Spotify – my experience after a week
EDIT – I have blurred the screen grabs in this post as it’s prohibited to post ‘screen dumps’ by the Beta Agreement. You’ll have to give the service a go if you want to be able to see the features properly…
According to their website, “Spotify is a new way to enjoy music.”
Spotify is currently in public beta stage [since Oct 08], works on Mac OSX [10.4.0 on], Windows XP/Vista, Linux under Wine and currently has three levels of service:
- Free: if you have an invite from another user [with audio + visual adverts]
- 0.99p / day: if you have already been invited to use Spotify and would like an advert-free service
- £9.99 / month: If you want to use the service without an invitation and without adverts
Using Spotify
I was invited to use Spotify by The Hodge and was a little unsure what to expect – was this internet radio? Not quite. Would it replace iTunes as a music player? Not sure. I guess the closest comparison I can make to Spotify is Last.fm and similar streaming websites. One of the first things I noticed about Spotify was it’s speed – it is almost as good as just using a normal mp3 player such as iTunes or Winamp if you are on a cable / DSL connection. Spotify’s FAQ section recommends at least 256kbps speed.
Spotify seems fairly robust – I have seen the audio stream drop out a couple of times during use but not enough to annoy me / want me to stop using the program. I have been listening to it whilst working at my desk and it is a great way of finding out about new music / listening to fresh content without having to download the files / update your mp3 collection.
Adverts, you say?
I was intrigued at Spotify’s business model at first and impressed that they have managed to gain support from major record labels such as EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG amongst others. Spotify’s site describes the service as “an unparalleled user experience and a compelling legal alternative to piracy.” I was apprehensive about how intrusive the adverts would be and was pleasantly surprised – it’s nowhere near as bad as commercial radio stations in the UK.
I made a log of the adverts I heard during the course of a full day and found that for roughly every 30 mins of listening Spotify played one advert of approx. 30 seconds in length. As you may expect, you can’t skip through these adverts as you can the music [you can stop them but have to play in full before listening to more music]. These adverts are for all sorts of things from direct.gov talking about tax returns to travel agents and film promo trailers.
These adverts are a very small price to pay for what is essentially a very good service – if you have a decent net conneciton it really can be comparable to using iTunes. I’m not sure that I would pay for the ad-free services yet as they don’t quite annoy me enough to do so.
The Music
Don’t expect to find every single artist you’ve ever heard of on Spotify. Searching for more obscure artists will sometimes return zero results. However – I am very impressed with the amount of content that is up there [and still growing]. I have found electronica and dance music producers that I wouldn’t consider ‘mainstream’ on there, as well as a whole host of new artists and music that I haven’t heard of before.
I guess that is the killer feature of Spotify for me – it’s like when Napster first came around and suddenly I had access to all sorts of music that I might not have otherwise experienced. Only with Spotify it’s legal and less hassle – it’s not like trying to fish for high quality downloads in amongst all the rubbish people tend to have in their shared folders.
Radio, search or browse
I began using Spotify by searching for specific artists which worked fine and led to finding other music in a similar vein / style to the stuff I was searching for. I then tried out the ‘radio’ stations – you can choose from a number of ‘genres’ to include in the random radio playlist and just let it play. I found the results to be good – despite a few rogue genres slipping through the net – [Got some country coming through the 'techno' genre...]. You can also define a time frame in decades from which to search.
Spotify allows you to click through links to find new music – the artist / title / album all lead to more information. In this way it is possible to find similar music styles, compilation albums that artists appear on, cover art, album reviews and so on.
You can also share the music you are listening to with other Spotify users – simply right click the track you are listening to and you can either send them a link to that particular track, or create a playlist for sharing later. This is all very easy and intuitive within the pleasant interface. There is a ‘Buy From’ option that is greyed out in the above screenshot – apparently the option is available on some tracks and will become more widespread as Spotify arrange deals with more retailers.
Conclusion
I spoke to Zia George from Spotify today and asked her a few questions about the service. According to her, “it’s about access rather than ownership” – and that appeals to me. Why do we feel the need to acquire as much data as possible when many of us have access to a high speed data connection that can feed our needs on demand? In a similar fashion to the concept of cloud computing, Spotify is evidence of a shift in data trends where we use more steamlined terminals to access data from a remote source.
I have found Spotify very easy to use and definitely something I will continue to use every day:
Good points:
- The software integrates with my MacBook’s Play/Pause/Next+Prev Track buttons – this is a big thing for me + usability.
- The service is relatively bug-free and easy to use.
- I have found out about new artists that I might not have otherwise come across.
- I have been able to listen to music I haven’t heard in ages / used to own + have since lost.
Bad points:
- It would be nice if I could make the player smaller, akin to the iTunes player.
- There are [very occasional] dropouts in the audio – sometimes particular tracks get stuck / can’t play properly but I must emphasise that this is only for the minority of tracks I have come across during my use of Spotify and isn’t a massive down point for me – just something that comes with streaming audio services.
-
Spotify have made a really great service that will no doubt improve over time as uptake increases. I expect to see it appearing on more people’s computers this year – mainstream media is starting to pick up on it with reviews in the Guardian and the Independent. Spotify has certainly been spread around Twitter: check out the screenshot above to see it ranking in between iPhone + Gaza as a search term! Distribution is limited at the moment and I think that can only be a good thing whilst they iron out any issues with the service and work on developments.
Word is that a mobile service is on the cards.. although I reckon you’d have to have a fairly hefty data allowance + good signal strength for it to be worth it. For now, my iPod is fine when I’m on the move, and Spotify suits my desk work.
I do wonder how many people will subscribe to the £9.99 per month ‘Premium’ service though – it seems a little steep to me for now. Then again, I guess it depends on how annoying or frequent the adverts on the free service become.
Web