Spotify

For those not in the know (after this you will be), Spotify is the latest import from across to the pond to take the US by storm with an army of 15 million ready and waiting songs to satisfy even the most jaded on music fans.

Spotify is a free music streaming service.  Yes, you heard correct, a free music streaming service that allows you full access to their over 15 million music tracks over you PC, smartphone, and tablet device.

Now free does mean that you will have the occasional commercial ad, they obviously have to get paid somehow, but if you’re like me, they have a very affordable ad-free version at $4.99 a month.   They also have a premium edition that will allow you to copy music directly to your personal device to take on trips or to places where there are no internet connections.

The kind folks over at Spotify set me up with a trial premium account so that I can make some first impressions.

Let me tell you what I’ve found, and it’s pretty damn awesome.

Upon first installing, you are greeted with the now familiar-looking itunes-esque looking interface.  A little spartan, but I like the clutter-free look myself.

Next, you are invited to connect to Facebook, now a pretty common thing to expect, but upon connecting, you immediately see a sidebar of all the playlists your friends are sharing. Outstanding, I spent hours discovering new music from my friends.

After a few more minutes, I took a look at their artist bios section and that is a nice touch. Not only can you discover new music and artists, but you get a nice in-depth background of the new artist you just discovered.

Ok, this is where I would normally keep going into deeper depth of coverage, but I have to admit, that really that’s as far as I need to go.

At the end of the day, what anyone really expects is the ability to search, discover, and play tracks from the hottest and most entertaining new artists, and on that basis, Spotify absolutely delivers 100%.

Spotify simply does streaming music and they do it exceedingly well.

The only thing that brings me any level of sadness is that my trial premium membership is about to expire and I’ll have to break out the well worn credit card and do the right thing and re-up my premium account.

- Alex

Lean, green, music machine

• Spotify gives you on-demand access (with no buffering) to a library of more than 15 million songs. What’s more, you can import the MP3s you already own with just one click, to create a mighty music player. And with Spotify, there’s no need to skip tracks you don’t like. Why? Because you choose the music in the first place.
• It’s simple to create and manage all your playlists with Spotify – users have made and shared over 250 million  so far. You can also discover the most popular playlists on sites like www.sharemyplaylists.com and www.bbcify.com, or use clever sites like www.spotiseek.com to create playlists of new music based on your favorite artists.
• Music is made for sharing. Simply drag and drop music to your Spotify friends, or share with them via Facebook, Twitter, email and SMS. See your friends’ top tracks, artists and playlists via their Spotify profiles, subscribe to their playlists and drop tracks into their Spotify inbox. Very sociable.
• Take your music with you by installing Spotify on your cellphone or iPod Touch. Wirelessly sync your MP3 playlists to listen offline.  Subscribe to Spotify Premium to combine your own music with access to our catalogue of over 15 million tracks. It’s the perfect music player.

The Free, the Unlimited and the Premium

• Spotify offers three great services, from absolutely free to paid subscriptions.
• Spotify Free – With an invite, enjoy on-demand, buffer-free access to over 15 million songs on your computer, social features, manage your own music files through Spotify, and sync with your cellphone or iPod.
• Spotify Unlimited – all the special features of our free service but with uninterrupted, ad-free access to Spotify on your computer. For only $4.99 a month.
• Spotify Premium – Premium gives you access to all the music, all the time. Listen online or offline, on your computer, your cellphone and a heap of other devices. Enhanced sound quality and access to exclusive content, competitions and special offers. Premium costs $9.99 a month.