Imagine there being an online service that provided you with free, legal access to any song that you wanted to hear. Now, imagine that you could compile your favourite tracks into your own album or playlist, and that this playlist could easily be shared with your friends; no more burning CDs. Such a service already exists, it’s called Spotify, and it could change the face of music.
I only got into Spotify a few months ago. A couple of people had mentioned it to me before this, but I was fairly hesitant about getting involved. It was only when a friend over at MTV championed it that I began to take notice. I think my initial hesitancy was more to do with being overburdened with new this and that from the Internet. But now, I love it, and I think you will too, if you give it a try.
What is Spotify?
Spotify is a new music streaming service (think MySpace and Last.fm). You simply download an application on to your desktop from the website, and you’re good to go. You now have instant (there’s no waiting for downloads here my friend) access to a huge catalogue of music, like the iTunes library, except that the service is more streamlined, fast, and easy to use. In my humble opinion, Apple, for once, has been out-simplified.
Ok, but what’s so good about it?
It’s free: Students don’t have money, but yet they want to have the latest music, which presents a problem. Spotify is the answer to that problem. Access to all the tracks is completely free.
Ease of use: Once you’ve downloaded the application, which takes a few minutes, you’re presented with a very clean interface; there’s a home page, a search box, radio, and a play queue. Conduct a search and you’ll be presented with reams of results. (I often find it helps to sort the results by “Popularity”.) You’ll notice that your last few search results are stored in the sidebar.
Clicking on an artist’s name will bring up every song that Spotify has stored for that particular artist, as well as a biography and their top hits. Similarly, clicking on an album name will bring up all the tracks on the album and also an album review. There are also a couple of nifty back and forward navigation buttons that you find on Internet browsers.
Sharing playlists: Here’s the real genius; you can create your own playlists and give them names. It’s literally as easy as dragging-and-dropping an item from the main screen into your playlist. You can then share your playlist with your friends by sending them a link, like you would with a website. Simply, right-click on the playlist name and select Copy HTTP link (or Copy Spotify URI), then paste the link into an email and fire it off to a friend. When your friend clicks on the link, it will download the playlist into their copy of Spotify. Genius.
Access from anywhere: You can access your Spotify account from any computer that has the application installed, and on logging in you will be confronted with all your playlists. How cool is that?
Wide range of music: All music genres are represented, there’s a good amount of old skool music, and you can also often find the latest tracks. So, it’s a great way to listen to albums or tracks that you wouldn’t consider spending your “pasta” money on.
You’re clearly mad for it. Is there anything I won’t like?
Yes, unfortunately there is and this is why many people have not quite thrown out iTunes with their CD stash.
Radio adverts: The odd radio style advert is thrown in now and again, and this does irritate many people. Personally, I barely notice the adverts. Premium subscribers can avoid the adverts, but obviously, unless you’re a student with deep pockets, we recommend sticking to the free version.
Limited library: At the moment there’s a fairly limited amount of songs when compared to iTunes, and often searching for a particular band can bring up weird tribute albums. However, Spotify does add new music everyday.
No Internet connection, no music: This isn’t strictly true, as Spotify does cache some songs when you lose your connection, but generally when you’re not connected you can’t access your music.
Mobile Spotify?
It’s well-known that recently Spotify submitted an app to Apple and there was a general feeling that the app would get rejected. However, whilst writing this article, I checked our FreelanceStudents twitter page and noticed that Spotify had announced that apple have accepted the app. Happy days. Check out a video of the proposed app:
The FreelanceStudents playlist
We’ve decided, after much debate, to release a FreelanceStudents playlist to get you started. Is it any good? Well, we think it’s pretty damn good, but we’re biased. So, let us know what you think, and please feel free to share your playlist!
>> FreelanceStudents Spotify playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/tkmk/playlist/2yXObgZVPXS089J5bz5Olb (or spotify:user:tkmk:playlist:2yXObgZVPXS089J5bz5Olb )
Your thoughts
Let me end by saying that I didn’t get paid to write this, and no, I’m not being held hostage by Spotify. Are you a Spotify user, or have you used Spotify before? Am I misguided in my love for Spotify? Let us know what you think about Spotify in the comments section below.
September 5th, 2009
Andy T
Dangerous amount of time spent searching and listening to old tunes… just clicked on ‘Nate Dogg’… 2 hours later and I’ve done nothing productive with my day!
September 5th, 2009
Admin
Hi Andy T
LOL! I probably should have mentioned how addictive it becomes.