feature: Spotify

I wanted to hate Spotify. I don't need another way to consume music. I've already got more than is healthy -- iTunes, 8tracks, Winamp, Turntable.fm, Last.fm, iPod, What.cd, Soulseek, Myspace, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, YouTube, Google Music, Mumu Player, streams and downloads from various blogs and websites -- not to mention my turntable which is sitting neglected in the corner. Music fans of years past had the problem of finding new music. Now we come up with excuses NOT to listen to the music our friends are recommending us.

So why did I give in and download Spotify? It offers me a few things that other programs can't. The $10/month plan lets you stream music on your phone. I don't have a smart phone or data plan. Hell, I just updated from my old flip phone. By the time I finally have a smart phone, the rest of the world will be using genius phones. So this option clearly isn't for me. There are two other plans: one is free and the other is $5/month. For the next 6 months, the free plan basically is the $5/month plan. This gives you an iTunes-like desktop program. It can sync your iPod, iPhone, or Android with the music you have downloaded on your computer. What makes it better than iTunes is that it also gives you streaming access to a sizable database of music.

Bands have been beginning to stream their albums for a week or so when they're released to give fans a taste. I imagine that the free sample cuts down on illegal downloading and increases sales. And that's a great idea, because honestly I'm not buying an album that I haven't already heard. But if you don't listen to the album in that week, you miss your chance. Now Spotify is giving you a chance to check out nearly any album at any time. For the next 6 months the free version of Spotify will give you unlimited streaming of anything in their database. After that, there will be a cap of 10 hours of streaming a month, and 5 plays per track a month. It remains to be seen if I'll stay with the free plan, or upgrade to the $5/month plan which gives you unlimited streaming, but no mobile access. Regardless of which plan I go with, Spotify will be curbing my illegal downloads as I can now check out albums legally and easily.

The other big feature that I'm excited about is the collaborative playlists. Spotify lets you connect to your friends through Facebook. Yes, with all the privacy concerns associated with Facebook, maybe this is less than ideal. Personally, I was going to delete my Facebook account until Turntable.fm and Spotify required me to connect to it to unlock their full capabilities. But how awesome is it that I can throw up a link to my SWAG playlist I made of shitty rap songs, and my friends can listen to it and add their own songs? Really fucking awesome. And if Spotify catches on in the US like it did in Europe, nearly everyone will have an account soon.

What Spotify means for this site is that now instead of having links to reviews of the albums in my "You Gotta Hear This" section -- the list in the top right corner of the site with my favorite albums I've heard in 2011 -- you'll have links to the albums themselves. If you have a Spotify account, you can click the album and immediately begin listening to it. Because a listen is worth a thousand words, right? It's a chore to borrow a CD from a friend or to hunt down an album someone recommended and find time to listen to it. But with embedded links to songs, albums, and playlists that I only have to click to have them play in my own music player, it seems a lot more convenient (there is also a queue feature if you're already listening to something else). Time will tell if it's just the novelty of the whole thing that makes it seem more enjoyable.

If you want to learn more about Spotify, read this and this. If you need an invite, you might be able to get one by selling your soul giving an email address to this corporation or that one. The latter says they're out of invites, but I hear they'll still send you one in about 20 minutes. Or you can sign up on Spotify's website and you might get one in a week or two.