Spotify, An Alternative to Music Piracy
Written by Ernesto on January 02, 2009The music industry has taken some extreme measures to counter piracy, but it hasn’t found the silver bullet yet. The key is to come up with a service that will fulfill the needs of music lovers, and one that would even be embraced by the most hardcore pirate. With Spotify, this might just become possible.
Spotify is a music service that gives users access to a huge library of music, through a lightweight application that looks like a mashup of the best parts of iTunes and Last.fm. Music is streamed, partly supported by P2P technology, but it plays instantly, like we’ve never seen before.
One of the software engineers at Spotify is Ludvig Strigeus, the creator of uTorrent. It is therefore no surprise that the application uses very few resources, just 12k memory when we tested it. The rumor goes that some of the money made when uTorrent sold to BitTorrent Inc., has actually been invested in Spotify, an application that competes with piracy.
When we asked Andres Sehr of Spotify to describe the service, he told us “Spotify is a new way of enjoying music. We believe Spotify provides a viable alternative to music piracy. We think the way forward is to create a service better than piracy, thereby converting users into a legal, sustainable alternative which also enriches the total music experience.”
The quality of the music on Spotify is comparable to 160kbps MP3s, which is more than decent for a streaming application. To fill its library, Spotify has cut deals with EMI, Warner Music, Sony BMG and three other major labels, which all responded positively to the new concept. Interestingly, Spotify also uses P2P technology to stream the more frequently accessed tracks.
“Spotify uses a hybrid p2p system where music is delivered both by our servers and using P2P,” Andres Sehr said. “This allows us to deliver the long tail of music which may not be very popular, as well as quickly serve up the latest hits that the majority of users listen to. P2P allows us to both increase the speed that we deliver music and also lower the cost of streaming it.”
Aside from being a music streaming application, Spotify also allows users to create and share playlists with each other, the top 100 tracks of 2008 according to Pitchfork editors for example. On top of that, the Spotify interface helps you to discover new artists with its “similar artists” and “artist radio” feature.
The overall response from Spotify users seems to be very positive, but can it compete with piracy? Time will have to tell, but Spotify invites are actively being traded within the BitTorrent community, and it has even been well received on some of the most elite music trackers.
One user at the music tracker What.cd wrote: “Honestly it’s going to be huge. I’ve been browsing and playing from its seemingly endless music catalogue all afternoon, it loads as if it’s playing from local files, so fast, so easy. If it’s this great in such early beta stages then I can’t imagine where its going. I feel like buying another laptop to have permanently rigged.”
Spotify is not perfect though. One of the mentioned downsides is that it is not compatible with iPods and other portable MP3 players. The Spotify team hasn’t ruled out the option of an iPod compatible version in the future, but for now they will focus on optimizing the Windows and Mac application.
Overall we can conclude that Spotify definitely has potential, but time will tell if it’s able to compete successfully with piracy. Spotify is currently in Beta stage, invites to the free (ad-supported) version can only be used in the UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Spain and France, but restrictions usually don’t stop pirates.
Update: We have a few invites left, please remember though that it’s only available in the UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Spain and France. Those who’d like to receive an invite, send me an email with “spotify” as subject. According to some of the commentary, an invite is not even needed though.
Video: What is Spotify?
Previously: Five File-Sharing Predictions for 2009
Next: Hustler Hires Media Protector to Chase Online Porn Pirates
278 Responses
The point of P2P is not just downloading, but rather uploading as well. In addition, the point of P2P is also the ability for (indie) artists to upload their music to the P2P network at will. In addition, it is a good way to upload any derivative works (like remixes, &c.) one has created at will.
However great the quality is, this would be great only if industry were the only creators of music. That, of course, is far from true. This kind of thing cuts out the indie artists (and, of course, anyone can be an indie artist at will at any time, since there are no contracts).
The other thing is that P2P is supplied by anyone, not just a singular provider. If it shall be limited to a single provider, then it shall amount to the same old control as it was in the previous system, letting the MAFIAA Nazis do as they will. Any "competitor to piracy" cannot solve the real problem: MAFIAA Nazis having control, using FUD to extort money from people.
Why should the MAFIAA Nazis get anything? They ought to burn in hell right now.
Of course, Spotify does sell great quality: then, they are not selling the music itself, but rather the quality of the music. After all, P2P is the way: the people ought to have control of the distribution, not these industry middlemen who only do FUD extortion. In any case, it might be a good service - if the MAFIAA would not get any money.
Roze
Upon entering the beta token (thanks Ernesto!) it fiddles me with this response:
"Spotify free is not available in your country."
I'm living in the US, so, maybe I've missed something?
Useless to me - It's not available in the US.
Ah well …
Back to BT.
"Spotify is currently in Beta stage, invites to the free (ad-supported) version can only be used in the UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Spain and France, but restrictions usually don’t stop pirates. "
How do they make money? And where does the music come from? However well it has been received by music trackers, the fact is that anything that cuts deals with the big labels must somehow be making money for them. Why should the MAFIAA Nazis get anything? The MAFIAA Nazis ought to burn in hell right now.
The point of P2P is not just downloading, but rather uploading as well. In addition, the point of P2P is also the ability for (indie) artists to upload their music to the P2P network at will. In addition, it is a good way to upload any derivative works (like remixes, &c.) one has created at will. Files from P2P is supplied by anyone, not just a singular provider. If it shall be limited to a single provider, then it shall amount to the same old control as it was in the previous system, letting the MAFIAA Nazis do as they will. This, of course, leads to my second question: where does the music come from? It says that it uses a combination of a central server and P2P, so that bit is uncertain - but the fact that is that it has cut deals with leading record labels, and so I highly doubt that this is a kind of system where people can upload to each other anything at will. After all, what if some big record label refused? Is Spotify able to remove the music somehow, or does it not completely depend on the central server?
Of course, Spotify does sell great quality: then, they are not selling the music itself, but rather the quality of the music. After all, P2P is the way: the people ought to have control of the distribution, not industry middlemen who only do FUD extortion. In any case, it might be a good service - if the MAFIAA would not get any money. But it cut deals with them - it is likely that it is making money for them somehow.
Roze
As a hardcore pirate, I'll just say FUCK YOU. Spotify is THE most genious app ever created. I've fully stopped downloading music since I got Spotify.
If you had read the article you would've seen this: "Spotify uses a hybrid p2p system where music is delivered both by our servers and using P2P"
So yeah.. I share when I listen to Spotify.
I heard that the ads are like radio advertising that comes in between every 3rd or 4th song.
If this app lives up to the promise I think it is well worth the $9.99/month subscription.
Via this software you can only play on your PC.
I want to burn on a CD to hear in my car.
still it's a useless technology.
waste of money they invested lol
Another copy of iTune :P
You have not yet addressed my point about the MAFIAA Nazis having control and/or receiving money from this. I will check it out myself to see what it is exactly, but I am somewhat sure that this is a service that, although it may be great and high-quality &c., still is controlled by MAFIAA interests.
thanks ernesto for the invite! too bad it tells me its not available in my country (germany) :-/ would have loved to try it out
so can you buy music with it?
160mbps is shit
The free version is payed for with a short 10-15 second commercial, but these are absolutely not annoying and does not come often at all. In fact, I haven't heard a commercial in weeks.
Spotify is a great way to listen to music since you can create and share both collaborative and non-collaborative playlists.
I don't actually care if the record companies receive money for this, as this service is so extremely great. Really the future in music.
