Their about page is useless so here's what Wikipedia says:
Spotify is a Swedish music streaming service offering digitally restricted streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record labels, including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal.
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A six month free trial period is activated upon initial login with a Facebook account, where a user can listen to an unlimited amount of music supported by visual and radio-style advertising. After the trial, Spotify will have a listening limit of ten hours per month.[14] An "Unlimited" subscription removes advertisements and time limits and a "Premium" subscription introduces extra features such as higher bitrate streaming, offline access to music and mobile app access.[15] An active Facebook account is required to use Spotify, unless the user registered for a Spotify-only account before 22 September 2011. Subscriptions are restricted to people with credit/debit cards or PayPal accounts registered in certain countries.[16][17]
so for 20 minutes a day I can listen to any song I want on this poxy music station or for 9.5 hours a day (using my own working hours) I can listen to whatever music I want on my ipod.
Yep, I sure as hell know which option I'll be choosing.
this apposed to youtube?
I dare say youtube would use a shitload more data so at least you could possibly use spotify (what a stupid name) while on a 3g data plan. Watch 20 minutes of youtube videos on your phone every day for a month and see what your data usage is and report back.
I've been using spotify for the past month or so. It's like iTunes music store, but free (with a few ads in the mix). It's a pretty good service if you are at your desk most of the day. It has some pretty cool social features and some clever apps for new tunes. I would recommend.
I too would like to know the difference between Spotify and Grooveshark. I only discovered Grooveshark relatively recently but now it does all my non-TripleJ music streaming. Does Spotify let you pay to download songs and listen to them offline?
grooveshark is actually illegal and getting there arse sued. They dont have any agreements with the record companies as users upload the songs to them.
grooveshark is actually illegal and getting there arse sued. They dont have any agreements with the record companies as users upload the songs to them.
werrlll, I've read they are getting sued, but it's not clear that it's illegal. They certainly don't think so (which of course doesn't matter because it's what the lawyers think) - from TF:
“Google hasn’t specified what it was in their ‘Terms of Service’ that we allegedly violated, but there does appear to be some confusion about whether Grooveshark is a legal service,” Geller first told Digital Music News.
“So let’s set the record straight: there is nothing illegal about what Grooveshark offers to consumers.”
Geller goes on to clarify the difference between a ‘legal’ service and one that is ‘licensed’.
“Laws come from Congress. Licenses come from businesses,” he explains. “Grooveshark is completely legal because we comply with the laws passed by Congress, but we are not licensed by every label (yet).”
According to Geller, Grooveshark is a technology company, and one which operates firmly within the boundaries of the DMCA.
It sounds like they are a "put music on first, license it second" sort of operator, and they're relying on the DMCA to stop them getting really sued (because rights holders just need to submit a takedown notice). It is worth pointing out that this is basically how YouTube survived not being destroyed in its first few years.
I assume that they count music plays and they pay out to the rights holders that are representing them. If you're a rights holder and you're not represented, I'd like to think that they're putting some money away for when you do sign up so that you can be compensated for past plays.
Grooveshark is exactly the sort of company that SHOULD exist if the record industry would catch up to the times.
edit: if time permits later I will try to get in touch w/ GS and find out if they do compensate artists AFTER they've signed up for previous plays because that is I think an interesting question
Trog: they have two payment options with spotify, an unlimted and premium. Basically unlimited is the same as free spotify but with no ads. Premium has 'offline access' that cache's your playlists and a mobile app. There is no limit to playlists but obviously you can't get new tunes or listen to the custom radio thing offline.
I am actually thinking of paying for music now, the service is so good.
Trog: they have two payment options with spotify, an unlimted and premium. Basically unlimited is the same as free spotify but with no ads. Premium has 'offline access' that cache's your playlists and a mobile app. There is no limit to playlists but obviously you can't get new tunes or listen to the custom radio thing offline.
I am actually thinking of paying for music now, the service is so good.
ah ok, that sounds pretty neat then. Is there a limit to how big the cache is?
Yeah i am actually looking at this for my dad. As he doesnt really know how to use itunes and doesnt want to pay per song. This does look awesome for him. The only problem is you need Facebook account :(
Pretty sure you can use as much as you like trog. It has a 'Automatic' setting: Use no more than 10% of free disk space and a 'Use at most' setting where you can set how many GBs you want.
Listening to Spotify now...... I'm not a downloader of music and more of a net radio listener, I may even consider paying for this service. Now if we had a TV streaming service like this I'd definitely pay for it.
Just playing around with Spotify, it has apps in its interface. Just put on the JJJ app, it lets you just play the hottest 100s since 1993.....very cool. Definitely gonna sign up once my month free trial ends :)
I have all the songs on my SGS2 showing up in the PC client and on the Android App, and its syncing all the songs I choose for offline play, just synced last years hotest 100 no problems at all. Itunes is far less intuitive than this app.
I meant the existing songs I have on my iPhone. I have about 25GB of music on there currently, and Spotify (on the phone) can't see any of it. Actually, neither can the desktop client, it can only see what's in iTunes on my desktop.
Why is this link so closely to Facebook? Is facebook going to to buy them?
so if you distribute the songs you hear by recording them using a stream ripper, they can track your ass down and rape you for all your hard earned loots.
