SP-SP-SP-Spotify!!!!!!

[jonnopon3000]

Hey good people of Escapist Forums. I was at my work experience (All brits will know, dunno about anyone else) in a computing company, and my boss had a program on his computer called Spotify. I asked what it is, and got this explanation:

"It is a program that connects to the Spotify server, which holds basically every music track ever loaded onto a computer ever. The program lets you play the tracks, but not download them so it is totally legal."

I was like "AWESOME!" It plays an add every few songs, but otherwise is totally unobstructed music-with every track and a playlist system and a design much like iTunes, there is no need to pay at all. You can pay to remove the adds...but like I say-only a few...

I just looked and it is currently in beta, with an invite system. You either get to download the program with an invite from a friend with the program, or you sign your email up to get a code in a few days. Here is the link:

http://www.spotify.com/en/

This is by no means a simple advertising topic...
what do people think? Would you use it? Has anyone here actually got it yet? What's your general opinion on this system?

Personally, I will get it. I am fed up with having 10GB taken by all my music-with spotify I can put my music on an external device, so I can keep the music I OWN for mp3 players and etc etc, I can have that 10 GB back, AND I can have access to listen to thousands upon thousands of tracks! Win Win Win for me...

 

[Cargando]

Is it actually legal?

 

[jonnopon3000]

Is it actually legal?

Well...no one has stopped the beta yet, and I guess all you're doing is LISTENING to tracks...like youtube, but ordered and in one place. Downloading tracks is the illegal part, so I can see no reason for this to be illegal.

 

[Cargando]

Is it actually legal?

Well...no one has stopped the beta yet, and I guess all you're doing is LISTENING to tracks...like youtube, but ordered and in one place. Downloading tracks is the illegal part, so I can see no reason for this to be illegal.

Fair enough, all the best things in life are illegal. Anyway, it sounds excellent, I'll look into it.

 

[StarStruckStrumpets]

This is legal, the only problem I have is searching for bands that are from countries in Asia. MTH and Gackt are some examples. Nothing. Otherwise, it's awesome.

I'm listening to Shinedown on it right now.

 

[Fudj]

Yes its totally legal in Europe with talks for it to happen in America, there has also been a recent Ipod plug in approved by apple which is funny cause this will really hurt ITunes i think, it comes in 2 versions, the premium version which you pay a small amount for eliminates adverts you get every few songs, which believe me are very unobtrusive anyway, also i think with premium you can download/store the songs on your PC/Ipod, though not totally sure, this is probably the thing that will most damage music piracy online, which is a good thing i think, they have finally thought of a way to do that without victimisation of file sharers.

 

[jonnopon3000]

Is it actually legal?

Well...no one has stopped the beta yet, and I guess all you're doing is LISTENING to tracks...like youtube, but ordered and in one place. Downloading tracks is the illegal part, so I can see no reason for this to be illegal.

Fair enough, all the best things in life are illegal. Anyway, it sounds excellent, I'll look into it.

Hehe...I guess only time will tell if some twats at someplace will suddenly decide it is illegal. I see absolutely no illegality here...but I suppose without warning at any random point in time somebody could decide somewhere they do not like it, and it would go from there. It's just a case of keeping an eye on things.

I for some reason compare this to napster. Napster WAS definitely illegal, beyond a doubt...but they took a while to decide that. This is definitely NOT illegal, but it could take them a while to decide otherwise. All decision making will be out of public control...so we won't get much notice if it is deemed illegal.

EDIT:Sorry for the wall of misguided text there...i'm kinda blank tonight and can't think right.

 

[jonnopon3000]

This is legal, the only problem I have is searching for bands that are from countries in Asia. MTH and Gackt are some examples. Nothing. Otherwise, it's awesome.

I'm listening to Shinedown on it right now.

Nice! Invite me....

Lol jokes.

And oh yeh-I searched for Utada Hikaru on it and there was only 4 versions of the same song. So...not much there I guess. I wonder if this is due to their priorities in both where it is being released first and public preference in those places?

Like...it gets released in Asia and then they might add more. But it does clearly state it is a work-in-progress, so they might simply have not gotten around to a lot of tracks yet. Their total aim, I think, is to have almost every track in existence on the server.

 

[curlycrouton]

I've had it for about half a year..

It's great, but the library has a large amount of songs missing, or replaces these with flimsy covers.