Totally genious service. And the ads does not come that often. I haven't heard a commercial in weeks.
Indeed. I mean, so what if the quality is great, or if the library is so big? The fact is that the industry is still continuing the same old outdated business model. The industry are dinosaurs, they are not needed anymore - these middlemen ought to go extinct. Downloading is the way to go, not this industry-supplied stuff. I do not think that there is a way for them to "compete with piracy" - after all, how can they, when they are not needed anymore?
Indeed. I mean, so what if the quality is great, or if the library is so big? The fact is that the industry is still continuing the same old outdated business model. The industry are dinosaurs, they are not needed anymore - these middlemen ought to go extinct. Downloading is the way to go, not this industry-supplied stuff. I do not think that there is a way for them to "compete with piracy" - after all, how can they, when they are not needed anymore?
Indeed. I mean, so what if the quality is great, or if the library is so big? The fact is that the industry is still continuing the same old outdated business model. The industry are dinosaurs, they are not needed anymore - these middlemen ought to go extinct. Downloading is the way to go, not this industry-supplied stuff. I do not think that there is a way for them to "compete with piracy" - after all, how can they, when they are not needed anymore?
Roze
You can listen to all music for free (ad supported) and I got 10mbps and songs starts instantly.
No more youtube at my parties :D
Why should I download music when I can stream an unlimited supply of music from free from anywhere with internet? Seems like a waste of time to find the music and a waste of disk space keeping it.
lol i would check it out but its not available in US.. ahahah.. i mean im not laughing at Spotify they can only do what they can do.. but seriously… go fuck yourself..
Piracy will always pwn, you can shove your legal bs somewhere else.
Oh gotta go my downloads are done, ahah idiots..
Spotify is a great way to listen to music since you can create and share both collaborative and non-collaborative playlists.
… nowhere does this say that one could create and upload one's own music at will, or that one could upload someone else's music, even if there was no agreement with the rights holder yet. It seems to cut out the unknown indie artists.
And the fact is that the MAFIAA Nazis will keep on suing people, take down P2P sites, &c. Why support them?
There is nothing to indicate that this will be anything different from the same old industry-controlled, industry-supplied stuff. Besides, it is the same old, "you pay or we sue," except modified with "you use (MAFIAA-controlled) Spotify or we sue."
I have not mentioned it yet, but perhaps you might want to sound less like some marketer for Spotify when you make comments.
The wrong place to write about Spotify because the idiots that reads this is just soooooooooo pro piracy and can't accept anything legal even if it's better.
I'm talking about the bitrate (quality) of the songs.. not internet speed.
I'm in Sweden and still wont use this…
Ads - No thank you
$9,99 per month - HAHAHAHA but seriously, Go F**k Yourself (not you commenter)
$$ goes to the industry - NOPE, giving them money means they wont die as fast as we want them to.
On the other hand, THIS i would support:
Ads… but money goes directly to the artists
a donation model, not $9.99 per month
If I know the labels are getting anything, thats the deal killer… I prefer to seed "my" music ;)
Cheers!
http://www.eZee.se
Not really, "internet pirates" are some of the most techno people out there and love testing new stuff, its just that when we hear labels getting any money anymore… it kind of goes against our very patience of waiting for them to die.
Paying the artists directly, no problem, labels getting a piece of the pie… no thank you, our other option is just a click away.
Cheers!
http://www.eZee.se
somehow this will fail….
they always do
Well, by downloading, I meant P2P &c.
Oh, I never have to go because I don't download my music, I stream it instantly with Spotify. And I mean instantly. No waiting for a slow webserver or finding a torrent that is the real deal, and no waiting for downlading.
Spotify will alwasy pwn, music piracy is totally when you have Spotify.
Nice idea. Unfortunately being streamed it can not be put on an mp3 player like music you have on your HDD, And the adverts killed it. But I can not wait for someone to release a cracked version of this that will allow me to add all their music to a play list and as I stream it, put it on my HDD and then synch with new songs that come out lmao :P.
Anyway all the music i listen to on my PC is streamed online from my favorite radio station which has songs I like and DJs that are cool :P. But I would use a cracked version of this new music player to fill a few TeraBytes of space with music :P seeded by the mafia LMAO. I would say thank you very much to them :P. Ohhhh I can not wait. If anyone is good at coding can you hack this because it would revolutionize music piracy :P Besides I see it as a flaw that it can not be used to download the entire music library. So in a way you would be helping them to fix the flaw even if they didn't realize it :P.
The MAFIA will just recieve money from the add free version anyway presumably.
I have just discovered Spotify a few minutes ago (thanks Ernesto for the invitation) and I am astonished by the quality and reactivity when we switch to a new song : it's instantly !
I am using it in France on a MacBook. I really like the "iTunes-like" interface.
Let's see in the next weeks whether the service will be continued with such a quality.
I LOVE IT!
Thanks soo much for the invite!
Oh and wait to some radio station opens up their almost complete library for streaming, only instead of this device they make a similar one which doesn't have in music adds and just has a add when you start the application up. And then they would make a seeding module where someone could install a seeding module on their pc and dedicate a certain amount of their bandwidth to seed the streaming music (thus to save on thier hosting bills). They will probably then get other radio stations wanting to help and share their libraries. As listening to a radio station isn't illegal their is nothing the mafia can do. And they can also receive money from donations to go towards hosting. but what will really nail it will be people who are kind enough to donate bandwidth they do not use.
Then eventually they might manage to expand this service so that it can be accesses by cell phones. If they succeed in this then we will probably be seeing mp3 players coming out that support access to this.
Thus if they could do this then their would be no reason to buy a song as you can stream live anywhere. All you would need to do is plug your home entertainment TV recording lounge PC box into your stereo (most likely already done) or buy some miniature budget pc like an eebox or something and plug it into your stereo.
Oh that would rule :P. But I loves the idea of downloading the music archives. Oh better than downloading the internet cause with enough TB HDDs it could be done :P.
This is amazing. Again, I live in a country (Australia) that didn't allow registration (but worked a way around it thanks to LilJimmy!). The streaming isn't too bad. There's a small delay, but apart from that, it's pretty good. I haven't tested it with 'real' speakers yet though, just the crappy laptop ones.
Ps. Ernesto, you are the best! thanks for the invite
https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/- if you're in the UK this link seems to work without an invite.
Just been trying this works great no lag good quality and loads of tracks, I spend a lot of time on my pc (work from home) and either the day pass or monthly option is definatly worth it.
I thought Ludde still worked on BitTorrent Inc, but he’s at Spotify now? Does he work for both? Oh, btw, there is no such thing as "12k memory" but whatever.
Anyway, for listening to music on a PC, Spotify is THE best. I got a what.cd account and I barley use it anymore except for when I want to download something to my iPod or find some rare music Spotify don’t have.
for those who are in a country that cant use this service, there is a nice little way around this. check out filesharefreak and sharky has written a nice article on how to get around this snag in the code. Hope this helps yall who want to try this. Ill be honest i like having the music on my HD and at higher bitrates then 160, and so i dont like to use this. Also it disappoints me to see that it could have legitimate ties to those who have hunted pirates for years.
If I get this properly, it sounds like a superb deal. I can deal with a few adverts, look at tv/radio and tell me it stopped that. My only qualms would be the lack of portability (nothing to bring in the car/to work) and the presence of the major labels that have caused so much harm. I'm not sure that they'll ever be forgiven regardless of what they do, but if those making the music get a bunch of cash of this then more power to em and good show for the innovation.
