What do you do if you love music, but you don’t have any money? What if you don’t want to become a criminal? There is really not much you can do. Pandora is great, and free, but you have no control over what you listen to besides the general genre and style of music. Standard radio stations are great too, but you still run into the same problem. The best solution is a music player that came out in 2008 from a small startup company in Sweden called Spotify AB, or as known to the general public, Spotify. This program is no joke. Since its founding, it has become a world sensation with users and is now available in 13 different countries and has more than 10 million users.
Users of Spotify are treated to more than 15 million songs from just about any artist and label and have the ability to make as many playlists as they wish. Along with the 15 million songs, Spotify will automatically upload MP3 files of songs that are already stored on your computer. This is a brilliant feature because even though 15 million songs seems like a lot, there are some songs and artists that Spotify could not obtain the rights to bands such as: Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, and AC/DC.
The most recent addition to Spotify is the Spotify Apps. These are also free. You can find these apps by using the App Finder on the left side bar of the screen. There are many great apps, made by users of Spotify, including one from Rolling Stone Magazine. Personally, my favorite app is one called Moodagent, which will make you a playlist based on how you feel. Obviously the app can’t read your mind, so you have to click on one of four different moods. You can also give it a song that represents how you feel and it will give you a whole list of other songs with the same mood.
Another new addition to Spotify, is the Spotify Mobile app, which is also is free. I personally know nothing about it, but I assume it is just as good as the Spotify that you would use on your computer.
Even though Spotify seems so awesome, there are some downsides. One of these downsides is having to listen to and view commercials. Since Spotify is free, it doesn’t really matter to me. I’m getting the majority of my favorite music, for free. If you really don’t like commercials, you have to pay five bucks to get rid of them. One other downside is the fact that not every artist is on Spotify. For me, being a huge fan of Classic Rock, I cannot hear some of my favorite songs, but then again, I would have to pay to get them onto Spotify from I-tunes anyway.
For those of you that don’t have a Facebook account, you must sign up for one in order to use Spotify. Through Spotify and Facebook are combining forces, this also leads to unwanted posts on Facebook of what song or songs you have recently listened to. These get posted into the “Scrolling Creeper Bar.” You will also see just as many random posts from people about what random show-tunes or they are listening to too. If you go to your profile settings, you can stop these posts from happening. For other people, you can just block their posts.
Personally, I believe that Spotify and other programs that are alike are the next generation of how our music is listened to. Through Spotify, money is made for the artists and the people who put the music together, but the people on the other end don’t have to pay. I truly enjoy using Spotify, almost every day in fact. I recommend this product to anyone who just loves music.