Well i love it and now purchased premium love it how i can go to shazam and look at what my mates have tagged and click the search in spotify function :)
Interface is really quite cool, I like the JJJ plugin, but yeah, it's missing quite a bit of non mainstream stuff as you'd expect. Last few Thrice albums and some others at least.
Im using iphone and ipad app and i can see all my playlist on my phone through itunes... and its not freeezing either. and this is working on my computer as well.
Just gave it a go and do not like how tightly integrated with Facebook it is, I guess they are angling for Facebook to buy them out in the future. The automatic posting to time line is annoying but is easily disabled (in the FB app settings), a bit of music missing from it but I guess this will improve as it goes on.
I think the Spotify interface is damn awesome though, very nicely structured and easy to find and play music with the "Top 100" lists a nice addition.
There is an option in spotify to stop it posting also. I am using this (actually bought a subscription as I listen to a heap of music) on my iPad, iPhone, PC, WDTV with no issues at all and all playlists etc are sync'd. I wish they did a film clip version.
Other thing I have been impressed with is the way it streams when you click on a song almost instantly and on the train where I have heaps of dead zones when browsing the net on my iPad this seems to be able to continue to stream which is winning.
I've been using Spotify for ages here in ze UK, it's awesome.
Also checked out Grooveshark a while back, but I find Spotify's application based interface to be better, plus you can share playlists and songs between friends, etc. A musically minded mate of mine regularly sends me new playlists to checkout.
I used the free for ages, and just put up with the ads, recently i got the Unlimited to cull the ads, it's cheap and worth it IMO. I can get and stream any music I want in a few clicks.
I use it mostly for music listening whilst working on my laptop or desktop in various locations, also I find it really useful for finding and keeping track of random odd songs I like.
Is there any way of searching the list of songs they have BEFORE I install the software? I don't want to install it just to find out there's nothing I like on there.
So I am pretty happy with this, but it's not working as I had hoped with the syncing. Was hoping you could sync tracks you've saved for offline play on your computer to your iPod or mobile phone, but it will only sync local files :(
Great for around the house. I grabbed the spotify controller for android, so my phone works as a remote control.
And im finally back to legally obtaining music. First time since 1997
Just checking this out, a few days in and I'm loving it. I'd say I'll be grabbing a premium subscription. $12 is less than an album a month so not really that much. How many people still using it or alternatives? JJJ app indeed rocks!
Yeah, I'm still using it, I got a premium subscription for the same reason. Turns out cheaper than what I would otherwise pay if I was buying music from itunes and I end up listening to a lot of different music I might not otherwise listen to just cos its there and I can.
Getting a little annoyed with all the music Spotify *doesn't* have.
It's also generally about three to four weeks before many new chart releases get added to the Spotify library :(
I haven't really found anything it doesn't have that I've wanted to listen to besides the Beatles, and yeah, I just use my local music folder for that. Haven't really had problems with the new stuff I've looked for either, the new Offspring album was there the day it came out, same as the new Temper Trap album. So yeah, I guess its not an issue thats really affecting the music I want to listen to, so I'm happy!
I thought the Chili peppers were missing at first, but thats just cos I was spelling it wrong.
Some tracks I've just tried to find on Spotify that it doesn't have:
Def Leppard - Action (or anything by them really)
Green Day - Insomniac (album)
AC/DC - Thunderstruck. In fact, anything by AC/DC.
Almost everything by either Savage Garden or Darren Hayes.
Ola Svensson's "Natalie", which has been certified platinum and went to #1 on the Swedish charts (as did 7 of his other songs, none of them available on Spotify).
This, which was massive in South Africa and top four in the 2010 Eurovision by another duo:
Some tracks I've just tried to find on Spotify that it doesn't have: Def Leppard - Action (or anything by them really) Green Day - Insomniac (album) AC/DC - Thunderstruck. In fact, anything by AC/DC. Almost everything by either Savage Garden or Darren Hayes. Ola Svensson's "Natalie", which has been certified platinum and went to #1 on the Swedish charts (as did 7 of his other songs, none of them available on Spotify). This, which was massive in South Africa and top four in the 2010 Eurovision by another duo:
After a long-running dispute with Universal Music, the English rock band takes advantage of a law that protects cover versions, by covering its own songs.
Some musicians refuse to come to terms with the terms that digital downloads offer. A few, such as Garth Brooks and AC/DC, have refused to allow their music on iTunes. Def Leppard, the English rock band that some people rather like and others fail to comprehend, is another that just isn't amused by the digital age. Now the band has leaped on a new, radical strategy to get a better deal for its music: it's covering its own songs and releasing them themselves.
Some frequently requested artists that are not in Spotify include Metallica, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. I noticed Alanis Morrisette was absent other than her overplayed classics when searching for homeboss. Its amusing that some albums are those 3 in 1 master packages and some artists hits are from various artists cd's such as 'bbq hits for dad'. They must charge less for royalties?!?!?!
Yeah, but, it took aaaaaaaaaaages for the Beatles to come on iTunes as well, and Led Zeppelin are notoriously tight-assed with the rights to their stuff too. Metallica's views on digital distribution have been made pretty well known in the past also.
I've had a membership now for a couple of months, which is what, $20 or so, but I've listened to heeeeeeeeeeeeeaps more music than $20 would have got me if I was buying it from itunes. So it works for me
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