I’m not a fanatical music lover I have to say, I listen to it and I do like it but I’m not an addict like some, however I do use iTunes, have a couple of ipods and buy probably 20/30 albums per year.
That was up until Wednesday when Shak fired me a link over for a beta test of Spotify, He had mentioned it a while back when were skiving in some far flung place so was aware it was being developed but didn’t realise it was as big as deal as it is, it’s a start up involving some known guys such as the ever smiling ex CJ UK front man Jonathan Forster and a whole host of Swedish ex Tradedoubler and inter web knowledgeable guys with way too many vowels in their names.
I installed it and fired it up, looked a bit like iTunes, but much less cluttered, I clicked the first album listed there and it just started playing instantly.. so I skipped it ahead by dragging the timeline bar and it let go, it just instantly (again) started playing from there.. all good so far.
I then searched for the first artist that came to mind .. Queen.. don’t ask why.. I am not big fan, and there were loads of tracks listed, I clicked the first one and it started to play (yes instantly.. noticing a pattern yet !?)
Just looking at the HMV top ten, seven of the brand new albums are in Spotify, the main exception was Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul but other Oasis albums are on Spotify so I’d guess this one will be shortly too.
Basically Spotify is like having a share folder on your computer to EMI, UMG, Sony BMG, WMG, etc. record companies, it’s got all the music you could ever want to listen to, even foreign music, there are millions of tracks that you can stream all day long as much as you want however many times you want to all for free.
The free version is advertising supported so every 30/60 minutes I think there’s a brief audio advert but it’s not intrusive and only lasts maybe 20/30 seconds, the paid ad free version is a jaw dropping £9.99 per month.. for potentially 720 hours of listening to almost any tracks you want to.
So for just over the price of one iTunes album per month you can listen to what you want, You can drag and drop tracks to create play-lists of anything you wish to so it’s like radio but specifically what albums and tracks you want to listen to in the order you want to.
I really can not see how iTunes, as good as it is, can compete with a one off subscription service like this unless it too modifies it’s income model, the only plus factor is that with iTunes you can burn the music where as Spotify is streamed.
The Spotify team have pulled together an amazing product, it’s going to explode across the web like an ebola outbreak but in a fun way, the management team have strong affiliate roots so I trust we’ll see it marketed down the channel at some point so hopefully we can all get involved, help it grow and share in the billions these guys are going to bank.
Sign up now here www.Spotify.com you can only buy it at present but for £9.99 it’s a bargain
Edit… I’d like to recommend Kieron’s site www.ShareMyPlayLists.com for Spotify playlists, I just pulled 36 of the UK top 40 tracks off by copying one link into Spotify so it’s a huge time saver!
October 13th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Yeah..I bought spotify as soon as i saw the news that it was availiable. It has really topped my expectations.. ^^
better than i could ever imagine.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I’ve just installed and given it a go. I’m totally stumped at how fast it works, it really does feel like all the tunes are actually saved on your computer they load that fast!
November 1st, 2008 at 12:13 am
You can get invited to the free version.
November 3rd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I shelled out on the premium version last week, and it wasn’t even because the ads were annoying (they really aren’t you hardly notice them IMO) on the free version but more so because it’s just so awesome to be able to listen to virtually anything you want when you want to so I feel that’s worth shelling out £9.99 per month just to say thanks to the guys who developed it and fund future development
Spotify seriously ROCKS !!
December 4th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
[...] codes made easyTime To Get Into The Mac ClosetPromotions.co.uk - Discount Vouchers How It Should BeSpotify - iTunes Should Be Afraid - VERY AFRAID !Bad Agency Experiences [...]
December 15th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I fully agree: iTunes has to be very afraid. Used it as a tool to organize my albums that I bought in the past 23 years, but since I signed up to Premium 3 weeks ago my harddrive remains to be turned off. Spotify is simply better!!!
December 18th, 2008 at 12:10 am
[...] you haven’t heard of Spotify then you can read about it on Shanes Blog or on David Naylors to get an [...]
December 30th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
[...] Shanes overview [...]
January 4th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Can I get an invite, if someone happens to have a spare?
vitalik.spam [a] gmail.com
Thanks!
January 5th, 2009 at 4:36 am
you sold me! translation: any chance of an invite?
January 5th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Invites sent.. I’ve few more going spare so don’t be shy
January 5th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Could I get an invite as well please?
Thanks!
