Ever since Last.fm decided to join the dark side, I’ve been on the lookout for another music-streaming service. Enter Spotify:
Register (free), download/install some software, and you’re good to go. Search for artists, by genre or decade and you’ll get instant results paired with related music. Click a track and it will start playing — instantly.
Not accessible outside Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain for now, but some smart people figured out a way around that. No Frank Zappa to be found, though I did stumble upon an entire Ensemble Modern (Plays Frank Zappa) album, as well as the complete Classic Interviews.
Awesomeness all around! So much so that, having only played around with it for half an hour, I’m starting to wonder where the catch is…
I’ve found spotify to be really brilliant for music discovery and that’s mainly thanks to the allmusic reviews, biographies along with the many artist recommendations they make.
Sadly they used to have a large selection of Frank Zappa albums but they were removed when they made updates to properly follow the terms of their licensing deals see: http://www.spotify.com/blog/archives/2009/01/28/some-important-changes-to-the-spotify-music-catalogue/ here’s hoping that’s fixed at some point in the future.
Did you try Grooveshark (http://listen.grooveshark.com/). There is some Zappa, it’s free and no software to download.
[quote comment=”6893″]Did you try Grooveshark (http://listen.grooveshark.com/). There is some Zappa, it’s free and no software to download.[/quote]
Yeah I had a look at grooveshark, but its interface is rather clunky in comparison to Spotify’s application — which is why I don’t mind having to download some software. Plus, as Stuart points out, it features reviews, biographies and recommendations which Grooveshark doesn’t, from the looks of it.
Welcome to the modern world :-). No Zappa (did you really expect to find any?) but a lot of Zappa related stuff.
The Sandy Hurvitz album, Jean Luc Ponty and Wild Man Fischer, Sugar Cane Harris, Don Preston et. Al.
King Kong on Mandolins!
Those links were meant to go straight to Spotify (they usually do) but they get diverted to KUR. They are….
spotify:album:35RtSV5vwTe2ndQ26sWo8z
and
spotify:track:0zOSsKFjHcd832cLt4JwmQ
Hey Duncan (or anybody for that matter!): do you know of any “permanent” hack to bypass the IP-check that Spotify does on login? Been doing some reading and it appears you’re refused access after 14 days if you’re not within any of the supported countries 🙁
The 14 day limit is to allow for using Spotify while on holiday/traveling from your original registered location. It’s nothing personal 😉
Set up another account?
http://www.docoja.com/blue/ ?
Rixstep has had several articles about Spotify but I cannot find anything relevant.
An alternative browser based streamer is WE7.com but you get an ad before each track.
The Hurvitz album’s link should be:
spotify:album:2WiKKv9hgkt9cNVn6qmC2a
:-/
Call me a tad paranoid, Barry, but nothing in this world is really “free”. I also find it quite interesting that Spotify won’t come right out and say why it is not available in Canada (Pandora was very much similar in their approach to banning Canada from their service). I suggest you read the fine print very closely before you jump aboard their bandwagon wholeheartedly.
As with Last.fm, I agree, there is something fishy when listeners from some smaller countries (like Canada) have to subscribe, while other listeners from larger countries (Germany, USA) do not.
I know when another service as good as Last.fm presents itself, I’ll be switching…
My beef with last.fm: tens of thousands of us, outside the USA, UK and Germany have been scrobbling our tracks, thereby basically providing a goldmine of musical demographical information to them. I was okay with that, as long as I got to at least listen to my own “radio”. Them disallowing me to listen to my own (scrobbled!) tracks from their services was the proverbial bridge too far. These people expect me to expose to them my musical listening patterns (absolutely free), and then they want me to pay for the privilege of listening to my own music? Bollocks to that…
It is licensing agreements with the record companies that limit the spread of Spotify (and everyone else). They are opening up in the US later this year. Latest news suggests that record companies are moving in ( http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/04/spotify-closing-new-financing-at-e200-million-valuation-music-labels-already-shareholders/ ). Where all this will leave retail systems like iTunes remains to be seen.
[quote comment=”6908″]It is licensing agreements with the record companies that limit the spread of Spotify (and everyone else). They are opening up in the US later this year. Latest news suggests that record companies are moving in ( http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/04/spotify-closing-new-financing-at-e200-million-valuation-music-labels-already-shareholders/ ). Where all this will leave retail systems like iTunes remains to be seen.[/quote]
Spotify seems mighty secretive. From what I’ve read, their major shareholders are the large record labels. It makes one wonder what a user is going to be giving up to these “shareholders” for the privilege of streaming by demand? Tracking software imbedded in the very software required to use Spotify? It’s for this very same reason I do not do business with iTunes – I don’t like secret extras included when I buy my music. Or, indeed, have we reached the point now where all music is just licensed, and tracking software makes certain we don’t share it with anyone, ever?