What is Spotify?

[Ink]

What is Spotify?

Spotify is a Swedish music streaming service offering unlimited streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record labels, including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, The Orchard, and Universal. It is presently only available in certain parts of Europe, mostly Western European countries. The system is currently accessible using Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, mobile devices and those running iOS, Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile or Palm's HP webOS.

Spotify on Sonos is, as of March 2011, available in Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

Upcoming Changes coming to Spotify Free/Open

People are listening to more music and from a wider range of artists than ever before, and are giving up on piracy, which is exactly what we hoped would happen.

So it’s vital that we continue offering an on-demand free service to you and millions more like you, but to make that possible we have to put some limits in place going forward.

Here’s how the changes will work:

• New Spotify users will be able to enjoy our unrivalled free service as it is today for the first 6 months.
• As of May 1st, any user who signed up to the free service on or before November 1st 2010 will be able to play each track for free up to a total of 5 times. Users who signed up after the beginning of November will see these changes applied 6 months after the time they set up their Spotify account.
• Additionally, total listening time for free users will be limited to 10 hours per month after the first 6 months. That’s equivalent to around 200 tracks or 20 albums.

 

[Ink]

RE: Hello America. Spotify here.

Hello America. Spotify here.

During our invite-only beta phase, we’ll be offering three great services - from absolutely free to paid subscriptions. The services we’re launching today are:

• Spotify Free – the unsurpassed free music service. With an invite, enjoy on-demand, buffer-free access to over 15 million songs on your computer and great social features. Manage your own music files through Spotify, and sync with your cellphone or iPod. Features occasional advertising.
• Spotify Unlimited – all the special features of our free service, but with uninterrupted, ad-free access to Spotify on your computer. All for only $4.99 a month.
• Spotify Premium - the top-of-the-range Spotify experience. Premium gives you access to all the music, all the time. Listen online or offline, on your computer, your cellphone and a whole heap of other devices. Enjoy enhanced sound quality and access to exclusive content, competitions and special offers. Premium costs just $9.99 a month. (That’s the equivalent of a couple of fancy coffees.)

We’re launching in partnership with some of the biggest and most pioneering brands in the world, who all want to help us spread the good word of Spotify. Our exclusive launch partners are Coca-Cola and Sprite, Chevrolet, Motorola, Reebok, Sonos and The Daily. These brands will be launching innovative campaigns in partnership with Spotify in the coming weeks and months.

Source: Spotify Blog

 

[win7holic]

i can't use this.
not support for my country

 

[Ink]

Unfortunately, Spotify is only available in selected parts of Europe, with the recent US now being able to use this service.

 

[amazingAG]

Tip:- You can always try it with VPN

 

[win7holic]

Tip:- You can always try it with VPN

sure..? i don't know about it
thanks for tip. but not now to try it out. next week

 

[amazingAG]

Yes go ahead without any issues . But you need an invitation to try as its still not open to all(invite based).
The thing i disliked about it is, it uses a P2P technology to relieve their servers. So be careful while using it as it might eat all your bandwidth. And sadly you cant control the upload ratio also. So Good luck
After trying do post your experience.

 

[Ink]

I've never had problem with Spotify, the software or service.

If you are wondering about the bitrate:

A 2011 blog post alleged that the higher 320 kbps bitrate supposedly available to Premium subscribers was in reality only available on around 30% of tracks. A large majority of the content was actually streamed in 160 kbps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify#Criticism
http://www.spotifyclassical.com/2011/07/spotify-bitrategate-story-so-far.html

 

[Vextor]

I am pretty annoyed at the new Spotify changes. That's why I have Grooveshark

 

[Jack]

Got this message :

Spotify in Romania

It looks like you're accessing Spotify from outside our launch territiories. In order to buy Spotify premium, you will need a payment card that has been issued in one of our launch territories (i.e. Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom or United States). As a Spotify Premium user you will have be able to use Spotify when you travel for an unlimited time period.

Also you can read :

Spotify smacked with patent suits in US and Netherlands