January 5th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
i’d really love to get an invite too ^^
cheers!
January 8th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
You got any invites left? Would really appreciate if you could send me one.
[fredrik_langkilde@hotmail.com]
Thanks!
January 8th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
sorted… plenty left
January 8th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
You got any invite for me as well?
frederic.lamoulie@gmail.com
Thanks in advance!
Fred
January 8th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
done.. keep em coming.. I just love spotify.. I’ll end up stood on a box at hyde park with a megaphone before long.. spread the joy !
January 8th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
hi
Could I get an invite as well?
Thanks for sharing
January 8th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
done … enjoy … there’s no going back to itunes after
January 9th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Hi!
I sure would love an invite to.
erik.brattkull [a] gmail.com
Thanks.
/Erik
January 9th, 2009 at 9:16 am
This sounds great! I’d love an invite!
[jonathan_aguero@hotmail.com]
January 12th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Shane - thank you so much for the invite - Spotify is everything you said and more - totally awesome! The response is incredible - so much faster than Napster, and HUGE amount of music. Love the way you can just listen to a favourite artist for hours, and pick whichever tracks you fancy. I LOVE IT!!!
Chris
February 17th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I agree with your comments, since they took the invitation shackles off Spotify it has spread like wild fire through the office and beyond. It’s funny to see people use it, they normally say “yeh, yeh” expecting it to be yet another “You must try” web site, but as soon as they start the client they’re hooked; I’ve seen it time and time again.
Spotify is a revolution, it shows how the music delivery model SHOULD be done; I’m starting to sound like a Spotify evangelist!
February 28th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
iTunes killer? Not a chance. You cannot out the music on an iPod, nor burn it, nor play it wirelessly on a stereo in another room. It is just a very nice, but static juke box. In fact, it will probably help iTunes by letting people listen to music before deciding to buy it.
February 28th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Hi John, fair point on the can’t burn it or play it on an ipod, but you can play it wirelessly, I have a mac and use a program called Airfoil which costs $25 which plays onto some nice JBL speakers via apple’s airport, .. Airfoil works on mac and PC, you can even use the “airfoil speakers” software to send audio from one computer to another one in the house. you can see more here http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/
Also it’s early days yet, perhaps we’ll see Spotify enter the download arena for burning and playing offline .. who knows.. we are only at the beginning of it’s life so much could change over the next couple of years
March 1st, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Thanks about rogueamoeba. I have been listening to Spotify for a day or so now, but I remain sceptical — needs to be more mobile.
March 1st, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Agreed, check this out : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oNXBCmHtko won’t be too long hopefully until it’s more accessible
March 12th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Hey, I´ve read a lot about spotify and it seems amazing
I wanna buy it but I´d like to give it a try first… Could anyone send me an invite for the trial version?
Thanks :)))
March 12th, 2009 at 9:35 am
thank you shane for your invite….spotify is awesome !!!!!!!!!! XD
March 12th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Awesome indeed Marc, Invite sent Thomas.. enjoy!
April 12th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
I thing Spotify is great. Myspace and Last FM have been good bridges for the music industry and the internet but Spotify has taken it to the next level being incredibly simple in use and offering a great channel for artists to promote to potentially thousands.
The way in which they’ve integrated the purchasing of music is also great. I personally don’t see it as a threat to iTunes. I believe the purchasing and listening are two very different channels. I listen to new music on Spotify, if i like the new music it’s introduced me to I will go and buy it so I can put it on my iPod and add it to my personal collection.
Obviously the Spotify iPhone app will have more of an impact on iTunes but I still think they have their own USPs and will get along ok for a while!
June 26th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
I been using for a while, and its totally replaced iTunes except for putting songs on my iPod.
I should be getting premium soon!
July 23rd, 2009 at 7:09 am
Spotify is the most surprising application to launch ever in my opinion. To have access to any music I want at the click of a button and with only a few ads from time to time is amazing. Will reduce the number of illegal file torrents for sure. iTunes without the cost. Not as good as being able to carry it on my iPod traveling but perfect for working all day to music.
September 14th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
I bet iTunes are p00 ing themselves.
Recently I got forced to choose what internet things I like the most recently, and spotify was definitely one of them, http://www.dontdoitdan.co.uk/2009/09/shag-marry-kill-in-the-online-world/
Didn’t turn out as Google in the end!
Dan Course
dontdoitdan.com