If you were talking about bitrate then get then terms right .. I'ts 160kbps n00b ..
oh but then you cant put it on your mp3 player… aahha.. owned.
ANNNDDD if your internet goes down, your screwed as well.
1. I never download fakes.
2. I remote in to my server and start a download wherever I am, so no waiting.
Have fun.
It actually isn't as much streaming, it stores files on your hard drive, found my folder and it was around 1 GB
just wait the MAFFIA will do something greedy and ruin the whole thing.
While a lot of the tracks seem to be of great quality, some of it is *VERY* bad.. Search for "glenn gould bach fugue" and start playing those tracks to hear what I mean.
It's certainly along the right lines; a positive step by the music industry. But it's not there yet.
A) there are times when streaming is useless as in you don't have or wish a net connection.
B) Pricing
C) p2p music online is about marketing , use that for your local shows and bring them to a venue to see you preform ,that is what entertainment is supposed to be right about the live show?
D) Why must i pay and pay AND pay and PAY again. That is a ripoff, all this streaming silliness is the only WAY THE INDUSTRY CAN TRY TO MAKE A BUCK and its every app i see this way is there attempt to control me again.
The "people and companies" you talk about are the MAFIAA Nazis. Moreover, it is still "you use Spotify or we sue" extortion. It is the same old, not a leap forward.
there aim = kill piracy, riaa fantasy = no more piracy, riaa director then puts pinky finger in mouth in the anouncement of new charges for service
The "people and companies" you talk about are the MAFIAA Nazis. Moreover, it is still "you use Spotify or we sue" extortion. They still don't give the end user the freedom to do whatever with the music. It is the same old, not a leap forward.
Spotify has terrible CPU leaks.
Hey, if it involves "keepin it free" then I am all for it!
JT
internet-anonymity.net.t
Thanks for the invite! Love it so far.
How about, "no freedom for end users." Streaming may be good, but the fact is that it offers no freedom to end users - because if one wishes to download, one cannot. It would be apt to compare it to DRM, I think.
You have not addressed at all my main point that one is not free to upload one's own (indie) music, or other people's music, or the fact that what is available is still controlled by agreements from the MAFIAA Nazis, rather than people freely supplying/sharing them.
The fact is that it is the same old MAFIAA Nazis getting the money and controlling what is available. There is nothing different about it.
I'm not a marketer for Spotify, I just love the service and want everyone else to enjoy it.
Yep, you sure don't seem like a marketer for Spotify…
Here, use this:
http://www.daveproxy.co.uk/
Here, use this:
http://www.daveproxy.co.uk/
Roze is providing a great service here. He takes his time to be the voice of reason. This new "service" is the same old crap from the same old cronies. This service offers nothing. Who in their right mind wants to listen to ads, or pay a monthly fee to stream music to their computer? Tying a bow around a piece of shit is still a piece of shit.
Those who say they don't care whether or not the record industry gets money from this, are the ones who pirate just to get free stuff. the record industry is still getting something from nothing.
Because the music is streamed you cannot take it with you. The rather low 160Kbps bit-rate is also an issue.
Amen, brother!
Disk-space is not an issue in this day and age, and the quality isn't even good it's 160Kbps.
Nobody actually believes posts like this, do they? "I've just sold the idea to my entire family" LOL
You forgot to add: This service announcement brought to you by the RIAA
Thanks for the invite Ernesto,
All I can say is it does what it says, and works very well. For most of my friends it would be perfect because it gives them what they want easily without paying and without listening to me explain how to safely download music. I would say the library is good after searching more obscure artists I only had 2/15 come up with no results. It couldn't replace my iTunes library or downloading habits because of what I like to listen to, but it will allow me to listen to all those one hit wonders and popular songs where I don't want the albums. I refuse to let individual songs clutter my library. In all I'd say for the average user it gives them all they need, but those who download heavily may have to look further to find a reason to use it.
As far as stopping piracy it will stop the guy who gets the odd song they like from 'limewire' as they can't figure out torrents… For someone who really enjoys their music it may either save them money from legal downloading or just enable some diskspace savings to the not so 'legal' sharers.
I would love to see an iPhone app based on similar technology, baring in mind the limitations the iPhone has if 'iSpotify' could work then it would be what last.fm couldn't manage. It would remove the annoyance of being restricted to 8/16GB (I only get 14GB after apps and the OS etc.), and I'd imagine a free version with the ads being in the top 3 apps for quite some time. Ah well that isn't a market that needs to be targeted by them if they just want to put a damper on piracy.
btw. I tested the link https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/and it works as patrick said in the UK.
This isn't a bad little service. It suffers from a lack of selection in some areas, but not at all in others. I hope it survives long enough to grow a bit. (BTW, I'm using a French proxy and have no lag issues.) Thanks for the article and the invite, e.
Sounds good! Look forward to using this.
It looks promising, but can’t try it as of right now. I am working on spoofing the IP Address.
Why do you want to put enormous amounts of money in the pockets of executives who don't deserve it…and rip off their own signed artist? Are you anti-artist?
Argh. no canadian support? seriously. same land mass. and we share the US's largest border >.<
Spotify is the best thing that has happened since piratebay. It is SO worth paying for — it has replaced useless winamp/iTunes play lists at every party I've been to since November and I discover new bands and songs every single day using a number of collaborative play lists.
The little music it doesn't have — that's the only music I download these days.
Spotify is the best alternative available today.
But we wish for the RIAA to die…do you not get this?
Haha, you're hilarious. Firstly, I'm not from the US, and neither is this software… so sorry to let you down, but I don't give a damn about the RIAA. Secondly, I'm a kid; I can't afford to spend a ridiculous amount of money on music, but where I would have stolen it in the past, I'll now use this.
I don't get your problem. By all means complain about the service if it's not doing something right (long load times, not enough obscure music?) but stop with the bullshit conspiracy theories about your record industry. For all our sakes.
Actually, both I and 80% of my friends have reacted to Spotify in the same way as Alex Muller >.<
It's still in beta. That probably means they are in the final stages of figuring out where to put servers in the US and how to configure them.
Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the difference between beta and release? Mark it beta!
Any plans for a Linux version?
Typed in Shpongle, didnt think for one minite it would find anything….Found 10 tracks..this is gonna be huge……
It's not that we can't accept anything legal. It's that we can't accept anything that is controlled by/supporting the MAFIAA Nazis. Emphasis on both parts: controlled by - streaming but no downloading? One could compare that to DRM. And no uploading ability either. Uploading is one of the most important parts - to upload one's own music, or other people's music, even if it has not been contracted yet. The second part is that it is supporting the MAFIAA Nazis. It is the same old thing, the same industry, the same old MAFIAA Nazis getting the money, they who ought to go extinct already.
It's not that we can't accept anything legal. It's that we can't accept anything that is controlled by/supporting the MAFIAA Nazis. Emphasis on both parts: controlled by - streaming but no downloading? One could compare that to DRM. And no uploading ability either. Uploading is one of the most important parts - to upload one's own music, or other people's music, even if it has not been contracted yet. The second part is that it is supporting the MAFIAA Nazis. It is the same old thing, the same industry, the same old MAFIAA Nazis getting the money, they who ought to go extinct already, they who ought to burn in hell already.
