Sensible Erection | Spotify launches in the USA

Friday, 15 July 2011

quote [ The award-winning music service that’s taken Europe by storm has now come to U.S. shores. Millions of tracks ready to play instantly, on your computer and your phone. ]

Just downloaded the client last night and loving it. I know that Spotify is nothing new in and of itself, but it's new to us American users. $5 a month for unlimited access to a huge library is worth it to me. Hopefully you too!

[music] [by feldenglas@1:49pmGMT] [+3]

Comments

azazel said @ 2:56pm GMT on 15th Jul [Score:1 Informative]
Cheaper for you then, it's about $7.5 here for the unlimited plan.

I'm not really that enthusiastic over Spotify; the library is okay, I suppose, "if you're into that sort of thing" (it's lacking in classical music, for one, and I find that for me the library is not good enough). What bugs me is that they'll add new albums, let you play them for a week or two, then yank them away expecting you to buy them somewhere else. Hell no. Apart from the streaming it's a pretty sub-standard music player, so while I understand that they want you to add your music to your Spotify library, it's not something I particularly want to do.

azazel said @ 2:59pm GMT on 15th Jul [Score:2]
Additionally, why would you want Spotify when you already have the vastly superior Pandora Radio? Way back when I could use it I discovered plenty more interesting and new (to me) music from Pandora Radio than I've ever done with Spotify (and I've had Spotify much longer); Spotify's "artist radio" and "similar artist" features are pretty... bad.

KingPellinore said @ 3:05pm GMT on 15th Jul
You want good, diverse music on Pandora? Type in Tom Waits.

azazel said @ 3:26pm GMT on 15th Jul
I'm sure that would work, but unless I have a US proxy (hello, TOR) I can't use Pandora.

KingPellinore said @ 3:30pm GMT on 15th Jul
Sorry, I thought you were in the US.

f00m@nB@r said @ 5:39am GMT on 16th Jul
I hate Tom Waits.

velourfrog said @ 9:08am GMT on 16th Jul
It's ok, he loves you. In a someone took a mad old alcoholic tramp off the streets and put him in front of a microphone way.

sanepride said @ 4:03pm GMT on 15th Jul
I was going to ask how or if this was better than Pandora. Pandora is great of course if you just want to have random related music playing, but doesn't Spotify let you actually choose your tracks?
One thing I already don't like about it - I requested an invite a few days ago when they first announced the US launch and still haven't gotten one.

conception said @ 4:39pm GMT on 15th Jul
Pandora is radio, Spotify is a musical library where you play what you want with your playlists when you want it. Seems a pretty clear delineation between the two services and reasons for going with one rather than the other.

Milkman666 said @ 5:03pm GMT on 15th Jul
Sounds like you're making a case for using both. One lets you listen to music you already enjoy, the other is a music discovery service.

azazel said @ 5:28pm GMT on 15th Jul
Fair enough, with the addendum that Spotify lets you play music you enjoy and that they currently allow you to play, or have in their library.

v21 said @ 10:37am GMT on 17th Jul
I run into that rarely enough. And when I do it's normally because the music hasn't been properly "released".So I still listen to stuff on bandcamp or soundcloud or hypemachine. But for most else I listen to, Spotify has it.

f00m@nB@r said @ 5:20pm GMT on 15th Jul
I don't like Pandora.

b said @ 5:40pm GMT on 15th Jul
There's also Last.fm and it's radio, which you can base on your own choices. It's a paid service now unless you live in the US, UK or Germany, however.

blibblob said @ 6:50pm GMT on 15th Jul [Score:1 Insightful]
The vastly superior Grooveshark you mean?

Narrenschiff said @ 10:59pm GMT on 15th Jul
The vastly superior illegal downloading you mean?

blibblob said @ 11:03pm GMT on 15th Jul
If you want to keep a library on disk. And if you have access to a torrent site of some merit considering the selection of lesser known music on public trackers is still 128kbps or less crap.

Data Link Layer said @ 11:48pm GMT on 15th Jul
Maybe in 1994 but now you can get anything in flac if you really want to.

blibblob said @ 12:31am GMT on 16th Jul
If you step away from public trackers. Which is exactly what I said. Or if your tastes consist of nothing but Top 40 acts.

solitude said @ 11:48am GMT on 16th Jul
Again maybe in 1994. But nowadays you can find just about anything in flac. On Public trackers.