However, the library is nonetheless extensive. I only wish my phone was good enough for Spotify Mobile.

 

[Avaholic03]

Sounds pretty illegal to me. I'm pretty sure you need a license to broadcast music over the internet. That's why Pandora has a cap on songs per hour. I can't believe this service got free pass from the music giants. It's only a matter of time before the lawsuits shut them down.

 

[drakenabarion]

Spotify is perfectly legal. And its a brilliant service. Unfortunately after 6 months of useage, I got the below e-mail.

Spoiler: E-mail contents

Dear Spotify user,

We're writing to you in regards to your Spotify account which up
until now you've been using free of charge. While we are really
happy that you are enthusiastically using Spotify, we are
unfortunately going to have to restrict access to your free
account.

Spotify is currently available in six countries: Sweden, Norway,
Finland, Spain, France and the UK. We never intended to allow
use of our service outside of those countries and we do not run
any adverts on your account like we do in the launch countries.
For this reason we have to restrict your account, you will be
able to log in to Spotify and view music and playlists but not
listen to any music.

We are sorry that we have to take this step. We do hope to
launch our free service in more countries in the future.

If you have any questions regarding this please feel free to
contact our support team. (support@spotify.com)

Regards,
The Spotify team.

Well, I am rather upset about. It was the best way I could share music between work and home... And it has just about everything I want in it.

 

[Megacherv]

Is it actually legal?

Yeah, it's supported by ads and I think musicians can request for music to be added or removed. My uncle's music is even on there. I bloody love it, playlist accessbible wherever you go.

 

[JanatUrlich]

It's legal because of the ads. It's a growing phenomenon in the UK. The newspapers are absolutely in love with it XD

 

[Xorghul]

...a program on his computer called Spotify. I asked what it is...

You never heard of it before?
Thought like, everyone knew, by now...
I mean, I've had it for months already and...it's awesome. Get it.

Spotify is currently available in six countries: Sweden, Norway,
Finland, Spain, France and the UK.

EDIT: Oh, ok. It's only available in six countries, that explains why it's pretty unknown.

 

[drakenabarion]

EDIT: Oh, ok. It's only available in six countries, that explains why it's pretty unknown.

It used to be possible to get past that by having a friend in UK register it and just keeping the UK post code in the account... But then they got smart :'(

 

[Insanum]

Yes, Its legal & its awesome. Officially.

 

[Littaly]

I'm using it. Been using it since it surfaced. It's perfectly legal and most people here in Sweden have an account. I still pirate stuff, but much less than before. And I don't have to browse around crappy YouTube videos if I'm curious about a song.

The adds are no biggie, they're not even close to half as annoying as radio commercials. The only problem basically is that their way of distributing music doesn't sit well with everyone. Because of that it lacks a great deal of songs, no AC/DC or Beatles for example :-/

 

[aiusepsi]

Indeed, I'm slightly surprised that there's anyone in one of the launch countries who doesn't have Spotify yet.

It's fantastic, especially things like new albums going up straight away so you don't have to wait to listen (like the new Muse album: http://open.spotify.com/album/0eFHYz8NmK75zSplL5qlfM ) you can just dabble in listening to any artist you like, playlists are stored on your account so they're available from any computer, the streaming is good quality and near-instantaneous... it's brilliant.

It's legal, it's awesome, I'd go so far as to say it's the future of recorded music. I'm not sure you could actually say it's in beta, they've had to go invite only recently because the launch of the Mobile apps stressed their systems, but it'll probably be freely available soon again.

 

[Fellwarden]

If I'm not mistaken, it's legal because the makers of it have contracts with several record labels allowing them to use their music.

Personally I don't have spotify because the ads are (from my experience when I've visited friends who have it) very, very annoying at times, and many norwegian forums have numerous threads regarding one special ad (Hi, I'm Jonathan from Spotify!) that really gets on people's nerves. Seeing as I have a... sufficient ammount of music on my harddrives, I have no use for being annoyed, and being dependant on an internet connection to listen to music.

 

[Arkhangelsk]

Is it actually legal?

Yes, it is legal. They make deals with the record companies, and they make money through subscribers and advertising. They don't have all music, for some reason Metallica isn't there (as far as I've heard). But it's perfectly legal, and a genius way to deliver music. All I want now is Spotify on my iPod. I'm happy to live in one of the launch countries. Go, Sweden!