It's not that we can't accept anything legal. It's that we can't accept anything that is controlled by/supporting the MAFIAA Nazis. Emphasis on both parts: controlled by - streaming but no downloading? One could compare that to DRM. And no uploading ability either. Uploading is one of the most important parts - to upload one's own music, or other people's music, even if it has not been contracted yet. The second part is that it is supporting the MAFIAA Nazis, who will continue in their FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) extortion as before, even if this is successful. It is the same old thing, the same industry, the same old MAFIAA Nazis getting the money, they who ought to go extinct already, they who ought to burn in hell already.
Ok, I will complain about what it's not doing right. When you use this service you are supporting an organization that sues ordinary people for thousands of dollars. They can't afford a ridiculous amount of money either.
You may want to look up the word conspiracy in a dictionary. There is no conspiracy here. Just a big lumbering corporate dinosaur dying a slow death.
windows version in wine is Platinum : http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=...
Aren't they reinventing the bicycle? There is a website called http://www.deezer.com- it's fully legal and has great content. It is not p2p based and still bugs happen every now and then, but streaming and interface are great, sound quality is much more better than last.fm, iTunes or Shoutcast. Ads are not annoying, you don't need to install the new software for browsing music, well, I didn't get invite yet for Spotify, so I cannot say it's total crap compared to Deezer(yet) :) If anyone got any invite, send me to pkzeppelin@gmail.com, I'm from Sweden and service is supposed to work, thanks in advance :)
I have searched for all or a part of the names for these songs:
Mystic Dream ~ Snow or Cherry Petal
Paradise ~ Deep Mountain
Crystallized Silver
The Fantastic Legend of Touno
Diao Ye Zong
The Doll Maker of Bucuresti
Doll Judgement ~ The Girl Who Played with People's Shapes
The Capital City of Flowers in the Sky
Phantom Ensemble
Mystic Oriental Dream ~ Ancient Temple
Hiroari Shoots a Strange Bird ~ Till When?
Ultimate Truth
Bloom Nobly, Cherry Blossoms of Sumizome ~ Border of Life
A Maiden's Illusionary Funeral ~ Necro-Fantasy
Illusionary Night ~ Ghostly Eyes
Stirring an Autumn Moon ~ Mooned Insect
Song of the Night Sparrow ~ Night Bird
Deaf to all but the Song
Nostalgic Blood of the East ~ Old World
Plain Asia
Retribution for the Eternal Night ~ Imperishable Night
Maiden's Capriccio ~ Dream Battle
Love-coloured Master Spark
Cinderella Cage ~ Kagome-Kagome
Lunatic Eyes ~ Invisible Full Moon
Voyage 1969
Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke
Surprise, surprise, it did not have it. Well, what do you expect by searching for music that is not from an artist contracted by the MAIFAA Nazis (or "independent music") on a service of music supplied by MAFIAA Nazis?
Simply put, there is no way Spotify, a service controlled by contractual agreements with the MAFIAA Nazis, can ever be an alternative to freely uploading one's own music or other people's music, or one's own derivative work (like remixes) of other people's music.
Roze
No one forced those artists to sign with those lables, and I doubt that by doing so any of them are on the bread line. Whatever agreement those artists have with their lable has nothing to do with me so I dont particularly care if you or anyone else thinks those artists are getting ripped off. The lables make money, the artist makes money and i get to listen to music for free, and legaly. That is the whole point and your whining accounts for nothing.
We7 is really an ad supported download service, and all tracks have an ad placed before (or after) the actual track, on every track. Not so much of an issue really as they are drm free and there are no restrictions to removing the ads from the mp3. This is purely a streaming service, though where the ads are ive yet to see. I'm 6 tracks in to a Chemical Brothers album and aint heard one yet.
Well I've been listening for a while off and on and so far i've yet to hear a single ad, so it seems to be miles better than any commercial radio service with the added bonus of being able to select your own playlist.
Go read the definition of the word beta.
You're all friggin morons. Its 10 dollars A MONTH, to listen to music at your computer, where most of us listen to music, at our home. You can still buy the friggin mp3s from itunes if you need to carry it. Or you can listen for free and listen to a few commercials. 10 dollars is still less than what you fat americans spend on lunch every day.
$9.99/mnth? totally useless! Just get a portable Siruis radio if you're gonna go that route.
The people who are bashing spotify and saying they will 'continue downloading music illegally' should expect to receive a letter in the mail from the RIAA. See you all in a new digg article sometime soon!
should expect to receive a letter in the mail from the RIAA
All the more reason not to use Spotify. Why support these MAFIAA Nazis who use Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) extortion?
should expect to receive a letter in the mail from the RIAA
All the more reason not to use Spotify. Why support these MAFIAA Nazis who use Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) extortion?
Roze
should expect to receive a letter in the mail from the RIAA
All the more reason not to use Spotify. Why support these MAFIAA Nazis who use Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) extortion?
Roze
I think you've missed the point. It's a free service. You don't pay anything, so you have no right to download the tracks. Also, 160kbps is fine for a streaming service.
How? The story states pretty clearly that one of the biggest drawbacks with the service is that it "isn't compatible with IPods and other Mp3 players.
So, educate me. Or are you just gonna make some joke about me being some form of hopeless n00b, and refuse to pass on your knowledge in the hopes that you will continue to be able to rest comfortably in your ivory tower?
Yes i was referring to the bitrate, my mistake.
Give me a break. Did Last.fm, Pandora, Imeem, playlist.com, or any of the other streaming music sites stop piracy? I can stream just about any song I want between those I mentioned and Songza. Why hasn't it stopped piracy?
Because you can't download those to your mp3 player. I for one can't be tied to my computer sitting on my lard ass 24/7 just to listen to music. Like so many other people out there I spend a good majority of my music listening time on my mp3 player.
No mp3 compatibility = No End to Piracy
amen bro
beta beta beta beta beta beta … wow
This is a fantastic piece of software. I absolutely love it and have not noticed any adverts yet. I am using the totally free version.
It's exactly like having iTunes but with all the music I could ever need in my library.
I'd happy use this service if I could download the music, without DRM, and use it however I like. I dont mind looking at some ads for them to make some profit. If anything, this kind of business model could in fact assist independent artists if done correctly, but alas, it seems to have been done wrong. What about those of us with a download limit and absurdly low bandwidth? Puleaze.
@Goldstein,
Ummm, I'm in Sweden… if the RIAA (recording industry of AMERICA) are sending me any letters kindly ask them to make the paper soft so i can use it as toilet paper, US laws wont/dont apply here (just an FYI), I even authorize you to find my IP in any way you wish to to try to sue me… not gonna happen here ;)
Land of thepiratebay baby! And pretty blonde babes… but thats a whole other story.
I'm an animal nut, but would rather kick a kitten then support the music labels so a big F - YOU to you and the recording labels..
Cheers!
http://www.eZee.se
Don't expect the MAFIAA Nazis to do anything right. I doubt they would ever want to assist independent artists, and the whole "stream-only" thing, with no uploading, is pretty much tantamount to DRM. Perhaps the ads do not matter much, but the fact that contractual agreements with the industry, not the users, control what is uploaded, does matter very much. Perhaps the industry can have a good business model, but whatever it is, it does not involve the industry getting any money - that kind of business model should have been extinct already. Besides, the fact that the MAFIAA Nazis are not going to stop trying to install a MAFIAA Gestapo on the internet, turning the internet into a police state, and using FUD extortion, is reason enough to boycott them, and not use anything that makes money for them.
