I sent some info to someone who made this post on a forum
"Ritchie got me onto this by sending me a link. I installed it last night thinking it would be some average music service, its not its brilliant.
This is a new service that is totally free and legal, funded by the odd advert that plays between songs every 30 mins or so and which only last a few seconds. You don't download the songs it streams them but in very high quality and instantly and it allows you to create playlists simply by right clicking or dragging a song.
You can also send links to people that also have the software or create collabrative lists, could be quite useful here.
Anyhow here's the link http://www.spotify.com/en/ "
It'll not work in the USofA and in certain other countries you need an invite ... however in the UK at the moment you can download it without an invitation.
It is currently Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:02 am
spotify [First Post]
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spotify [First Post]
by ritchie » Tue Dec 09, 2008 4:21 pm
- ritchie
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by NormanD » Fri Jan 16, 2009 4:15 pm
Article in The Guardian today:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/ja ... ic-spotify
Welcome to nirvana
Imagine iTunes, but free. Chris Salmon finds the stream of his dreams
* Chris Salmon
* The Guardian, Friday 16 January 2009
This could well be the year when the wider public decides that online streaming is the best way to consume music. After all, why spend time and money on CDs or downloads, when you can instantly stream that same music for free via your computer or, increasingly, your mobile phone? And if one service is going to provide that tipping point, it's www.Spotify.com
Their application looks and works much like iTunes. The big difference is that Spotify gives you instant, legal access to millions of tracks without any charge. With all the big labels signed up, there's an astonishing range of albums available to hear in full; be it David Bowie's Hunky Dory, Nirvana's Nevermind, Tricky's Maxinquaye or every one of the UK's Top 10 bestselling albums of 2008. The Swedish boffins behind the site have even eradicated buffering; everything plays immediately. Before long, you'll find yourself using Spotify to listen to albums you own on CD, just because it's much easier.
What's the catch? Well, the free version of Spotify is supported by advertising, but you'll only hear one brief ad every 20-25 minutes (they all seem to be for government services at the moment). If these prove too annoying, you have the option of paying £10 a month, or £100 a year, to become a premium member and lose the ads. The only obstacle is that you need an invite to sign up for Spotify's free service. But, handily, it is currently offering a temporary registration link for UK users at tinyurl.com/spotifylink. We are among the first places to have access to the service; the web is full of postings from aggrieved American bloggers desperate to access it.
Some major acts have seemingly refused to have their material added: there is nothing on Spotify by the Beatles or Pink Floyd, and only a handful of tracks by Oasis and the Arctic Monkeys. But they're in the minority. Many acts have made available their entire back catalogues, including Madonna, U2, Coldplay, Eminem, Green Day and Stevie Wonder (Spotify hosts well over 1,000 Stevie tracks).
If you find yourself in need of inspiration, you can browse charts of the most popular tracks and artists in all Spotify-served countries (Estonia loves metal and the KLF). Alternatively, head to spotifyfriends.com, where you can check out other users' playlists and click to hear them in your player. Or simply click on Radio within Spotify, select a decade and genre and let it pick the tunes. However you choose to use the service, prepare to be impressed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/ja ... ic-spotify
Welcome to nirvana
Imagine iTunes, but free. Chris Salmon finds the stream of his dreams
* Chris Salmon
* The Guardian, Friday 16 January 2009
This could well be the year when the wider public decides that online streaming is the best way to consume music. After all, why spend time and money on CDs or downloads, when you can instantly stream that same music for free via your computer or, increasingly, your mobile phone? And if one service is going to provide that tipping point, it's www.Spotify.com
Their application looks and works much like iTunes. The big difference is that Spotify gives you instant, legal access to millions of tracks without any charge. With all the big labels signed up, there's an astonishing range of albums available to hear in full; be it David Bowie's Hunky Dory, Nirvana's Nevermind, Tricky's Maxinquaye or every one of the UK's Top 10 bestselling albums of 2008. The Swedish boffins behind the site have even eradicated buffering; everything plays immediately. Before long, you'll find yourself using Spotify to listen to albums you own on CD, just because it's much easier.
