Sep/092
Why I love Spotify and you will too
Since mp3 was invented I've been collecting music and have over 1500GB of music on my server. The music was collected from many sources: ripping CD's, raiding other people's collections, downloading torrents etc, but something has always bothered me about it. The artists aren't getting paid for their work, and that's wrong. Much as my conscience bothers me, there's obviously no way I'm going to actually pay for something I can get for free and in most cases I can get it quicker and easier for free than I can by buying it.
I've been waiting for something like Spotify. Finally, someone has come up with a way to sidestep the problem, making music easily available to all for free but without ripping off the artists in the process. Music is added to theSpotify system with the artists permission and the clever Swedish company share the revenue from advertising and Premium services according to the number of times the artist's tracks are played.
The Premium Service is EUR 10 per month (EUR 120 per year) and gives the subscriber the ability to use Spotify Mobile. The mobile service runs on an iPhone (and other good phones too), and the 3G mobile networks are currently good enough to stream music over. This means you have mobile access to an enormous amount of music whilst yourplay lists are synced between your computer and phone meaning you only have to find it once.
I consider 120EUR per year a very fair price to listen to whatever I want, whenever and where ever I want to listen to it.
The service is so popular at the moment that it's invite only in the UK, but that will change. Hopefully Spotify and the companies that follow will create a fine business model which is fair to all. Here's a selection of Spotify's own FAQ's if you're not yet convinced.
What is Spotify?
Spotify offers you legal and free access to a huge library of music. All you need to do is create an account and download our streaming music player. For more details have a look at our video or introduction page.
What is Spotify's goal?
Our dream is to let everyone listen to whatever they want, whenever and wherever they want.
What countries is Spotify available in?
Spotify is currently available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain. We hope to launch in more countries in the future.
Do I need to pay to use Spotify?
No, the advertising-funded version of Spotify is free of charge, however, for now it requires that you receive an invite to register unless you are in the UK. Visit our invitation page to sign up to the waiting list. Alternatively, you can pay for an ad-free premium subscription to Spotify.
What bandwidth does Spotify need?
We recommend 256 kbit/s. Spotify usually works well on a 3G connection. Plenty of free disk space also helps keep the network requirements down as it enables more caching.
How much advertising will I be exposed to?
There should be significantly fewer ads in Spotify than you’d find on commercial radio. We are trying to strike a balance between artists who want to be paid and providing the best possible user experience.
Why do I have to install Spotify?
By installing Spotify as a stand alone application you get a much better user experience and audio quality compared to web-based sites.
On what platforms can I use Spotify?
Mac OS X 10.4 or later and Windows XP or later. You can also run Spotify in Wine on Linux.
Can I use Spotify from multiple locations?
Yes, you can install Spotify on as many computers as you like. You may be logged in to Spotify from several computers simultaneously, but you can only play music on one computer at a time. The music at your other computers will automatically be paused. If you want to install Spotify on more than one computer simply download the program again and login with your existing username and password, there is no need for an invite token.
Can I share music with my friends?
Yes, you can drag and drop any track, album, artist or playlist to your email or instant messenger which creates a link to your favorites that you can send to your loved ones. They need to have Spotify to listen, though. Read more about sharing and collaborative playlists in our blog.
Why do you have two different link formats?
The spotify: URIs are the real Spotify addresses. The http://open.spotify.com/ URLs are a workaround to give you clickable, blue and underlined links in instant-messenger and email applications that don’t yet recognize the Spotify URI format. When there is a choice (such as when you are creating your own hyperlinks on the web), always use the spotify: addresses. What happens when you click an http://open.spotify.com/ link is that a page is opened in your web browser that redirects you to the real address (the spotify: equivalent). When you have control over the links, that’s a redundant step. And if you’re a software developer, please consider auto-detecting the spotify: URIs in your applications.
Can I make more advanced searches?
Yes, you can search for genres by writing genre: followed by the genre you want to find, like genre:Trip-hop. You can do the same thing with release years for albums by writing year: and the year you want. You can even specify a range, like year:1979-1982. Other searches to play with are artist:, album: and track
Can I use Spotify to play music in my bar, restaurant, store, etc?
No, the Terms & Conditions that you agree to when registering for Spotify states that Spotify is for personal, non-commercial use
Can I stream Spotify music to speakers with Airport, Logitech Squeeze box, Sonos, etc?
Currently there is no built-in support for this but some of our users have found ways to make is possible. For more info read here about Apple Airport and Logitech Squeezebox