Take the time instead by being a real friend and teaching your pals how to use something like BT, then whatever they see via spotify that they like, they can download via bt to put on thier MP3 players without giving a dime to the labels… maybe good deed for the day?
Hey cool! Looks like you got those 80% of your friends to come and post positive remarks here… under multiple names, good for ya.
But as someone already said above… putting a nice red bow on a piece of shit, does not make the piece anything other than… shit.
"but I don't give a damn about the RIAA"
Maybe BPI then? or IFPI? Same rats/scum… called by different names, all of which need to die… a slow painful death.
cheers!
http://www.eZee.se
Spotify, An Alternative to Music Piracy. Yeah, right. It will never replace something which is free. Its that simple.
Ill stay with deezer.com. Simply web based, no ads, huge (although not big enough :p) archive and obviously instant streaming too.
@ roze: just wondering, how much is a beer again in the land of the piratebay, eh?
Nice Trojan on that site, Roze
I don't drink alcohol - but if I am crazy, that is because copyright law and the MAFIAA Nazis are infinitely more crazy - and worse.
Roze, great point.
There is no way one can get any ZUN, or indeed any indie artist on Spotify.
Add on the fact that it will end up as a pay service supporting the anti-p2pers, i doubt it will appeal to filesharers at all.
simplify media and/or orb pretty much do the same thing….in fact in some ways they are better
Got Trojan? Have Mac!
alot of people are like this dosent work for us. IT DOES. you dont even need an invite! instructions were on digg in one of the post and i had it running in less then 6 minutes. i went to a proxy site.no invite is necessary. go to a proxy site such as dave proxy.co.uk and enter this url
https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/
put AB16XQ
where code is
enter ur email, confim it at ur email adress and ur fine. if someone says go to invitation with the url DONT. u can avoid all that.
wow no US support. we're a pretty big country…
Not available in your country yet. I guess piracy will still live on then. What a bunch of clever people trying to stop piracy. But making it not available in you country. What a great plan. That will really stop piracy dead now.
It is not compatable because there is no way to "download" the actual music files to your pc or music device. However, that does not mean that you cannot capture the stream and export that as an mp3 which can be used on an mp3 player. There are any number of applications you can use to capture any audio as it is being played, in that case, whatever you can hear, can be recorded. The downside of this is that any recording must be done in real time as the track must be played in order to record it, and if you want to go down that road it would be advisable to turn of system sounds. Chances are this will be against the T&C, but well who's going to know?
It is not "compatible" because there is no way to "download" the actual music files to your pc or music device. However, that does not mean that you cannot capture the stream and export that as an mp3 which can be used on an mp3 player. There are any number of applications you can use to capture any audio as it is being played, in that case, whatever you can hear, can be recorded. The downside of this is that any recording must be done in real time as the track must be played in order to record it, and if you want to go down that road it would be advisable to turn of system sounds. Chances are this will be against the T&C, but well who's going to know?
You act like your crazy: you made one post in this thread and then made 10 or so more, each time repeating yourself over and over again. People heard you the first time, you like a little kid repeating yourself over and over again using the same argument over and over again.
In case you hadn't noticed people don't really give a crap what you think of spotify and repeating yourself over and over just makes you look like an extremist nut. The majoirity of people couldn't give a toss that some tiny, unknown bands that are likely too never be well-known - because they are basically crap - are unable to be accessed through spotify. They realise that even if they were uploaded to a p2p system the amount of downloads they would get would be close to zero
They just like the service and hence wish to use it - they don't give a shit about some deluded moron continually posting words like "gestapo", "FUD" and "nazi" and repeating himself over and over again. I don't know why you wasted your time on the posts after the first one… get a life?
Frankly - it's not very good. I tried it out two months ago.
Being in China, I cashed out for the "premium" service to check it out. Here is a list of everything that I wanted to play, that was not available on Spotify:
Garmarna - Hildegard von Bingen album
Sage Francis - Human The Death Dance album
Iron & Wine - Woman King EP
Sunn O))) - Nothing available
Buck 65 - Nothing available
Freezepop - Anything older than their latest album
Handsome Family - Anything older than their latest album
New Pants - Nothing available
Robert Wyatt - Neither Rock Bottom or Cuckooland
O'Death - Nothing available
Loke - Nothing available
Golden Smog - Nothing available
Familjen - Nothing Available
Young Gods - Heaven deconstruction, L'Eau Rouge, Live Sky Tour, Play Kurt Weill, T.V. Sky
Seeing that Spotify does not even have what I listen to on a daily basis, I think I'll be better of with the Pirate Bay and private trackers. Spotify needs to get MUCH better before any serious music enthusiasts can use it to replace their library.
I recommend http://listen.grooveshark.com/. A better library, available directly from your browser and available for free anywhere.
lol
This service is amazing! Cheers E for the invite. And the MAFIA? WTF? Who cares!
Spotify is free :)
Jees people, if ya don't like it, don't use it! Its the same old shit we see all the time here, people think they must have they say, because yeah they're always right, whatever. I love this app/service for radio broadcasting. No more do I have to say "Hey, sorry I don't have your request". I will still continue to download from music trackers, as streaming just isn't the same!
a letter in the greek alphabet
I think that you have missed the point that this is merely another failure of the MAFIAA Nazis.
not a damn uploading service
The exact reason why this is a failure. If it is supplied and controlled by the MAFIAA, excluding all independent artists, then it is nothing more than the same old thing. These "alternative methods" you talk about are clearly superior to any stupid "streaming" service supplied by the MAFIAA Nazis. Now stop being such a Nazi sympathizer.
If you don't see how the MAFIAA is trying to turn the internet into a police state, trying things like 3-strikes, and disconnecting file-sharers, installing a MAFIAA Gestapo - and it is nothing less than that.
And indie bands are not just tiny, unknown bands to be ignored. Independent music is essentially the kind of music helped by P2P. Of course, the MAFIAA Nazis just wish to discourage it because it is not contracted to them, but the fact remains that independent music, the alternative to MAFIAA-contracted music, has been viable.
You need to stop being a Nazi sympathizer.
Blah blah blah, idiot.
Why should you pay the MAFIAA $9.99 a month for the "privilege" of listening to low quality streaming music that's interrupted by ads every 2 or 3 songs while being forced to stay tethered to your computer because you can't burn music from Spotify to a CD or put it on your MP3 player?
Oh, yeah. So superior to filesharing…
The fact is that it funds the MAFIAA Nazis - who should be boycotted, who should have gone to hell already. Is that not enough? It does not support the artists - it only supports the same old system that should have died a long time ago, of the industry controlling it all, getting it all.
I think the reason things like this will work is because in the future cell phones will replace mp3 players and be able to run like our current day computers so well that you could just download this on your cell phone/mp3 player and be done with it! No memory cards needed, no file transfer waiting times, just pay the price to use the internet like we currently do.. and have access to whatever we need instantly! The Nazi's will make money through tiny ads or something. I think streaming is better then downloading if done right like youtube and pandora etc. So if this is supporting nazi record companies then I say HIEL!
(please don't hurt my feelings by pointing out my poor grammer or stupid opinion, its not gonna change anything)
So you think that what the MAFIAA does, suing people who have done nothing wrong, taking down torrent websites, trying to implement 3-strikes, turning the internet into a police state, is okay?
What the MAFIAA is doing is not a conspiracy theory. It is fact.