What's the catch? Well, the free version of Spotify is supported by advertising, but you'll only hear one brief ad every 20-25 minutes (they all seem to be for government services at the moment). If these prove too annoying, you have the option of paying £10 a month, or £100 a year, to become a premium member and lose the ads. The only obstacle is that you need an invite to sign up for Spotify's free service. But, handily, it is currently offering a temporary registration link for UK users at tinyurl.com/spotifylink. We are among the first places to have access to the service; the web is full of postings from aggrieved American bloggers desperate to access it.
Some major acts have seemingly refused to have their material added: there is nothing on Spotify by the Beatles or Pink Floyd, and only a handful of tracks by Oasis and the Arctic Monkeys. But they're in the minority. Many acts have made available their entire back catalogues, including Madonna, U2, Coldplay, Eminem, Green Day and Stevie Wonder (Spotify hosts well over 1,000 Stevie tracks).
If you find yourself in need of inspiration, you can browse charts of the most popular tracks and artists in all Spotify-served countries (Estonia loves metal and the KLF). Alternatively, head to spotifyfriends.com, where you can check out other users' playlists and click to hear them in your player. Or simply click on Radio within Spotify, select a decade and genre and let it pick the tunes. However you choose to use the service, prepare to be impressed.
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by Charlie » Fri Jan 16, 2009 6:50 pm
As usual with new sites, I can't figure out what to do
I registered, started a playlist and then what? How do I know what is in its database? I tried adding a couple of tracks to a playlist hopefully called 1981 - Where's Captain Kirk by Spizz Energi and It's Obvious by the Au Pairs
nothing, it didn't find anything and suggested I try an existing playlist so I tried Best of the 80s and found nothing, literally nothing, not a sound, not a name
I registered, started a playlist and then what? How do I know what is in its database? I tried adding a couple of tracks to a playlist hopefully called 1981 - Where's Captain Kirk by Spizz Energi and It's Obvious by the Au Pairs
nothing, it didn't find anything and suggested I try an existing playlist so I tried Best of the 80s and found nothing, literally nothing, not a sound, not a name
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by Charlie » Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:49 pm
still have not got to grips with how to do this, but there are problems in any case
from the Guardian, 11 Feb 2009
Spotify opens doors to UK – as record industry slams them shut
Popular online music service now available to British users, but with thousands fewer tracks
* Bobbie Johnson and Charles Arthur
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 February 2009 17.51 GMT
* Article history
A new online music service that has thrown open its virtual doors with a claim to be "the way we want to consume music in the future", has swiftly fallen foul of the music industry's licensing practices.
Spotify, created by two Swedish entrepreneurs, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, has already attracted tens of thousands of users who spread private invitations to their friends after hearing about the site through internet chat. This week the company peeled off the "private" label to allow anyone in the UK to sign up.
However, Spotify has been forced to remove thousands of tracks in a row over licensing. This has infuriated users and the software industry, which accused record and film companies of lobbying government instead of adapting to the 21st century.
An internet radio service where users choose tracks, or let the company choose them, Spotify is being tipped as the leader of a new generation of innovative online music programs. Based in London and Stockholm, it opened up its service here after being "bowled over" by the level of interest.
Rather than buying music, users can fill playlists with songs of their choosing or create "collaborative" playlists which have their own web address and so can be passed around and added to by others.
Users can pick from a huge catalogue of songs, listen to them for free over the internet and, like commercial radio, hear a few adverts along the way. The service has deals with top labels around Europe, and claims to be doubling in size every few weeks. Dedicated users can also choose to buy a day's worth of ad-free access for 99p, or become a premium subscriber – where there are no adverts at all – for £10 a month.
