and taking the sector by storm.

Something to think about the next time you praise your wondrous smartphone.

9. Sage
Newcastle may not be the most obvious birthplace of a business software company that would take on the billion-dollar behemoths of Oracle and Microsoft in the financial software space, but that's exactly what Sage has managed to do.

The firm may have started out targeting SMBs, but has grown to become a sizeable player that continues to innovate and is now following the push to the cloud to give businesses what they want in the UK and the US.

Plus, the firm has musical credentials that will appeal to Spotify's sensibilities, sponsoring the highly futuristic-looking Sage Gateshead music venue. Rock on!

Top 10 exports to the US to inspire Spotify as it heads stateside

8. Autonomy
Whatever's in the water in Cambridge they need to bottle it, as Autonomy is another example of a company from the city that has come from humble, research-led origins to become a world leader in several markets in Europe and the US.

Producing tools that offer a wealth of services including record management, search, e-discovery, social media governance and much more, Autonomy boasts many high-profile customers in the US, including AT&T, the US State Department and Cisco.

It's not forgotten its UK heritage, though. Not only does Autonomy trade on the London Stock Exchange, it sponsors Tottenham Hotspur in the Premiership (the EPL/English Premier League for US readers).

7. Skype Video is the future, everyone agrees. Cisco never stops talking about it, and Apple's big update to the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 revolved around video chat. But the most successful video calling company is Skype, a Swedish start-up headquartered in Luxembourg.

The firm brought video-calling to the masses in a way that was cheap (well, free) and easy to understand, to the point that Microsoft was willing to pay a whopping $8bn to help it ramp up its video product line.

No doubt the Swedish chaps from Skype and Spotify will catch up for a beer one sunny afternoon in Silicon Valley and be thankful for their ability to out-innovate the US.

6. The iPhone and iPad - designed by Jonathan Ive Chingford, a suburban town outside London, isn't the most obvious origin for one of the greatest designers of the modern age, but it's the birthplace of Jonathan Ive, a man who has been integral to Apple's success.

Ive is the brains behind the shapes and curves that have so enraptured the world and, coupled with the quality software on board, helped millions to fall in love with iPods, iPhones and iPads.

Top 10 exports to the US to inspire Spotify as it heads stateside

5. Angry Birds from Rovio The long winter nights in the upper Arctic circle obviously mean that many Scandinavians turn to inventing to stave off madness and boredom.

Rovio, the chaps behind Angry Birds, is another example of what can be accomplished if you live in a location that forces you indoors for most of the year, the game proving ridiculously popular across the world.

It's probably the most in-demand application on any platform and one that major gaming firms on the other side of the Atlantic must look at with immense jealousy as its rival racks up sales of downloads, toys, clothing and books, and has a film in the pipeline too.

4. The telephone The telephone has changed beyond all recognition in the past 20 years.

From an instrument that was perched in the corner of a room that exploded into life only once or twice a day, it has become a device that we carry everywhere and use constantly.

Its origin has always been hotly contested, and Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell and Italian Guglielmo Marconi are both considered the one true inventor. But either way, it's another win for Europe.

3. The television If there's one nation that's taken to the television more than any other it's the US.

Revered and reviled in equal measure for placing obscenely large wide-screen monsters in their living rooms, often several to a house, the Yanks have more reason than most to give thanks to its inventor, Scotsman John Logie Baird.

While the future is internet-connected TVs that let you stream content, access files in the cloud and have video chats with loved ones, none of this would have been possible without Baird and his ahead-of-its-time brain.

Top 10 exports to the US to inspire Spotify as it heads stateside

2. The computer The computer may be considered a modern device, but its origins can be traced back to 1824 and one Englishman: Charles Babbage and his Analytical Engine.

OK, so it wasn't a PC running Windows Vista, but in many ways the Analytical Engine has similarities with modern computers, containing the same features for running mathematical processes in an automated way.

While others may have developed the modern computer without any reference to Babbage, his work is another example of the foresight, intelligence and inquisitive minds that the UK and Europe can cite as evidence of our technological heritage.

1. The World Wide Web, developed at CERN by a British scientist
So, the US military gave us the internet, but the web - the thing that really brought it all to life - was the invention of British scientist Tim Berners-Lee while working at the European offices of CERN.

Berners-Lee understood that having a network to send information would be so much better if you could access information on top of it, through a layer that was interactive and accessible from any other location.

This insight means that sites like Twitter or Facebook wouldn't have all their billions of dollars in presumed wealth or millions of users to trawl for data if it wasn't for the flash of inspiration that occurred in the greatest scientific research campus in the world, another source of considerable pride for the European technology community.