You guys are pretty naive. Sure, it’s ad-supported right now (in some countries), but for how long? This is the internet we’re talking about. Everything’s always free and wonderful- at first. This is the land where freeware morphs into payware overnight. Blink and your country will disappear from the ad-supported list. Blink and the ad frequency will go from every few weeks to every few seconds.
Sure, it may be great now, but for how long? Months? Weeks?
a lot of the music you mention is on http://www.we7.comin the UK
would appreciate an invite
how can you offer mac but not linux?
Isn't this just like Grooveshark, except it's a download-able client?
Not available in your country yet
FAIL.
Whoops, sorry.
It's only the free version that's continuously interrupted by ads. But the ad revenue helps fund the MAFIAA just the same as the 9.99 a month does, so either way, Spotifiy is nothing more than lifesupport for the copyright cartel.
So if you feel like supporting the status quo where the industry assfucks consumer and artist alike… If you feel like supporting people shitting all over net neutrality, undermining fundamental privacy rights, and literally attempting to get filesharers sent to prison… Sure, go ahead and use Spotifiy to your little heart's content.
Otherwise, don't touch it with a fucking 10 foot pole.
It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.
How is this different than a service like Zune with the Zune Pass? Except for the ad-supported option, obviously, but who the heck wants that?
The author of this article acts like this is the first useful high-quality instant streaming service with a respectable library of music, but anyone whose used Zune or possibly other services knows that isn't the case. Why the heck do you think people like me pay for a Zune Pass?
You can download, you just have to have a program that records from your soundcard. This reduces quality, similar to a ruckus crack.
uhhhh, anyone who values torrenting should be concerned about this. Why would Sony and all the other companies support this unless it benefits them? The goal for them is to get the music off your harddrive permanently and onto a central server that they own so that they can control everything so eventually, they'll switch it over to a pay site and you'll have to pay for it. As long as you have the music on your harddrive, you win and are in control because you can play your music anytime you want. They know this and that's why they want you to use this service so that it will replace your harddrive usage. Fuck this. Can't you see what they are trying to do? In order for us to remain in control, we need the music on our harddrives. They win if they take control of the music and how it is accessed. Don't let them do this. Keep downloading. Keep torrenting.
Heard of adblock plus? Your AV a piece of shit? GG.
are you serious? You think that recording a stream is easier then downloading via P2P.. what the hell is wrong with you..
please stop wasting my air.
Again, P2P > Spotify. Period.
Is Spotify bad? No, I think its great, still doesnt mean its better. I would indeed use it if it was available in usa.
You are a fool if you support spotify. It's basically the fucking FM radio. All they have to do is run this for a few years, get everyone to stop downloading then switch over to a pay-site. Bam, you are fucked. Then we'd have to start all over again from square one with torrenting. The problem with starting over is you can bet your ass that all the new torrenting start-ups WILL BE OWNED BY THEM. Yeah so you are fucked. The reason why torrenting still exists right now is because Sony and the RIAA don't own it because if they did , we would all be getting fucking lawsuits in our mail boxes. The whole thing with media defender was about them trying to get their foot in the door and control everything. Fortunately, the people who own torrenting sites are too smart for that. Boycott spotify. Keep torrenting.
i've been a hardcore music downloader for years. napster/irc/newsgroups/audiogalaxy/bittorrent. i never thought there'd be a legal way of listening to music for free that would be this good.
the market for this program is fucking huge. you talk to any average 14 year old kid and ask them to pull up any given song by any given artist and they'll instinctively go to YouTube, or perhaps myspace and stream the song. the thing is, the sound quality from those sites is SHIT and totally unlistenable, especially as i've been used to the high quality set originally by OiNK of 192kbps.
now although spotify uses 160kbps, it's using OGG Vorbis -q5 to achieve this, which often sounds better than some 192kbps mp3s (especially if a shit encoder like xing has been used). the other thing that makes spotify rule is the sheer fucking SPEED of the thing. it takes the program about half a second (if that) to buffer before it plays any given song, and if you skip to the middle of a track it'll play instantly as if you're playing it locally off your hard drive. pretty incredible.
i'll never stop downloading music however, because i'm not always connected to the internet.
although it's not a perfect technology yet, think of the potential. those of you who say "yeah but i can't download the music to my mp3 player or car stereo", i don't think it'll be long til mp3 players and car stereos connect to wireless internet by default, meaning you'll be able to run a spotify-like service from those devices (something which might be possible from an iPhone in the very near future)
however, i also don't think it'll be long before ISPs begin "including" a spotify-like service within their monthly packages, meaning you'll be paying to stream.
oh and one last thing… for those of you in a non-spotified country, read these articles for some advice on how to access:
http://filesharefreak.com/2008/11/28/join-and-acc...
http://filesharefreak.com/2008/12/26/fixing-spoti...
Sounds to me like the creator of Bittorrent is getting bought off to me. You should all be wary of any new updates to bittorrent or utorrent in my opinion. I wouldn't trust that shit anymore. This guy is a fool for doing business with the enemy. Don't update your utorrent client.
Just keep torrenting for christ sake. They can't fine all 100 million of you. As long as everyone keeps torrenting, you are safe.
Uk works - https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/
http://www.daveproxy.co.uk
Example post code - M1 1AA
Hahaha… Streaming music? You've gotta be kidding me.
No matter how many cheerleaders you have shouting YAY SPOTIFY!!!, the only thing less popular than streaming music is renting music.
It will fail.
Like every other streaming music service before it, and like every other streaming music service still to come, it will fail because downloading a song is and always will be better in every way than streaming it. Period. Full stop. Do not pass go.
And the fact that not only does Spotify have a shitty music selection, it also finances possibly the most disgusting bunch of record labels on Earth? That's just icing on the failcake.
i'd like an invite as well, but don't hurry ;)
Blah blah blah, Nazi defender.
Of course, I expect this to become like another iTunes, nothing new. The future is difficult to predict.
Thanks for the invite!
Seems like a brilliant service so far.
Will the average 12-30 year old care about the record label spotify supports? I have already shown a friend who usually downloads a few songs and buys the ones they cant find on iTunes, the program. For her it's perfect because it had everything she searched for when I was there, the music quality was fine for her use, and the use of playlists means she can easily find songs again like having a music library. With her and friends like her whether they have a laptop or desktop they aren't really ever without an internet connection.
To me for these users spotify is perfect because it does everything they need, I said most of this in my previous post. I fail to understand why someone needs to bash a well made program that will suit most people. In my friendship group I would say that 90% would be set with spotify. I don't think spotify is aimed at the heavy user who thinks they know a lot, and if it is that's a fail. I said it wouldn't work for me but I refuse to bash something that works well.
You say that but the only one here that even remotely resembles a nazi is you.
A nazi is defined as: derogatory term for a person who is fanatically dedicated to, or seeks to control, some activity, practice, etc
Congrats you fanatical nutcase.
This is the future of listening to music!
If they can do the same thing for video it will also be the future of TV!
Thanks a lot for the invite. This service is brill.
xx
You say that but the only one here that even remotely resembles a nazi is you.
A nazi is defined as: derogatory term for a person who is fanatically dedicated to, or seeks to control, some activity, practice, etc or relating to a form of socialism.
Congrats you fanatical nutcase.
well fuck piracy
So how is this different to we7 at all ? this seems to just be an exact copy of that service (like exact) with an application version…. which we7 is meant to be bringing out anyway … This is NOT a new concept at all.
Well I guess its probably is a bit difficult for someone with your mentality. Stick to p2p and in future if you dont want to hear an explanation, don't fkin ask.
