It is brilliant! You can choose between the 3 versions: the free one (that has features some adverts at the beginning of tracks every 20-25 minutes), 24h without any ads for £0.99 and the premium monthly subscription that is £9.99. Then, you register you details, like username, password and e-mail and you are directed towards the download page. So, you have access directly from your computer, but you do need a broadband connection as there is no buffering delay and the tracks can be listened in real time.
You just have to search the track or band that you’re interested in and there you have it! It’s that simple! It’s like Google for music! There are no restrictions in terms of what you can listen to, when or how much time. Even the repertoire is being constantly extended, artists such as The Beatles, Metallica and Pink Floyd do not appear. An iPhone Spotify application is under development, which would give it great flexibility and mobility with Wi-Fi connections.
They have somehow done magic and cleared the rights to use the music you listen. Although you cannot save the streamed music for use outside the application, the provided links allow the listener to directly purchase the material via retailers.
The free service is originally from Sweden and is only available in the UK, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Spain and France. In most other European countries you can sign up for Spotify Premium, says a Spotify official representative.
It was co-founded by Martin Lorentzon, who is also the co-founder of TradeDoubler , a huge internet marketing company.
Now, the marketing side of this is interesting for me. Brands including Xbox, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Philips, HMV, Sainsbury's, Nissan and Sony are to trial ads in its beta phase.
This is a strong competitor for iTunes, as the download is certainly less hassle, very easy to manage. And people have had enough with iTunes and want to replace it but just did not have anything real until now. Spotify has received good buzz when allowing users to listen to U2's new album in advance of the album's official release.
There is also an opportunity for ad targeting on location as you are required to put in your postcode when registering. It could also be the end for illegal music downloading, as it makes legal tracks free to users, which was the way to tackle piracy in the first place. Make it available, make it mobile and people won’t have any reason to save music onto their own hard drive, as it is a huge hassle to organise it etc.
So, since Napster, there hasn't really been anything like it. Only Napster got shut down for copyright infringement. This is all real and legal. Enjoy it!
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