Spotify - anyone heard of it?

spodify

[dopey loathsome Innocent Smoothie voice]Everyone *loves* music![/dopey loathsome Innocent Smoothie voice]

Nah, remove the asterisks. The emphasis is on "EVERYone". But you catch my drift.

Think they aiming at the 'couples' (nearly typo'd Copuls there ha) who soundtrack lovin' with their laptops?

"I'M NOT PUTTIN YR OFF HERE AM I?"

The amount of adverts I get saying that they have adverts is ridiculous. Just fucking advertise to me, don't tell me you are going to advertise to me. It makes me feel bad that I only get like 1 advert a day (I have been caning spotify all day lately, with it being time to do all my coursework i'm glued to my pc) and think that the only difference between this and illegal downloading is the occasional prick saying hello to me. No-one be making money with 1 real advert a day (ok, 1 real advert every 4 hours or something.)

Also, after making playlists of like 100s of albums I would have never thought to listen to and have got addicted to, I'm tempted to make a thread like 'recommend great albums to listen to on spotify' type thing. (Well I would if I wasn't busy.) It seems like a perfect opportunity to dive headfirst into metal and classical etc. instead of my previous attempts to dip my toe in.

Spotify isnt very good for metal (not the kind i like anyway)

Well then I'm just gonna have to carry on listening to Minnie Riperton on repeat and forget all those rubbish neckbeards and loud geetars.

It seems like a perfect opportunity to dive headfirst into metal.

Being pathologically metal-averse, I did actually try this with the ILM Best Metal Albums of 2008. Um, yes. Well, it was... interesting.

Well, I'm not going *there*

Are Spotify users familiar with Grooveshark? Looks like a similar kind of thing, but with the focus on tracks rather than albums. It passes the Beatles and AC/DC test as well.

t I only get like 1 advert a day

huh, i've been bombarded recently. 2 in a row quite often.

however I haven't been using it that often so perhaps they tailor it so the more you listen the fewer adds you get.

or ads.

Can't believe that Grooveshark is legit if its got Beatles and AC/DC available.

yeah how does grooveshark exist? that seems crazy

It seems like a perfect opportunity to dive headfirst into metal.

Being pathologically metal-averse, I did actually try this with the ILM Best Metal Albums of 2008. Um, yes. Well, it was... interesting.

none of the good stuff from that poll is on Spotify. I think Earth was the only one unless stuff has been added since.

Lots of great older metal stuff is available though. Saint Vitus' first one, Born too Late has been a recent fave, and of course all ver Sabbs' stuff was put up recently.

3rd

im lookin for good sites with spotify playlists

quietus made a few, not really great tough. except the john peel festive fifty series!

xp oops displaying my doom metal ignorance there!

Only one Campag Velocet song on Grooveshark = fail.

If music services stand or fall on the presence of Campag Velocet, then you're destined for disappointment.

if you subscribe there's no campag

for years i have wondered re a couple of mile davis albums, but never felt brave enough (bitches brew/on the corner) to dive in.
this week having streamed the albums many times via spotify over the last couple of months, i bought them both.
business model proven + one happy 'customer'.

Black Satin ftw.

if you subscribe there's no campag

lol USP!

mark e: I did the same thing last week! albeit with buying sketches of spain. I then went on a huge playlist kick with any jazz album allmusic gave a review that intruiged me, meaning I have about 4000 rashaan roland kirk albums to listen to. When I actually start earning some actual monies, I'm gonna end up with a jazz collection large enough to open my own shop at this rate.

(Also ^^^^ this what I want to do with other genres I don't know but think I could love like metal, country and classical. And 'world' music. And avant-garde shiz. I also went on a huge reggae/dub/dancehall kick although I've not spent enough time actually listening to it.)

Tiny niggles it is actually unfair to complain about because I'm using it for free anyway pt 14:

When the Spotify window is brought to the forefront, ads spring to life. I see why. But I'm already in the search field having typed three or four letters -- typing is then brought to halt with Windows boomp sound because focus moved to ad parts of window or something. Having then to mouse up to search field and click and type more.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8052917.stm

Online music service Spotify is hoping to launch a mobile version and expand to the US by the end of the year.

The streaming service, which lets fans listen to more than three million tracks legally and for free, has gained more than a million users in the UK.

Speaking about the plan to go mobile, Spotify founder Daniel Ek said: "We want to be everywhere. We won't only do one device."

But fans would have to pay to put Spotify in their pockets, he revealed.

The web-based service is currently free to users who accept adverts between their songs. A subscription option, which costs £9.99 a month in the UK, banishes the ads.

Speaking at The Great Escape music conference in Brighton, Mr Ek said the mobile offering would only be available to subscribers.

My hope and ambition is that we'll see something at the end of the year, maybe the beginning of next year, in the US
Daniel Ek

"Portability is an important aspect, [as is] interoperability with other devices," he said.

"That's definitely something we think is a premium product that people are willing to pay for - being able to bring the music with you or being able to have it working on your stereo."