This is amazing - it's like nothing that's every come out of a deal with the music industry before. Ads aren't intrusive; though I do hope they're making money so that increased numbers of users will be able to grow the service as a whole. Oh, and the catalog is incredible.
I really hope this continues to expand. And that they give me some invites soon - I've just sold the idea to my entire family.
After I installed Spotify, Deezer(even if it's legal, flash based pages suck) and what.cd are dead for me. I really love how the artist pages are made(clean album covers, all albums lists, biography, similar artists links). Well, this is future :) And people who talk shit about this great service, are mostly torrent trackers admins, moderators and their friends. Music industry tricked you here, now you have a right to be called "dinosaurs" ;)))) But I'm still going to download movies and apps from torrents though.
This sounds like a crappy version of the grooveshark to me.
Grooveshark is made in flex so you use it from a browser and I do not think there is any limit from where you can use it. I am from eastern europe and it works for me.
http://listen.grooveshark.com/
I'm sick and tired of this socialist nonsense.
What is so wrong with record companies making money? It is called capitalism and the incentives inherent in it have been a force for good throughout the world.
Perhaps the next thing you'll say is that drug companies shouldn't make a profit, or that farmers are making too much money.
Jeez.. if you don't like them that much, why don't you setup your firm and compete.
now if only you could have this as an add-on for winamp i'd use it, the player in this is very basic. how the hell do i turn up the bass?
i only get 3 hits for andy c but i guess my tastes arnt that common. the streaming is instant (for me) that in its self is amazing, i'd like to browse types of music rather then searching, and that radio wtf? wheres all the dance, hard dance, drum and bass, trance.
typing in drum and bass just gives me a load of crap! maybe im too noob @ this i dunno.
for now i'll stick with my normal internet radio. i mean thats all this is right? just a radio player, radio on demand, like tv on demand, still cant get good use able files for free!
so its a step in the right direction, but only one step!
Thanks for the invite!!
So it's just streaming music? If I can't download what's the point?
Hey, stfu. How about you follow your own name and SHUT THE FUCK UP. This service sucks, and it takes a real fucking class S newbie to enjoy it for more than 10 minutes. What would you do if your internet cut out for, say, an hour? Oh right, you sit there and listen to nothing while waiting for this piece of shit service to come back. Now go drown in your own semen, you retard. This will NEVER compete with physically owning your music in high quality rips, so keep being a fanboy about it all you want.
thanks a lot for the invite
Take your Mac and shove it. Trojans only affect those dumb enough to catch them and not notice.
Thank you, mee, for using the word "n00b" and totally nullifying anything contained within your post as being actually interesting to read. Now get out you piece of trash.
Once again Roze shows what a complete moron she/he/it is. This is an on-demand music STREAMING service, not a damn uploading service. If you feel the need to upload derivitive works there are plenty of alterative methods in which to do so. Again the freetards prove that they will never be happy.
Nice job failing again, stfu. Nobody wants shitty quality streamed music on their MP3 player other than you. Again, go play with yourself in the middle of a busy freeway, please.
Exactly, and you get any nice, glaring errors you may have experienced during the song (like a sudden drop in bandwidth) transferred right on into your recording. AKA, this sucks and ripping streams will always be a dumbass way of stealing music. Now get out.
You obviously have no clue what the fuck you're talking about, GodisMannen. Go fly back to your silly music streaming service that nobody but a select few retards care about.
Of course you can put it on your mp3 player, if you have more than one brain cell and actually know how to use a damn computer the fact that its streamed makes absolutely no difference except that it may take some effort, a concept alien t the average freetard.
Actually, it would take someone as ignorant as a Nazi defender like you to suggest something stupid like that.
:p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP Jesus.
better, my ass
money still feeds the RIAA cockmonglers. Artists don't benefit…..the wheel keeps on turning.
Many don't care anymore….we just want the RIAA to die already
Actually, it seems like the same-old industry stuff. Flat fees or not, there will still be the MAFIAA Nazis. No amount of music is worth paying the MAFIAA.
Actually, it seems like the same-old industry stuff. Flat fees or not, there will still be the MAFIAA Nazis. No amount of music is worth paying the MAFIAA Nazis.
"Work with us". Easy to find on spotify.com Doesn't cut anyone off from the party.
It IS different. So different I can't describe it. So extremely awesome. And I don't care if it is the record companys that supply the music, I get to listen for free and I havent heard a commercial for weeks.
Well, I'm not a marketer for Spotify, I just love the service and want everyone else to enjoy it. So much simpler than BitTorrent. Doesn't have to find a torrent, then download and then play. Just search and instantly play.
Well bah, just like other things I've seen advertised as "alternatives to piracy" this starts out with a few strikes against it - not being available in the US being a major one. Since I can't access the service, I can't really pass judgment on how well it works; however, I am convinced that the voluntary (keyword: voluntary) collective licensing backed by the EFF is the real solution.
totally agree.
I approve of this application - it contains "To Zanarkand" so it can not be evil. :) Thanks for the invite Ernesto.
Spotify is proving amazing so far!
not torrented any music all day ;)
still my mp3 player hasn't received any tracks either so i'm not done with pirateing alltogether yet
Is this just streaming or can you actually download it so you can play if offline like in VLC?
I'm not getting super fast streaming. Like if I select a place 30 seconds ahead, it'll load for a few seconds, before playing. That's my only complaint, and it's not really very grave :) Thanks!
Because I live in Canada, I followed these instructions to join: http://filesharefreak.com/2008/11/28/join-and-acc...
+1 for uk https://www.spotify.com/en/invitation/works just fine with proxy.
Btw, client works fine under Linux + wine
So, what's the catch ?
This application is a great compromise. The adverts only appear on the free version while you can pay for a version without adds. People and companies can still make money off the internet without the customer getting taken advantage of.
Anyone who can't see this being a giant leap foreword is very ignorant.
Streaming only. All files that is stored on your harddrive is encrypted.
Very nice service, so far no complaints here. Smooth interface and no delay in loading the songs. Definitely something worth trying out if you haven't already.
PS. Ernesto, thanks for the invite.
thanks for the invitation ernesto.
It works fine, I love it, it's better than deezer because I dont like web app and flash (bad mp3 decoder) for music, and the sound is better. It's better (different I must say) than Last.fm because you can chose what to listen OR listen to a radio.
It's a preview for my shoping on what.cd.
It’s well worth the advertisment or the money you can pay for not recieve the adds just becuase of the easyness of the program, no more hunting for songs och downloding shit, so when do we see a similar video service?
“create a service better than piracy”
One of the big reasons I have “pirated” music is that it is not for sale any longer. How does this service address music you can’t buy?
Thanks for the invite Ernesto. Works well, seems to have a lot of stuff! Just have to wonder how long it will last like this. I can imagine them either charging or stepping up the amount of ads. I can see the whole thing getting slower too! Oh well, we’ll see!
Man, I would really like to test this out. Looks really promising. Think I might be able to snag an invitation?
Sux2bu eh? What are you 12 or something when the best you can do is attempt to insult someone with a poor attempt at a homophobic nickname? perhaps you may want to seek therapy and address your own sexuality rather than hiding behind such childish tactics.
Emphasis on not there yet. They have not done anything better than P2P yet, if ever.
I see you can't accept the fact that you're absolutely retarded and you vote your own posts up. Congrats! You have no valid points left, just go die already and stop trying to act like you're maddox or something. Retard.
