Spotify - anyone heard of it?

it's hard to feel hard-done-by about this. i pay more than a tenner for the use of about eight dvds a month, so getting a spotify subscriptch is a nob rainer.

Actually this may actually be genius. Yes, some people are angry because nothing is completely free anymore, but a lot of people have grown addicted to Spotify and the monthly fee is actually not much compared to what people used to buy CDs for in the past. So this may well be the way for tomorrow's musicians to actually earn money from their work. Which I think they do actually deserve.

and no more blokely.com adverts hooray

until the £10 service gets some adverts and they want you to pay £20 to get no adverts and flacs streaming

I think that would be very difficult for them to implement without losing a shit-ton of customers. Especially given there'll be other similar services on the market before long.

This all made the front page of the Metro today!

I have premium and have it on the missus' & my phone, with both our laptops and the squeezeradio in the kitchen.

that's unlimited music on 5 devices in high quality .mp3 with no adverts or usage limits.

£10.

Can't complain when I have been known to drop £18 on an import CD when Tower Records used to regularly charge such a price.

still working out my "I love this on spotify, I'll buy it" vs. "I love this on spotify, I'll listen to it loads on spotify" threshold though.

i don't have a fancy mobile so am probably just going the £5 route

though what is 'offline mode'? i was talking to someone about this and they claimed it meant they just had a shit-tonne of music files they could listen to. but that can't be right, surely they must all vanish when you unsubscribe?

yeah, they're cached in the Spotify client/ app, then get deleted as and when you unsubscribe AFAIK. I wonder if anyone's cracked the app though?

Offline mode files disappear if you unsubscribe/don't log in for a month. You need it for mobiles cos you can't stream everything, but if you're only using an always online laptop I don't see the point.

It hasn't been cracked yet afaik. That would pretty much kill the service, surely.

Does non-premium spotify play local files too? That was such a good addition. I never switch out of Spotify for any listening now. £10 a month for this is stupidly good value.

is anyone's spotify sync for the iphone haywire as all hell of late? i can't get it to sync properly or save playlists offline, it's really annoying.

I actually hope the wee girl Amy dies

Yeah, I had that. Have had it for a while in fact. Friend of mine had a similar problem on Android and said logging out of everywhere you've got it installed, then logging back in works for him, but I'm still having problems.

xpost!

it's saving tracks now but SO SO SLOW

wonder if deleting some playlists might help

I deleted a lot and it didn't seem to make any difference to the new playlists I had in place.

Any of you guys even heard of Wimp? The thing is a Norwegian owned Spotify-copy. If I become premium, I might as well sign up for Wimp instead, as it seems to have a somewhat bigger selection of music (the main different being Norwegian titles - even Hongroe ;) - but it has the same general iTunes/Phonofile selection that Spotify does)

Spotify says hello to the iPod
May 4th, 2011

At Spotify it's always been our mission to provide you with the best all-round music experience on the planet. For Spotify Premium subscribers, a huge part of that experience is taking your playlists with you wherever you go. However, for the rest of our users, listening to their favourite playlists on the move hasn't been possible.

You've been telling us how much you love discovering, sharing and talking about music in Spotify - and you've created well over 200 million playlists to prove it. But you've also said you're listening to a huge amount of music on your iPods, and that getting your Spotify playlists onto them as MP3s has been a serious hassle, forcing you to juggle multiple music players. That's until now...

As of today, Spotify is making it possible for everyone to take their playlists with them in one lean, green music machine.

New features include:

Manage your iPod in Spotify! For the first time, seamlessly manage any iPod classic, iPod nano and iPod shuffle in Spotify. Simply connect your iPod to your computer via your USB cable and watch it magically appear in the new 'Devices' section of your Spotify sidebar.
Sync all the MP3s contained in your Spotify playlists to your iPod, and purchase the rest through...

The all-new Spotify download service! Listening to the music you want to hear, wherever you want it, just got a whole lot simpler - and cheaper.
Your playlists are special to you. You've spent untold hours putting together your own mix-tape masterpieces on your computer and want to take them with you, but without the trouble of having to buy each track separately, switching music players or breaking the bank? Then look no further.

Spotify's new MP3 download service makes it possible to own your playlists in one easy step. By introducing a range of MP3 bundles, we've been able to offer you some of the most competitive prices available - from as little as 60 cents per song.

Spotify Mobile app now available to all! iPod integration was your biggest request, but there are also a lot of Spotify Free users out there who are iPhone and Android phone owners. You asked for the ability to buy your MP3 playlists and sync to your phones. So we've got you covered too...

As of today, everyone can download the Spotify Mobile iPhone & Android apps to wirelessly sync your MP3 playlists in Spotify from your computer to your phone. Fire up your mobile app and see your phone appear in the 'Devices' section of the Spotify sidebar, ready to rock and roll. No cables required! And did we mention it's now possible to wirelessly sync these playlists to your iPod touch?

Now everyone can own their favourite Spotify playlists to take wherever they want. Heading out for a run or off on a trip? Buying the songs you want to hear has never been quicker, easier or more affordable.

All new features will begin being rolled out to all users from today as part of an automatic update. Be sure to give us a spin!