But last month the Spotify catalogue shrank overnight by thousands of songs. The site's global community manager, Andres Sehr, wrote a blog post to say this was required by the record labels, which have strict rules about what can be played where.
"These restrictions are a legacy from when most music was sold on tapes and CDs and they have continued over into streaming music," Sehr said, adding, "our hope is that one day restrictions like this will disappear for good."
The cuts brought howls of dismay from users, while yesterday John Lovelock, chief executive of the Federation Against Software Theft and Investors in Software (FAS IiS), said: "Over the past decade the software industry has evolved to become more user-focused and more adaptable to changing market conditions." By contrast, he said, the entertainment industry had been pushing for more restrictions instead of adapting. "The entertainment sector appear to have lobbied the government to consider establishing a 'pirates tax' on all of us, as well as yet another quango to oversee it, meaning more cost and more hassle. It's time these industries came up to speed in the modern market and changed their business models to encourage their customers to use the internet for their purchasing."
Spotify does not yet offer links to let people buy tracks. That could come. For now, the co-founders are putting their own money into the company. "We had the idea in 2002, but realised that the timing might not be right so we waited until 2006," Ek said. "We're adding tens of thousands of users every day now, so it's growing quickly."
The company was founded in 2006 by Ek and Lorentzon, two established internet entrepreneurs who claim to have pumped in more than €8m (£7m) themselves. Despite the rocky economy, it already has more than 60 employees and received a €15m injection from two Scandinavian investment companies last year.
"We're not in it for the money," Ek said. "We do believe there's a very good business opportunity underlying here, but we did this because this is the way we want to consume music in the future."
Digital music is dominated by Apple, which uses its iTunes store as a way to convince people to buy iPods. But streaming services such as Last.fm in London, bought by the American media conglomerate CBS for $280m (£190m) in 2007, are growing in popularity. Last.fm's co-founder, Martin Stiksel, said: "There's definitely not such a consolidation as there was in online video streaming, where YouTube basically blew everyone away. There's still all these different business models out there … the jury's still out on the business of online music that's not connected with hardware."
One of Spotify's appeals is that it makes instantly listening to music easier than downloading it illegally. Online piracy and illegal filesharing has been a thorn in the side of the music business since the original Napster blew the industry apart in 1999. Many in the record industry still believe the majority of music that people acquire online comes via pirate networks.
Other, unlicensed services have generated buzz – but ultimately failed to blossom under intense legal pressure. Muxtape, an online mixtape creator from New York, was an underground hit last year but was forced to close after problems with the record labels it was negotiating with.
Although Spotify users cannot keep the tracks they hear, there are no restrictions on how many times they can listen to one track – meaning those who listen on their computer have less of an incentive to download illegally. In the future, the company hopes to provide a service that works on mobile phones, car stereos and even iPods.
"The ones we want to steal users from are the piracy services, that's our biggest competitor," said Ek. "This idea could be applied to other media as well. Who knows, in the future, Spotify could be something that works for movies, games or a lot of different things."
from the Guardian, 11 Feb 2009
Spotify opens doors to UK – as record industry slams them shut
Popular online music service now available to British users, but with thousands fewer tracks
* Bobbie Johnson and Charles Arthur
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 February 2009 17.51 GMT
* Article history
A new online music service that has thrown open its virtual doors with a claim to be "the way we want to consume music in the future", has swiftly fallen foul of the music industry's licensing practices.
Spotify, created by two Swedish entrepreneurs, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, has already attracted tens of thousands of users who spread private invitations to their friends after hearing about the site through internet chat. This week the company peeled off the "private" label to allow anyone in the UK to sign up.
However, Spotify has been forced to remove thousands of tracks in a row over licensing. This has infuriated users and the software industry, which accused record and film companies of lobbying government instead of adapting to the 21st century.
