Spotify - anyone heard of it?

Mine appears to have made it through an album without giving me any adverts. Maybe they've bumped me up to a pro account without realising it.

― Matt DC, Sunday, 14 December 2008 14:49 (4 years ago) Permalink

you can now scrobble to last.fm from within spotify (it's in 'preferences')

― braveclub, Sunday, 21 December 2008 12:55 (4 years ago) Permalink

That's handy, saves me running that scrobblify thing at the same time.

Spotify lists 'The Prodigy' as 'Prodigy' and makes last.fm think this guy sings Smack My Bitch Up and Out of Space

― dj onimotian (onimo), Sunday, 21 December 2008 13:39 (4 years ago) Permalink

can someone please send me an invite?

thanks!!

― kaiser, Tuesday, 20 January 2009 14:20 (4 years ago) Permalink

Er....

https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/

― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 20 January 2009 14:37 (4 years ago) Permalink

Think there's still a waiting list though.

<3 this service btw.

― Beloved lightbulb (Neil S), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 14:50 (4 years ago) Permalink

Got in straight away with the link I posted.

― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 20 January 2009 15:08 (4 years ago) Permalink

Aha they've obviously opened it up!

― Beloved lightbulb (Neil S), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 15:23 (4 years ago) Permalink

Downside is loads more ads (I've heard two during the same album), but you can hear them coming after a while and tune out. Still great.

― chord simple (j.o.n.a), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 15:51 (4 years ago) Permalink

thanks Chewshabadoo but I need an invitation code.

Please!

― kaiser, Tuesday, 20 January 2009 19:55 (4 years ago) Permalink

If i hear gareth jones from cardiff reciting pi again i'll scream

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 19:56 (4 years ago) Permalink

(advert)

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 19:57 (4 years ago) Permalink

And I'm not buying that White Lies record either.

― Beloved lightbulb (Neil S), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 20:15 (4 years ago) Permalink

At least it doesn't scrobble the adverts

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 20:19 (4 years ago) Permalink

jonathan from spotify sounds remarkably like Michael Vaughan

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 20:41 (4 years ago) Permalink

wtf 2 adverts in a row (the 2nd was for that White Lies album)

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 20:41 (4 years ago) Permalink

See what I mean about them? The Killers meet Editors big wowz!

― Beloved lightbulb (Neil S), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 20:44 (4 years ago) Permalink

can i get a spotify invite

― dugong.jpg (jabba hands), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 23:03 (4 years ago) Permalink

thanks Chewshabadoo but I need an invitation code.

Please!

― kaiser, Tuesday, January 20, 2009 7:55 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

can i get a spotify invite

― dugong.jpg (jabba hands), Tuesday, January 20, 2009 11:03 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

Have any of you actually tried the link posted? Quite a few of my friends in the UK have used the link and joined today. Maybe it doesn't work in other countries...

\o.0/

― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 20 January 2009 23:25 (4 years ago) Permalink

I'm in the US and that link asks for one of two things:

1)an invite code

or

2)your email address so they can notify you when it goes "public"

I wonder what their excuse is. Don't they want more people to hear their stupid ads?

― I am a vampire, therefore I take garlic pills (Bimble), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 23:28 (4 years ago) Permalink

is it UK only?

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 23:28 (4 years ago) Permalink

mr bimble check your email

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 23:30 (4 years ago) Permalink

It's odd and a fucking pain how Spotify often doesn't specify that tracks are remixes in any way.

― Glansel & Gretel (Raw Patrick), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 23:32 (4 years ago) Permalink

i'm in the US and unless something changed in the last few days, we can't use spotify and all the workarounds have been blocked

― miss precious perfect (musically), Wednesday, 21 January 2009 00:22 (4 years ago) Permalink

2)your email address so they can notify you when it goes "public"

I selected this a couple of weeks ago, and got an invite from them within the same day. May not be the case now, of course.

― anatol_merklich, Friday, 23 January 2009 06:25 (4 years ago) Permalink

https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/ gets you straight in without an invite.

― mike t-diva, Friday, 23 January 2009 07:08 (4 years ago) Permalink

I went in on that link above, no trouble at all. I'm in the UK tho - maybe there's a problem with the US, I dunno.

It's awesome, btw. Nearest thing to the "universal jukebox" I've seen for a long time.

― NotEnough, Friday, 23 January 2009 08:50 (4 years ago) Permalink

I think it's staggering. At least 95% of my track/artist searches to date have returned results. And I like the concept of shared playlists.

― mike t-diva, Friday, 23 January 2009 09:01 (4 years ago) Permalink

Spotify Premium is available in Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and the UK. The Free version is only available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain.

It amuses me to see the adverts briefly appear in last.fm (and permanently in your Spotify history).