Daniel Ek, CEO & Founder of Spotify, says: "From today, Spotify really is the only music player you'll ever need. Our users don't want to have to switch between music players, but they do want to take their playlists with them wherever they go, on a wider range of devices, more simply and at a price they can afford. Now we've made that possible on one of the world's most popular consumer devices."

Gustav Söderström, Chief Product Officer at Spotify, adds: "Accessing music on your mobile phone is the future, but today that makes up a pretty small percentage of music fans. We want to open up the Spotify experience to as many people as possible, and in a way where they can get exactly the music they want at a great price. Check it out – we really hope you like it."

I am already more or less on the move to Wimp (which more of you may have heard of in a year or so, we'll see...)

wireless sync is such a obvious and sweet addition. why won't apple let me do that?

WSJ article (that's mostly behind a paywall) says Spotify has reached all the agreements it needs to launch in the U.S.—maybe as early as July!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304259304576378121661250848.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

wireless sync on android has gone completely fucked, as far as I can tell.

Friend of mine was having that problem - said he logged out from all devices he was logged in on, then logged back in. Then it worked ok. Probably not as simple as that, probably something you've already tried, might be worth a go if you haven't.

Another Android/Spotify trick when mine went haywire (every time I started Spotify the phone would make the memory card read-only): delete or rename the "spotify2" folder on the card. You lose the offline tracks currently stored, but that's the only drawback.

spotify on iphone4 is a real joy at the mo

make it easier to browse / search / organise playlists though please

like an alphabetical option with the alphabet thing on the side for quick scrolling

More on Spotify US launch, expected in early July:

http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2011/06/the_800lb_goril_1.php

this is great news, here are some more details and a better article:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-spotify-20110618,0,80370.story

Although the stepped-up competition will make things harder for Spotify, the company is still expected to attract millions of users in the U.S. — largely because it gives new users free, unlimited access to any song from a catalog of about 13 million titles for six months. After that, users are capped at 10 hours of listening a month and a maximum of five plays for any single track. The limits are designed to encourage users to pay a monthly fee for the all-you-can-listen buffet.

Most subscription music services in this country allow only a few days or weeks for a free trial period. After that, most charge $5 to $15 a month for on-demand access to music.

But there are other ways consumers can listen to music. Personalized Internet radio services such as Pandora and Slacker have become increasingly popular. Although users can't choose exactly which song or album they get to hear next, they're able to tune in for free. Pandora has 34 million users who have tuned in to its service at least once in the last month. Slacker has more than 5 million active listeners.

"About 80% of all music consumption is radio," said Tim Westergren, a Pandora founder. "Spotify operates in that 20% category."

MOG is going to have a hard time competing against this.

poor mog

http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/017700/017732-FC222.jpg

Happy days, all Kate Bush's albums are now available. Don't know if they're remastered as it says 2011, will have to do some investigating.

I might finally listen to Lionheart, omg.

Once Spotify has its iPhone app up and running in the US I'd expect it to clean up.

http://www.spotify.com/int/coming-to-the-us/

Signed up for an invite already :)

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/07/spotify-buttons-up-deals-with-warner-launches-music-service-in-the-us-.html

Spotify, a popular European music service with ambitions to dominate the U.S. digital music market, said it has buttoned up the necessary licenses with major record labels to launch its service in America on Thursday...

Spotify's offerings will be largely similar to what it has in Europe, namely a free service supported by advertising and two premium tiers that let users listen without ads on computers and on mobile devices.

The free tier will let new users listen to the company's catalog of more than 15 million songs from a computer connection for six months. After that, users will be capped at 10 hours a month and up to five spins for any particular song.

"You can still discover as much music as you want up to your heart’s content" even with the limits, said Ken Parks, Spotify's chief content officer and managing director of the company's North American business.

Subscribers who pay $4.99 a month can access the service without ads or limitations from a computer connection. A $9.99 tier also lets users listen to the service from a smart phone such as an iPhone, Android, Palm or Windows 7 device.

Yep it's official - US launch is today at 8:00am EST. $9.99 tier will also have higher bit rates.

Hopefully they have similar track selection to the UK and an identical policy about using abroad. I've been using the UK version in the US, but would be happy to switch from paying in £s to $s.

Interested. I still can't stand the name or look of it. I suppose I should judge by the catalog but if the experience doesn't appeal to me, I'll bail. Good thing you can try it for free.

can't recommend it enough. it's changed the way people listen to music over here much more than anything like Napster or any P2P thing or whatever and in many different ways that i would never have imagined when it launched.

listening to gold cobra as my inaugural stream

current users can invite ppl, right? that's what CNN claims

xpost -- Read that as 'inaugural steam'

can't recommend it enough. it's changed the way people listen to music over here much more than anything like Napster or any P2P thing or whatever and in many different ways that i would never have imagined when it launched.

― piscesx, Thursday, 14 July 2011 13:24 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

i feel like this is hyperbole tbh

Nope, it's perfectly true.

xxxpost If this is true then if anyone wants an invite drop me a line at billy (dot) dods (at) gmail.com and I'll try to help.

current users can invite ppl, right? that's what CNN claims

Happy to send invites to people if you give me yr email, dunno if my UK invites will work for you though

ha xp

hmm the UK invite didn't get me into the free tier so I created a pay account anyway, lol

was gonna advise you skip the free stage anyway. get it on your iphone and never look back.

It's worth it imo, the free 10 hours just whizzes by

Ed, check your email again.