<p><a href=”http://www.spotify.com”><img alt=”” class=”floatRight” height=”144″ src=”http://fancyshowtech.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/spotify-logo.jpg” width=”230″/></a></p>
<p>I’ve now been using <a href=”http://www.spotify.com” target=”_blank”>Spotify</a> for a full work-week (I promised this to myself before I would write a full review of it).<br/>
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What is it? It’s yet another way to access music. It’s basically <a href=”http://www.apple.com/itunes/” target=”_blank”>iTunes</a> with some better social features (Think: <a href=”http://www.apple.com/itunes/ping/”>Ping</a>, but not an afterthought/failure). The biggest differences are 1) you don’t pay for individual songs, but instead subscribe to a huge library and 2) you don’t necessarily store the media locally. You can, but it’s not required. Not having to tote gigs upon gigs of data with you or dealing with synching libraries is nice.<br/>
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Sound quality is good, the user interface works well enough, and the library seems pretty complete [to me]. It’s kind of cool that all of the music in the world [more or less] is unlocked to you. You can play entire playlists of friends, find that obscure song from fifteen years ago that YOU MUST hear now, but don’t want to pay $.99 for or deal with the crap audio quality when you do happen to [maybe] find that title on Youtube. My only complaint this far (aside from pricing… read on for that) is that the application doesn’t seem to sync favorite songs across computers; I listen to music both at work and at home, and I don’t like the idea of having to “star” songs in both places. Note: It does sync playlists.</p>
<p>One glaring weakness that I’ve found is its lack of music discovery. You can click through to a related artist, but often the recommendations aren’t even close to your taste. For that reason, both Turntable and Pandora will remain staples in my music listening.<br/>
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How do you get in? I’m not quite sure. A friend of mine mentioned registration for a wait-list was available two weeks ago, I signed up, and a few days later I had received a notification that they were ready for me. I don’t know what to tell you other than sign up and cross your fingers or wait for me to drop $10 and get some invites. Are the random invites related to how active you are in social media? Who your [Facebook] friends are (<a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Parker” target=”_blank”>Sean Parker</a> is one of my seven “People” on it right now)? I don’t know… Don’t ask.<br/>
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This all sounds wonderful, yes? Well, good things cost money. The “Unlimited” (read: Basic) plan gets you access to the full library with no advertising for $4.99/mo. That strikes me as a pretty decent deal for the average consumer, but with all the free options out there (<a href=”http://www.pandora.com”>Pandora</a>, <a href=”http://www.turntable.fm”>turntable</a>, <a href=”http://www.last.fm”>last.fm</a>) will it catch? If the UK is any indication, yes (<a href=”http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/spotify-1-million-plays-163108-return-1944051.html”>UK stats</a>). If you’re looking for higher quality audio (this is a must for me… you can’t have a tube headphone amp and listen to a crap source!) and access on your mobile device, you’re facing the $9.99/mo premium package. Since I cannot fathom knowing I’m receiving less-than-best quality audio or dealing with not having mobile access, I’d be forced into this $9.99/mo package, which strikes me as a bit pricey. For those not wanting to spend any money, there is a free option that contains ads every few songs.<br/>
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I’m currently using the free option as I’m pretty happy with the offerings of Pandora and Turntable and have enough money invested in my current music library that I don’t want to be facing a monthly charge on top of it, but I’ll likely buy at least a month just to see how much I’ll use it. The bonus of subscribing is I get a few invites to give out to friends… that in itself is worth the $10 to me.</p>
<p>I firmly believe Spotify is here to stay and I applaud them for their certain success.</p>
Spotify
Comments
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1) How is it different than Rhapsody?
2) Client? Eww. -
1) Don’t know… Never used.
2) Yep. It’s pretty lightweight, though. How would you want to access it? Web, I suppose? -
Yup. The last client I used was WinAmp. [wink]
I already bailed on it. I think it’s good for finding “that song” and seeing what your friends are listening to, but it required way too much investment than I have time for at work to find a playlist. I’m guessing that improves once you get time to focus on it, but I’m so used to the “do it for me” button. I’ll have to give it more attention later, but I’m not a fan of the subscription model in general.
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I see… Additions to review now that I’ve bought a free month…
1) 10 invites for $10 rocks.
2) Lack of iPad app is pretty weak.And yea, it does require a bit of tme to get up and running. It’s ALL about the playlists since your library is EVERYTHING.
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Wait… I said a bought a free month. That was so stupid of me.
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Digging at it a bit more, I think this is a homerun for the iTunes crowd… which is pretty much everyone. That segment is used to managing songs and playlists and even the interface is very familiar (to my untrained eye). I think they’ll have decent success at converting many of the people to a subscription, especially with the social aspect of it.
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Concerning the music selection, I would be interested in their international catalogue. I have a lot of trouble finding all the German music I want to listen to. Neither pandora’s streaming nor iTunes downloading has everything I like. If there’s an invite left, I’d ‘preciate it.
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