Spotify Promises Nearly Perfect On Demand Music Service

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10171362-27.html' target='_blank'>http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10171362-27.html</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Some quick background: the promise of Spotify is music, on-demand, from any computer with an Internet connection. Which sounds a lot like Rhapsody, Napster, Microsoft's Zune Pass, or any other of the countless subscription-based services that have come and gone...except that there's a free ad-supported version. Sort of like what Qtrax was promising, only with streams instead of downloads (and actually available instead of merely promised). Or perhaps sort of like Imeem, only without the confusing attention-deficit-disorder interface. Or--let's be honest here--like all the dearly departed P2P services of yesteryear, only legal with partners including the four major labels plus independent digital distributors CD Baby and The Orchard."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1235601439.usr10.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Certainly attractive, but I'd really like to see some sort of off-line mode that would work with an MP3 player.&nbsp; This would be ideal for work, but would violate a lot of employer's Internet usage policy.&nbsp; Would be great fun for home use and for making the perfect mix.</p>

[timmy]

I have tried Spotify for a while now and I really like it! It has as you say no option to download anything, but the audio quality is really good, buffering time close to non existant. I have been using the free account with some quite unobtrusive commercials.
Here in Sweden we are not blessed with many subscription based services so this is really appreciated.
A cool thing (that might exist in other such services as well) is the possibility to create playlists that you can share with other Spotify users.

[TopDog]

I love Spotify!

Use it every day, and have a Premium subscription (mostly because I want to support independent entrepreneurs that really want to create userfriendly services).

Here is some goodies that I've found with Spotify (the playlist lives, I'm adding songs almost every day): http://open.spotify.com/user/topdog/playlist/30xCL3rLhj7ix54SVXL5GC

[alanjrobertson]

Agreed, timmy - I'm using Spotify in the UK just for the past day and have found it to be excellent. I have no buffering delay whatsoever (8Mbps ADSL) and it's had pretty much everything I wanted. The ads are very unobtrusive and only 30sec per half hour or so. The streamin choices in UK haven't been that great to date so this is very welcome. Anything I want to keep to play offline/on the iPod I go and buy in the new Amazon UK MP3 store (no DRM :))