Spotify

[bashers]

Does anyone use this? I love it. I've downloaded all the Eurovision songs I can for this year so far....which got me thinking!

I could only download a certain amlunt because either; they haven't been released or because they are not available on Spotify.

Two songs in particular hav shot up my top 42 list closer to the top 10 because i've been able to listen to them properly and when I want. Hungary and Slovenia...!

 

[Stargazer]

I use Spotify (the free version). Most of the songs in my playlists come from my computer though, because Spotify's catalog is seriously lacking in the genres I enjoy the most.

 

[seb89]

I use Spotify as well, also the free version.

I use it for listening to the albums, if I like the album I'll buy the cd .

 

[bashers]

Cool ;-) I pay £9.99 a month to have unlimited play in the songs plus the catalogue is much more extensive!

 

[Sim]

Now i have free version, but i know in belgium you"ll need to pay in a few months, is it worth to pay for it?

 

[bashers]

Well I love it so...lol

 

[Stargazer]

I'd never pay for downloads or pay just to listen to music. The only music I'm willing to pay for is what comes on a physical CD that I can take home with me (and get the highest possible quality from).

 

[LalehForWD]

I have the free version of Spotify but I'm not using it very much. The Spotify player lacks support for FLAC which is my major format. My major player is Windows Media Player (as is + addin for FLAC). A WMP addin for Spotify would be perfect for me. I think it's a mistake by Spotify to limit the service to their player only.

Spotify have been criticised by the artists and there have been some withdraws from the service (e.g. no metal music). It could be that Spotify is crippled and too dependent on the record industry which is holding back progress.

 

[Jukica]

It's not available here :/

 

[bashers]

I don't want to listen to Rock music so even better ;-)

 

[seb89]

Do you still have country restrictions with the premium version?

Cause sometimes I can't listen to songs, cause they weren't released or are not available in my country :s.

 

[bashers]

I'm not too sure about country restrictions. I've downloaded most of this years ESC songs...?!

 

[LalehForWD]

I'm not too sure about country restrictions. I've downloaded most of this years ESC songs...?!

You're right, seems pretty complete now. If I remember right, there was a period when, for example, Tarja and Epica disappeared and could not be found anywhere on Spotify.

edit:
Aah, I misunderstood (didn't read carefully). You're talking about:
Some important changes to the Spotify music catalogue

Still, I think the real problem was the retreat of small independent record companies, at least in Sweden. The problems seems to have been solved now.

edit2:
Century Media Records artists confirmed not at Spotify.

 

[LalehForWD]

I got a news letter from Dimest which is a new service for music. There were rumours that Dimest would start a Spotify competing streaming service. The difference to for example Spotify and iTunes being that the artists are signed directly, not through the record companies. You would get a mix of amateurs, new artists and Mega Super Stars.

The site started in March with the only content to allow upload of your personal material. New for April/May is the browsing feature, allowing you to browse content of others. Nothing is mentioned about any streaming though.

 

[LalehForWD]

Interesting calculations on money and artists including spotify:
Information Is Beautiful - HOW MUCH DO MUSIC ARTISTS EARN ONLINE?

4000000 plays/month on Spotify to get minimum wages payment . That could drastically be improved if artists could sign directly to Spotify.

edit:
Still, many artists express strong support for Spotify.

 

[LalehForWD]

Random albums from Nuclear Blast are missing (not relesead) in Sweden on Spotify.
Most notably Design Your Universe by Epica.

 

[LalehForWD]

Spotify Premium and Spotify Unlimited can be used anywhere in the world, Spotify Free only for 2 weeks.

If I get this right (Spotify doesn't say this straight out) but apparently availability depends in which country your account is registered. An American would probably benefit of a British account, an Estonian a Finnish account and so on. There is also a European account.

So, from Estonia you can thus order a Finnish account through a Finnish proxy server and then upgrade to premium.

 

[Filip]

I bought a Spotify Premium subscription, and I don't regret it at all!

 

[LalehForWD]

I realized in April I was using Spotify much more and in different ways than before (Eurovision influence haha ). The ads were beginning to seriously annoying me. Therefore I signed for a Premium account. You pay in advance, so I got 1 month for free and have now paid 99kr for each June and July via paypal. Perfect service, I can't go back now.

I have an excellent FLAC based music library on my local net. I haven't looked at it for 2 months! Scary!

 

[r3gg13]

I really like Spotify, I've been using it for a little more than a year now. Their catalog has been growing. What I don't like is that some of the songs that I want to listen to are not available in my country like some of the Swedish and Dutch artists that I like listening to (probably because I'm a free user). Surprisingly, they do have a very decent Ex-Yugoslav catalog that Spotify allows me to listen to.