Todomanna said @ 6:43pm GMT on 16th Jul
And they give you ice cream afterward.

solitude said @ 8:05pm GMT on 17th Jul
And blowjobs

f00m@nB@r said @ 5:38am GMT on 16th Jul
You can't specifically pick songs. And I don't want a stream of songs which ate “similar”. And the crap I like is dorky enough that they don't have it.

djallegar said @ 4:46pm GMT on 15th Jul
Check out The Gabe Dixon Band on Pandora....Outstanding artist.

Moleculor said @ 6:54pm GMT on 15th Jul
My first thought upon launching Spotify:

"Why does it look like iTunes? Ugh!"

Then I discovered that it doesn't seem to make suggestions for you based on what music you like. Now I'm not sure why I even installed it.

excellMint said @ 6:58pm GMT on 15th Jul
meh, google music + pandora = fine with me.

I signed up and got my spotify account yesterday but their are way too many ads with the free service.

azazel said @ 7:23pm GMT on 15th Jul
Less ads at off-peak hours, at least for us in Sweden.

f00m@nB@r said @ 5:36am GMT on 16th Jul
I haven't been able to get in on google music. What's the trick?

Vampire_X said @ 7:35pm GMT on 15th Jul
uh, why use this when Grooveshark has existed for years?

conception said @ 11:27pm GMT on 15th Jul
If you use the premium service, you get a mobile app and can listen offline to your library.

v21 said @ 10:33am GMT on 17th Jul
Because every time I try to listen to an album on Grooveshark, I have to find the track listing elsewhere, and reconstruct the album in a new playlist to get it complete and in order. They fix their metadata, I'll switch over like a shot.

feldenglas said @ 9:11pm GMT on 15th Jul [Score:-4 Flamebait]
Oh, I see. Well, then fuck you guys.

Yeesh, try to do something nice....

DuncmanG said @ 1:52am GMT on 16th Jul
Hey - you got a +2 so far. That's.... good....

bltrocker said @ 3:03pm GMT on 16th Jul [Score:-3]
SE is kind of like that snob friend that is hard to impress, but you feel proud when you do. Check out my recent music post with turntable.fm. Even though it's an awesome idea, I got lukewarm mods because it turns out a lot of SE dislikes social media so many couldn't use it.

sanepride said @ 4:29pm GMT on 16th Jul
You got lukewarm mods because it was 'invite-only' beta, accessible only through FB, and only available in the US. That's just way too much exclusivity, especially for something you could find elsewhere that didn't require multiple hoops to jump through.

Bodnoirbabe said @ 10:28pm GMT on 15th Jul
This doesn't seem like something I'd use. I have my own playlists I created and I use Winamp. It's easy to buy and add music and it's all mine. If I'm seeking new tunes, that's what pandora is for.

I don't understand what niche this is filling.

foobar said @ 10:42pm GMT on 15th Jul
This "giving money to the RIAA" niche, it seems.

blibblob said @ 10:43pm GMT on 15th Jul
For what I use grooveshark for? I hear of a new band through some means, pandora, a person, whatever and I want to hear a decent selection of their discography. Pandora only supplies a song or two from completely random albums and I don't want to download a full discography of a band I've only heard two songs of. Especially if I know the band sucks balls but I need to get an idea of what they're like.

v21 said @ 10:31am GMT on 17th Jul
Spotify has made me not care about owning music. It's easy to buy and add music, but it's easier to play something on Spotify. All I do is type in the name of the album or artist and click play. If I want it on my phone, I drag it onto the playlist-that-gets-synced-to-my-phone. I don't have to plug my phone in for this - I just have Spotify open while I have a wifi connection.

If I'm seeking new tunes I look at my friend's Facebook walls, because we share music back and forth a lot. Often enough, it's a Spotify link. I click, and it plays.

Before Spotify, I would pirate music. This is easier than pirating. This is easier than purchasing (mainly because I don't have to consider whether the music is worth the purchase cost). That's what niche it fills.

(And yes - the discovery stuff is wank. The radio stuff is awful. Even the inbox thing I don't use much. That's fine, I don't really care about that stuff.)

(And, by-the-by, I actually hate Spotify as a company. I think their outpayments are disgustingly low. Spotify gave away about a quarter of their ownership to the major labels, a clear conflict of interest when the labels negotiate. Which is what they intended, clearly. I don't like having to use a native app. I don't like that it's not just in-browser. But it's the easiest way to listen to music I've ever used, and that's why I give them money every month.)

f00m@nB@r said @ 4:39am GMT on 16th Jul [Score:1 Informative]
Spotify.com/Sprite

Keep it to yourselves.

rndmnmbr said @ 12:27pm GMT on 16th Jul
God, I can't even remember the last time I paid for music.

Whelp, there's no reason to go breaking with tradition...