An internet radio service where users choose tracks, or let the company choose them, Spotify is being tipped as the leader of a new generation of innovative online music programs. Based in London and Stockholm, it opened up its service here after being "bowled over" by the level of interest.
Rather than buying music, users can fill playlists with songs of their choosing or create "collaborative" playlists which have their own web address and so can be passed around and added to by others.
Users can pick from a huge catalogue of songs, listen to them for free over the internet and, like commercial radio, hear a few adverts along the way. The service has deals with top labels around Europe, and claims to be doubling in size every few weeks. Dedicated users can also choose to buy a day's worth of ad-free access for 99p, or become a premium subscriber – where there are no adverts at all – for £10 a month.
But last month the Spotify catalogue shrank overnight by thousands of songs. The site's global community manager, Andres Sehr, wrote a blog post to say this was required by the record labels, which have strict rules about what can be played where.
"These restrictions are a legacy from when most music was sold on tapes and CDs and they have continued over into streaming music," Sehr said, adding, "our hope is that one day restrictions like this will disappear for good."
The cuts brought howls of dismay from users, while yesterday John Lovelock, chief executive of the Federation Against Software Theft and Investors in Software (FAS IiS), said: "Over the past decade the software industry has evolved to become more user-focused and more adaptable to changing market conditions." By contrast, he said, the entertainment industry had been pushing for more restrictions instead of adapting. "The entertainment sector appear to have lobbied the government to consider establishing a 'pirates tax' on all of us, as well as yet another quango to oversee it, meaning more cost and more hassle. It's time these industries came up to speed in the modern market and changed their business models to encourage their customers to use the internet for their purchasing."
Spotify does not yet offer links to let people buy tracks. That could come. For now, the co-founders are putting their own money into the company. "We had the idea in 2002, but realised that the timing might not be right so we waited until 2006," Ek said. "We're adding tens of thousands of users every day now, so it's growing quickly."
The company was founded in 2006 by Ek and Lorentzon, two established internet entrepreneurs who claim to have pumped in more than €8m (£7m) themselves. Despite the rocky economy, it already has more than 60 employees and received a €15m injection from two Scandinavian investment companies last year.
"We're not in it for the money," Ek said. "We do believe there's a very good business opportunity underlying here, but we did this because this is the way we want to consume music in the future."
Digital music is dominated by Apple, which uses its iTunes store as a way to convince people to buy iPods. But streaming services such as Last.fm in London, bought by the American media conglomerate CBS for $280m (£190m) in 2007, are growing in popularity. Last.fm's co-founder, Martin Stiksel, said: "There's definitely not such a consolidation as there was in online video streaming, where YouTube basically blew everyone away. There's still all these different business models out there … the jury's still out on the business of online music that's not connected with hardware."
One of Spotify's appeals is that it makes instantly listening to music easier than downloading it illegally. Online piracy and illegal filesharing has been a thorn in the side of the music business since the original Napster blew the industry apart in 1999. Many in the record industry still believe the majority of music that people acquire online comes via pirate networks.
Other, unlicensed services have generated buzz – but ultimately failed to blossom under intense legal pressure. Muxtape, an online mixtape creator from New York, was an underground hit last year but was forced to close after problems with the record labels it was negotiating with.
Although Spotify users cannot keep the tracks they hear, there are no restrictions on how many times they can listen to one track – meaning those who listen on their computer have less of an incentive to download illegally. In the future, the company hopes to provide a service that works on mobile phones, car stereos and even iPods.
"The ones we want to steal users from are the piracy services, that's our biggest competitor," said Ek. "This idea could be applied to other media as well. Who knows, in the future, Spotify could be something that works for movies, games or a lot of different things."
