Yesterday I got an invitation to a new online music service called Spotify made by a Swedish company.
The service is still in beta, meaning it is not officially released yet and therefore I had to wait almost three weeks to get an invitation. I really like what I have seen so far, so I decided to write a small review of it.
What is it?
The service itself is an online database of all the music there is (not yet, but that is the aim). You download a client to your computer and then use it to search and play the music directly from the internet. The database is growing all the time as the company signs more deals with the music labels.
It is similar to online music stores such as Amazon.com and iTunes Store, but the difference is that you don’t have to buy the music first, you can just stream it directly from the internet. There are three different accounts; one free one which has ads, one day pass which means you get rid of the ads for a day, and also a premium account for the cost of 99SEK/month (roughly $15/mo).
The Premium account is available straight away, but I had to wait for the free accounts for about three weeks.
How does it work?
It is simple to use, you search for the music you want to listen to and double click the song and it starts playing. You can also create playlists of the music which stays in the sidebar until you delete it.
It is built on P2P technology which means that the users themselves share the music they have listened to with other users meaning you download from several users at the same time to get the song you are listening to right now, and then when you have it you upload it to other users who want to listen to it. I didn’t notice any lag at all having to wait for a song to start playing, something you are used to at services such as Youtube for instance. I didn’t notice any delay doing other stuff either, so it probably doens’t use up that much of your bandwidth. To lessen your bandwidth use the file itself is also saved to your computer so you don’t have to download it again, there it stays until you reach a set limit (that can be changed) when it is removed from your computer to make room for new music you listen to.
So what’s the catch?
The catch is that you need an internet connection to use the service, a computer where you can install the client (which I can’t at work because of limited rights) and you also have to put up with ads unless you want to pay for the premium account. An obvious catch is also that you can’t use the music on a mp3-player which doens’t have an internet connection or burn it to cd’s. If you want this you have to buy the song and download it to your computer just like any other online service.
A revolution?
I have noticed all over the internet that people are very interested in this kind of service. A lot of people ask for invitations from premium members who have a few to share. There are a few really great things about this service. Think about when you go to a party for instance. Before this you probably brought your mp3-player or cd’s, but with Spotify, all you have to do is install the client on your friends computer and log in. Then you have all your music and playlists you want, without moving a single thing with you. You can also share your playlists with your friends easily just by sending a link to their e-mail. They open the link and can listen to the music you picked out for them (they need an spotify account too for this though). For instance I could post a link to a playlist on this blog which you could start listen to straight away. A really great way to share music with your friends.
There are still improvements and lots of features to add to make it even more cool, but I the only thing that is missing for it to be a revolution is to have for instance a portable player or cellphone with the spotify client on it so I can listen to my music wherever I am. Until then, I’m still going to use my huge iTunes library. There are rumours that they are working on an iphone/ipod touch app for spotify, but the question is whether apple will allow it since it is a direct competitor to their ipod/itune store service?
The biggest problem I see with this is what happens the day the service shuts down? All your music and playlists gone. Maybe you have paid thousands for this service for a few years, when suddenly it closes down and you loose the music. Those thousands could have been used for buying music instead, music you could have kept forever if you wanted to.
What happens if one of the music labels decide to stop providing the music? A service like this lives on the fact that they basically have everything available. So don’t delete or throw away you music collection just yet!
Pro’s
+ A huge database of lots of music, just search and play
+ Easy to share playlists with friends or publish on your blog
+ Free for the ad-accounts, reasonably priced for the premium account
+ Easy to bring everything with you to your friends or work
+ No lag noticed playing continously for two days
+ Legal
Con’s
- You need an internet connection
- You need administrator rights to install it, which might be a problem at work
- What happens if they close down? You spend money on a service, not a product
- You can’t transfer the music to a portable playe
- Some artists are not there, such as Pink Floyd, The Beatles and a few others.
