Spotify (spotify.com)

Member Name: carlmcq

Product:	spotify.com
Date:	04/07/09 (157 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free music for all

Disadvantages: You have to put with the odd advert, but very rarely

Join the musical revolution they said. The music industry will never be the same again. The world's music at your fingertips they raved....and then Napster closed down and we all had to pay for our music again. (Unless those less honest have failed to speak up!) That is until now - we can now, legally, listen to music for free without the hassle of any kind of US-led crackout on piracy...welcome to Spotify.

First of all, those who haven't heard of it, fear not, as it's only been around since 2008 after being created by a team of whizz-kids in Stockholm, Sweden. Spotify was launched on 7 October 2008, but to begin with free accounts (which are now available to anyone and everyone) were limited to invitation only. Basically this meant only a 'select few' could get there hands on this product...the ability to listen to practically any music from across the world, for free.

On 10 February 2009 Spotify opened free registration in the UK. All that was required would be to register a username and a couple of uninteresting personally details the musical world would be your oyster. There were originally fears that people who'd signed up by invitation would have had their details hacked but Spotify rectified the situation relatively quickly.

So, what exactly does it do? Well, it allows you to search for a band. Lets take Bruce Springsteen (yes, he's on my mind having rewatched his Glastonbury performance over and over again). Searching for The Boss results in 766 tracks. Click on any of them and it will play the song in it's entirety. You can add any of these tracks to a playlist to keep for future listing or just jump from track-to-track and then search for someone else.

The software's home page when you load it shows a selection of 'new' tracks available to you, along with 'artists you may like', presumably going on the basis of previous selections. There's also a 'Top Lists' page which indicates the most popular singles and albums in the Spotify world at the moment. Think iTunes charts but without the purchasing. It's relatively stylish dark-grey motif looks aesthetically pleasing and modern.

But it's not only a case of thinking of a band and then finding it's music, there's also a radio option which can enable you to discover all wonders of new music. From alternative to blues to country to disco to funk to hard rock to heavy metal to hip-hop to house to jazz....anyway, you get the picture. You can also specify by decade to narrow your search or listening pleasure.

So where's the catch? You obviously can't download this music to your mp3 player, but that's not the end of the world. There's apparently the disadvantage of having adverts inbetween songs, but I can honestly say I've only ever heard one, which lasted approximately 30-seconds. There's plenty of adverts that crop up on the software at the side of playlists for example, but nothing irritating such as pop-ups which you often find on websites similar to this claiming they can provide music for free and legally.

One snag is that some bands, specifically 'world-renowned' ones, are currently unavailable to listen to. Bands such as The Beatles, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pink Floyd are all unavailable, but please don't let this put you off downloading the software. There are still over 3 million tracks to choose from out there!

That's basically how the software makes money and is accredited by the music industry - through advertising. However, if you don't want to put up with it, users can pay a monthly fee of £10 to rid the software of it's adverts. This results in you becoming a "Premium user"; allowing you to listen to previews and some songs before non-premium users. On this basis, some brand new singles are not listed on Spotify's programme for the mere simpleton's who don't pay the £10 a month...I think I'll survive though!

It's not available around the world yet, but is spreading on a similar basis to swine flu. Regarding the techincal details, I regrettably announce I've had to pinch them from Wikipedia....

"The system requirements are Windows XP (or newer) or Mac OS X 10.4 (or newer). The program can also be run on Linux and FreeBSD using Wine and the Spotify website has a section devoted to this topic.[20] Cache size and location is configurable. 1 GB or more disk space is recommended. On Mac OS X, a G4 processor or higher is required, and will not run on G3-based hardware."

Hopefully that clears it up for you all! Basically, it means it'll run on any half-decent computer.

So, if you're any kind of music fan, I have one thing to say to you. Download Spotify. You'll love it. End of conversation.

Summary: If you're a music fan, get it and find more music