― chord simple (j.o.n.a), Friday, 23 January 2009 09:09 (4 years ago) Permalink

This is impressive. There's a lot more weird, small stuff on than I thought there would be, thopugh also mystifying gaps too.

Someone should set up a shared ILX playlist for Jan (then we can move to Feb etc to stop it getting unwieldy). I'll do it tonight if no-one else does.

― Glansel & Gretel (Raw Patrick), Friday, 23 January 2009 09:13 (4 years ago) Permalink

Excellent idea. I was thinking of doing one for the Pazz & Jop Top 50 singles, and maybe the Rocktimists poll tracks as well. But it'll have to wait until tonight.

― mike t-diva, Friday, 23 January 2009 09:31 (4 years ago) Permalink

Gaps spotted so far: no King Crimson, very little UK Funky, no Aeroplane mix of Grace Jones "Williams Blood" (although their mix of Friendly Fires "Paris" is on there). Remixes are generally well represented, though.

― mike t-diva, Friday, 23 January 2009 09:36 (4 years ago) Permalink

Remixes are generally well represented, though.

But not always listed as remixes, I've found. And they don't scrobble as remixes (sorry, I'll take that to the last.fm thread)

― chord simple (j.o.n.a), Friday, 23 January 2009 09:41 (4 years ago) Permalink

I also like the non-bloatiness: the software was running at around 14,000k on my home PC last night - so I could close iTunes for once, and benefit from the faster performance.

― mike t-diva, Friday, 23 January 2009 09:45 (4 years ago) Permalink

I hope this thing a) goes global so the US can use it b) they make a mobile/iphone app c) ushers in a new era of music use.

I confidently predict big 4 will put a stop to it.

― NotEnough, Friday, 23 January 2009 09:51 (4 years ago) Permalink

All the majors have signed up in europe, though. I suppose it's whether the US ones are far-sighted enough.

It's also notable that most of the big digital music holdout bands aren't represented- no Beatles, Metallica, AC/DC.

― Beloved lightbulb (Neil S), Friday, 23 January 2009 09:59 (4 years ago) Permalink

Every Stones album is there though, yay!

Another thing I've noticed is that the service avoids any queueing problems, as you occasionally get on, say, last.fm.

― Beloved lightbulb (Neil S), Friday, 23 January 2009 10:01 (4 years ago) Permalink

Last.fm is screwed unless they can come up with something as wide ranging as this.

― Billy Dods, Friday, 23 January 2009 10:45 (4 years ago) Permalink

The DJ Khaled selection is spotty and Denim aren't on there either.

I do like the way that you get to see all the crummy compilation albums that bands appear on. If you pick someone like The Sweet it takes about 5 mins to scroll through them all.

― Glansel & Gretel (Raw Patrick), Friday, 23 January 2009 10:49 (4 years ago) Permalink

How on earth are they going to make any money out of this model? I can only imagine that once they've got a critical mass of people using it, they're going to radically increase the amount of advertising.

― Zelda Zonk, Friday, 23 January 2009 12:29 (4 years ago) Permalink

That and premium subs I guess.

― zero learnt from nero (Neil S), Friday, 23 January 2009 12:42 (4 years ago) Permalink

At the moment, the advertising is pretty unobtrusive so I can't see why anyone would want to be a paying subscriber. Which is why I'm guessing they'll up the advertising once they get enough people hooked.

― Zelda Zonk, Friday, 23 January 2009 12:47 (4 years ago) Permalink

Indeed, at the moment the advertising is infrequent enough not to annoy but I'm sur it'll increase in frequency. Service is good but not quite thorough enough, some bizarre gaps in artist's discographies e.g most of Sparks 70's output and their most recent work but little from the 80s/90s. Once they can plug those gaps, get on board the digital refuseniks and most importantly provide a mobile service then £10 a month would be very tempting.

― Billy Dods, Friday, 23 January 2009 12:57 (4 years ago) Permalink

Getting enough people hooked should mean they don't have to up the advertising - advertisers will simply pay more for a bigger audience.

Maybe if they get enough people hooked they'll be able to offer ad-free for £4.99 instead of £9.99.

I wonder how much artists are paid through this. We could have weekly campaigns where we all play obscure tracks from some almost forgotten band so they get surprise royalty cheques.

I do like the way that you get to see all the crummy compilation albums that bands appear on

So true - the other night I found myself marvelling at how many "a tribute to" albums Sigue Sigue Sputnik have appeared on (from memory: NiN, Soft Cell, Smashing Pumpkins, Madonna, KMFDM, Prince...) - who keeps asking them?

― onimo, Friday, 23 January 2009 12:59 (4 years ago) Permalink

We could have weekly campaigns where we all play obscure tracks from some almost forgotten band so they get surprise royalty cheques.

Or those bands could just set up a computer with their songs on repeat!