The company is working on an iPhone application, but also wants to make the service available on other handsets, he said.

"I definitely hope that it will be before the end of this year that we'll do something which allows people to bring the music with them."

As well as the UK and Sweden, where Spotify was created, the current service is also available in Norway, Finland, France and Spain.

It has become a huge hit with music lovers in the UK since launching in October, but the recession and resulting advertising downturn have slowed its global expansion plans, Mr Ek said.

Sound quality

But he added: "My hope and ambition is that we'll see something at the end of the year, maybe the beginning of next year, in the US."

The 25-year-old entrepreneur launched the company in an attempt to provide a legal alternative to unlicensed file-sharing services, where artists, record labels and music publishers do not receive royalties.

He has not revealed how many users have paid to subscribe. But more extras will be added to tempt people to sign up for the monthly fee, he said.

Those will include better sound quality, the ability to listen to new releases before they hit shops, more social networking features, exclusive tracks and behind-the-scenes material from big-name artists.

In other money-spinning schemes, T-shirts, concert tickets and vinyl will be sold to fans as they are listening to their favourite bands.

Last.fm deal

The company is also expected to announce a deal with fellow streaming site Last.fm to provide song recommendations, making it easier for fans to find acts they like.

"We definitely want to have music recommendation," Mr Ek said. "I'd love to work with someone like Last.fm and I think in a couple of days you'll see some sort of announcement. Something will happen."

But video streams are unlikely to appear in the near future, Mr Ek said.

"It's something that we've considered but we're focusing right now on the audio side, and we're focusing on generating revenues.

"At the moment there are other features that are higher up in the priority list, but it's definitely not something that we've excluded."

It's something that we've considered but we're focusing right now on the audio side

Good thinking there, concentrate on doing what you are doing well well.

And wow I'd def pay up seriously for mobile spotifying.

This article from the Register casts a sceptical eye over the service:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/18/spotify/

I read that with a pinch of "Orlowski is a massive tool" salt.

Interesting to read that the record companies have at least a 30% stake in Spotify. I'm not sure that inspires much hope that the free version as it is will last much longer.

pretty dumb unconstructive article

It's a fair point though that the business model appears to rely on being able to get money from people who want everything for free by giving them something for free. It's not encouraging me to spend money on music, though it's definitely cut down on my legally dubious downloading - I recently listened to a bunch of spotify stuff in anticipation of going to ATP then didn't buy any of it. I can't see the point (for a record co.) on cutting down/out piracy if it doesn't lead to more sales.

There's something illogical about the ad-selling thing too.

"Hi do you want to advertise on spotify? Give us $$$s and you'll have a million listeners!"
"Are those the same listeners you encourage to give you $$$s to avoid hearing my ads and possibly giving me $$$s?"
"Yes! How many shall I put you down for?"

I still think it will be a success if mobile takes off. Most people I've spoken to who use the free version would pay for an ad-free mobile version.

It does answer one question, though. How on earth are they paying all the royalties? They're not. They're giving equity stakes in lieu of them.

My dad asked me if next week I could help him learn how to download when I go see him and I said he would be better off just using something like spotify. Do you still need an invite to start using it though, (and how would I go about getting him one?)

Well, I just went to the site and enrolled myself. So, no.

this Nokia advert guy who comes on and says like "sorry to interrupt your free music" just sounds like he is dripping with contempt and resentment; I will kill him!

i'm gonna cancel my subscription in protest at their awful artist and tracks labelling system. no more cash til that's sorted (or there's a last.fm facility to edit/merge such details).

xp Mr Free sounds like Zane Lowe to me? Anyway he's really blowing my mind with this concept of "free"!

Any other free users getting increasingly bombarded with ads? I had a playlist running whilst painting the spare room for 5 hours today and rather than Nokia guy every 30 mins or so (which I was used to) am getting ads and adverts to advertise after every 3 tracks or so. I wonder if they are ramping this up to encourage people to pay the tenner a month for premium?

Also, Mr Free def has a Zane Lowe twang, although could be Jason Donovan too. Given the cheapness of the ads otherwise though, more likely to be a Spotify employee (again).

New Sonic Youth album is on Spotify

http://open.spotify.com/album/5qo7iEWkMEaSXEZ7fuPvC3

lol at idiots phoning in to Spotify voicemail service.

I lolled so hard I stumped up for Premium.

am considering that option now

sorry if this is mentioned above (it's a huge thread!) but what bitrate are songs streamed at on spotify? and how does it allow songs to be played pretty much instantly, is it a bandwidth hog? (i've only seen it in action at a friends house, looks pretty good for older bigname stuff but up-to-the-minute modern stuff seems sparse)

It surprises you with some of the modern stuff it has.

I think the bitrate is 160kbps and some version of Ogg Vorbis, making it equivalent to about 192kpbs.

Sounds great streamed through my stereo, anyway.

That doesn't make it much of a bandwidth hog. Bear in mind that it uses p2p to ease the load on their servers - by default it allocates 10% of your free HD space to a cache. So while it's running, you may well be giving over some of your upload capacity too.