- Charlie
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by Alan » Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:32 pm
Depleted maybe but still some gems to be heard
such as this Leadbelly track http://open.spotify.com/track/5rerimz0RW2Royhow3g0sR (if you have Spotify already)
otherwise try this link to get you there http://tinyurl.com/spotifylink
such as this Leadbelly track http://open.spotify.com/track/5rerimz0RW2Royhow3g0sR (if you have Spotify already)
otherwise try this link to get you there http://tinyurl.com/spotifylink
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by Hugh Weldon » Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:57 pm
Thanks for the link Alan. No probs downloading - it's great, not everything you might want is there, but it's pretty comprehensive. I had a lot of fun just thinking of things, finding them, playing them, and letting one thing lead to another. Also much easier and quicker than youtubing when you want to see if you can find a song somebody has mentioned on the forum - found and enjoyed quite a few of the things mentioned on the playing card thread for example.
Another piece about it in today's Observer music mag by Miranda Sawyer (if you can spot it among the massive U2 promotions).
So maybe it is the next big internet thing.
Now do I need to discover twitter??
Another piece about it in today's Observer music mag by Miranda Sawyer (if you can spot it among the massive U2 promotions).
So maybe it is the next big internet thing.
Now do I need to discover twitter??
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- Location: London N11
by NormanD » Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:30 am
The latest Lefsetz Letter contains the following sentence:
"I came home and fired up Spotify and listened to...."
Which is a very good industry endorsement. Soon, I expect him to write a lengthy piece comparing the rise of this with the decline of that. If Lefsetz finds, on Spotify, some 70s country rock obscurity from his youth then he will be full of love and praise. Unless it goes wrong on him, of course.
"I came home and fired up Spotify and listened to...."
Which is a very good industry endorsement. Soon, I expect him to write a lengthy piece comparing the rise of this with the decline of that. If Lefsetz finds, on Spotify, some 70s country rock obscurity from his youth then he will be full of love and praise. Unless it goes wrong on him, of course.
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by Neil Foxlee » Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:20 pm
It's got the Spirit of Memphis on there, INCLUDING Lord Jesus! Now how good is that!!!
Shame about the name, though...
Shame about the name, though...
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by Neil Foxlee » Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:38 pm
Charlie, try the Help page
https://www.spotify.com/en/help/faq/
https://www.spotify.com/en/help/faq/
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by pirkko » Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:13 am
NormanD wrote:The latest Lefsetz Letter contains the following sentence:
"I came home and fired up Spotify and listened to...."
Which is a very good industry endorsement. Soon, I expect him to write a lengthy piece comparing the rise of this with the decline of that. If Lefsetz finds, on Spotify, some 70s country rock obscurity from his youth then he will be full of love and praise. Unless it goes wrong on him, of course.
Spotify is not available for Russia except as a paid service, if I understood correctly their rather uninformative website, so no chance to evaluate it. But in any case, who needs another mp3 service - the real thing would be somehow to figure out how to make also lossless downloading a legal and easy option.
I agree with Lefsetz when he says "The biggest mistake the major labels ever made was their refusal to license Napster." And Napster's (who are as guilty as the majors in all that happened after) biggest sin was to think that they were a business enterprise, and not a non-profit organisation offering public services.
Slightly offtopic, I guess, inspired by the rather absurd case in Sweden against Pirate Bay.
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Songlines is Spotifying...
by Songlines » Fri Feb 27, 2009 6:00 pm
Check out the playlist of a selection of tracks from our '10 Songs That Shook The World' article, featured in the March 2009 issue of Songlines, our 10th anniversary edition.
http://open.spotify.com/user/songlinesm ... ARyNsnudQf
http://open.spotify.com/user/songlinesm ... ARyNsnudQf
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Re: Songlines is Spotifying...
by Charlie » Fri Feb 27, 2009 7:00 pm
Songlines wrote:Check out the playlist of a selection of tracks from our '10 Songs That Shook The World' article, featured in the March 2009 issue of Songlines, our 10th anniversary edition.
http://open.spotify.com/user/songlinesm ... ARyNsnudQf
Every time I try to use it, a box comes up asking me which application to use - how should I know?
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