― Glansel & Gretel (Raw Patrick), Friday, 23 January 2009 13:15 (4 years ago) Permalink

I wonder how much artists are paid through this

Maybe, John D could answer. Hopefully I made him a few cents when I listened to 'Palmcorder Yajna' earlier this week.

― Billy Dods, Friday, 23 January 2009 13:54 (4 years ago) Permalink

Well last.fm's royalty rate is $0.0005 per play, and presumably something similar in Europe too.

― zero learnt from nero (Neil S), Friday, 23 January 2009 14:08 (4 years ago) Permalink

So a million plays required for a measly $500? I don't think mobilising the ILM masses will be enough to get J0hn D that rockstar mansion.

― onimo, Friday, 23 January 2009 14:13 (4 years ago) Permalink

I didn't think that the artist would get much from each play but $0.0005 is shockingly low.

― Billy Dods, Friday, 23 January 2009 14:48 (4 years ago) Permalink

My guess is that record company gets half a cent and the artist get 10%.

― NotEnough, Friday, 23 January 2009 15:16 (4 years ago) Permalink

http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/14/4331110/google-lands-universal-music-sony-for-spotify-competitor

― markers, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 01:33 (6 days ago) Permalink

Dammit! The hack to keep old spotify working doesn't work anymore. Now I'm stuck with the new version like the rest of you saps.

― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 15:41 (6 days ago) Permalink

Kinda weak that the new iOS app doesn't allow you to play with the order of tunes within playlists.

― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, April 27, 2013 7:45 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just install the 'Spotify for iOS 4' app.

― calstars, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 19:06 (6 days ago) Permalink

i can see myself jumping ship to google's service even if the functionality/coverage are no better than spotify's because i'd expect them to have better catalogging - spotify's database/tagging/etc is just so messy even on some more popular artists

― ciderpress, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 19:21 (6 days ago) Permalink

yes

― UTW, USA, ILX LIFER (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 19:24 (6 days ago) Permalink

Yeah, the Spotify update really does seem to have come at the worst time - this is assuming that many users are finding it as unwieldy and laggy as I am, which doesn't seem unreasonable given the attempts to prevent updates to the new software - but if someone could offer me a similar service right now for the same price minus the lag then I'd bite their hand off tbh

― Windsor Davies, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 23:55 (6 days ago) Permalink

the google service has a 30 day free trial right now (if you supply a credit card) but there doesn't seem to be an iphone app, so it's kinda useless for me.

― ryan, Thursday, 16 May 2013 00:04 (5 days ago) Permalink

i just wish the fuckers would bring back playlist durations. every new update (ie every frigging second day) makes me hope it will appear, but no

― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Thursday, 16 May 2013 09:28 (5 days ago) Permalink

Google play's streaming service is greatat the moment once you've uploaded your catalogue to the cloud, so if they manage to seamlessly integrate that with the non-owned streaming music then I'm there.

― food and boardgames and minimal techno (NotEnough), Thursday, 16 May 2013 12:07 (5 days ago) Permalink

If I save a playlist for offline, does the track stream if data is available, or does it play the offline stored version?

Asking because battery life seems to drain quickly even if using offline playlists.

― calstars, Thursday, 16 May 2013 13:08 (5 days ago) Permalink

I think the best cloud-based service that let's you upload your own files (and has a player that you can stream them from remotely) is from Amazon. Especially if you have more than 20,000 music files, which I do. Their limit is 250,000 songs and it's $25 for a year. The initial upload takes a crazy long time, but it's worth it. I just use that + Spotify.

― Position Position, Thursday, 16 May 2013 13:11 (5 days ago) Permalink

The key with the new Google thing from my end is whether UMG properties on there will be watermarked (aka audibly distorted) like they are on Spotify, itunes, emusic etc. If UMG stuff on Googlify is unwatermarked, they've got my money.

― 2 huxtables and a sousaphone (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 16 May 2013 15:44 (5 days ago) Permalink

why would they watermark on one service but not the other?

― mimicking regular benevloent (sic) users' names (President Keyes), Thursday, 16 May 2013 18:17 (5 days ago) Permalink

i am def assuming they'll be watermarked. But there could be a ghost of a chance google was all, yo how about hooking us up with the uncut shit in exchange for some sweet ass private user info?

― 2 huxtables and a sousaphone (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 16 May 2013 18:27 (5 days ago) Permalink

I use Spotify mostly on my desktop pc, but love using my ipad as a remote. The bugger is, I use the remoteless app for it, but it's absolutely shite. Crashes almost every time. Does anyone have any experience with other apps to do it this way?

I don't think the Spotify app can sync with your desktop and be used as a remote, can it?

― Le Bateau Ivre, Sunday, 19 May 2013 21:04 (2 days ago) Permalink