Yay another dumbass poster thats all mouth. I'm amazed that so many people can fail at commenting, unless it's the same tard and they just cant remember the last nick they used. You should start a club for the hard of thinking, invite Roze while you're at it and the two of you can compete to see which of you is the most retarded.
Aw, did somebody hit a nerve? I didn't see a single valid point in this post to what I said. Keep voting yourself up, silly boy. Ripping streams is easy, but who wants to do that and have shitty quality stuff on their MP3 player? Only you, obviously. Keep tryin', though! You're almost sounding smart. Almost.
I like how that's the only thing you have to hang onto in your conversations. You insult back without having any points in your statements. Maybe it's time for a reality check? Newbie.
Can some1 plz send me an invite code to arturs.zelenkovecs@gmail.com
?
AAAAAAAAAA! The mpaa and spotify people have taken over torrentfreak!
Every moron knows that the reason music was ripped in the first place was because people have paid billions to record companies and they still didn't have the right to own the very thing they paid for. I rip my cd's and share what I can and dl what I want, to use as I wish. If I find it is worth it, I support the artist by buying it.
You spotify people want to say "Oh this means you get what you want, when you want, without eating up hard drive space" But you fail to mention that if you don't have internet or if your listening device isn't hooked up to the internet, you can't stream the music. Yeah, I walk around with a cable modem shoved up my arse and spotify works brilliant for me!
Morons.
We don't want to support you because you do not compete, you are a monopoly that destroys competition. Therefore, we will not be using spotify, but rather utorrent, to stream the same stuff at higher quality in a way we can keep and transfer to our mp3 players, so we can listen without supporting your dumb arses.
Downloading it to my own pc means I can do what I want with it, without being restricted to having an internet connection, and having it means that I can use it on any pc WITH an internet connection as well, so why would I waste time listening to commercials and funding spotify when I can just have my own stuff and save my bandwidth for something more important like online gaming or downloading more stuff.
Why would I vote my own post up? i couldn't give a crap about the retarded rep system. As for the validity of points, well I'd imagine most of them are probably over your head anyway. Stick to lego.
Hey guys,
The workaround posted using a UK proxy does not appear to work anymore at least not for me. Could someone be so kind and send me an invite: badiboo AT gmail dot com
I will cook my best chocolate cake for you :)
Many thanks,
Sofia
It's not available in the US either ;)
It's a Swedish company and is currently only available in western and northern Europe…
It probably won't fund the industry as much as they think in the long run. With spotify artists are given two choices, sign up with a big musiclabel and enjoy 10% of your "spotify income" OR sign with spotify yourself and enjoy 100%.
Besides, haven't we filesharers been complaning for a long time that the music industry failed to adapt to the new times? Isn't this pretty much exactly what we asked for?
No it's not. You have to either pay a monthly fee or put up with commercials.
I was just invited by Ernesto yesterday, so I don't have invitations yet, but i've added your email to my adressbook, and i'll send you a mail once I get some invitations to see if you still need one.
Spotify is indeed very impressive. Even very rare albums and songs seems to have found it's way into the library. So as for the concerns about independent and small artists being excluded, it doesn't appear that way. I'm even finding things that I couldn't find through p2p!!
The concerns about supporting the big music-labels is troublesome, but i'd say if anything spotify might be able to give artists an alternative to signing up with the big labels.
I'm very impressed by Spotify, but I don't really think it'll halt piracy. I fanything it'll help me find out what to DL.
Thanks to Ernesto for the invite. I never thought I'd actually get one, but I hope I can start making invites myself soon (if it works that way).
How about installing Spotify, searching for music, double click the song you want to listen to and then you listen? Not finding torrent, downloading it and loading it in µTorrent, downloading the song and then open it in iTunes, Zune or WMP.
Neither is hard work, but Spotify is simpler.
The ads does NOT come every 2 or 3 songs. I haven't heard a commercial in weeks, despite running Spotify for 10-12 hours of the day. (I hooked my computer to my speakers so I always have music, wherever I am in my house)
Stop spreading bullshit "facts" you can't even back up.
When/If they will switch to pay-site, torrents or any smarter tech will rise… Boycott something else…
I am tired of the MAFIAA stuff, let them think they win, as long as anyone can get what they want for "free" - I am good with it…
Thanks drakvakt much appreciated.
I will remain patient.
Labels and artists can sign up themselves. I don't see what the big deal is. It's obvius that most people who are complaining[I said most, ]haven't even taken a look at it.
http://www.proxz.com/proxy_list_uk_0_ext.html
God damn proxies stopped to work…. any new ones?
Great article. Thanks for the information.
160kbps?? Terrible
Most torrent sites have "commercials" as well
It could potentially be good, if those things against it would be taken away (like inability to download, &c.) - but the biggest thing is that it is funding the industry - and why do that? We should boycott the industry, not give them money. Even if it is good (which it is not quite at this moment, but that, of course, is an opinion), why support the industry?
Very impressive, I’m liking it.
If the companies can turn a profit on this without turning it to shite, and artists are rightfully rewarded for their talent, then great. To have that much music right there ready for instant playback is an awesome facility, and the sound quality seems respectably decent, too. I like the interface also as it’s clean, uncomplicated, and feels fast and easy to use.
“How do you compete with free?”
This is a good start.
Thanks for the invite Ernesto. Tried out spotify and I'm really enjoying it - as a radio station where I choose what i wanna listen to. But I really lack the function to make a random playlist from a genre i.e Metal of the 50 top most ranked songs.
Spotify will work as a radiostation at any stationary location, like home and the workplace. It will be great for partys! But spotify will not work when you are on the road, at least not until an portable player can stream aswell.
just use http://www.grooveshark.comsounds about the same except grooveshark is free.. if your just wanting to stream it
Yeah, for now. It can't be free forever. It'll defeat its purpose.
Got an invite.
Many thanks WizKid.
I will pass on invites when i got some.
Cheers
Hey dumbass, did you know that "totallydifferent " isn't even a word at all and that your as retarded as I'm, am according to your good self, as I made a mistake like you just did?
And then you end with the word "Phail", ROFL…
See, I actually agree with some of Roze's views - but I try not to kid myself or others. I just disagree with making up stuff to push those views (artists getting no money from labels or distributors, artists shouldn't be paid, calling content crap and then stating he hasn't seen or heard it before) and phrases that seem wild exaggerations (Nazi, Gestapo, police state etc.). I didn't notice any of that in your post btw.
IMO, it would be great if he put this much time and effort into posting here - if he was "the voice of reason" as you put it.
"now if only you could have this as an add-on for winamp i'd use it, the player in this is very basic. how the hell do i turn up the bass?"
Don't listen on crappy amplifier?
roze stop using the word nazi, else i need to call u mafia-JEW.
ur so called mafiaa arent wearing any Nazi-cross nor did they gas any people. ur totaly inapropriate. everybody should pay for the service he gets but not overprized. why would i want to download music to my hdd if its right there within sec. to listen im happy that i dont have to save all shit onto the hdd that need to be sorted / backuped… why would one wants to keep terabytes of music at home at the end u only have 2 pair of ears to listen. i have that problem with alot of movies ripped to hdd. but if iwould get i reasonable streaming service id just look the movie online and dont have to worry about quality and a space. streaming should be the future…
You idiot, go and learn some history. Like, why BT was originally made… sheesh. Then you'll see how stupid that comment is.
haha when ur internets down u wont be downloading from p2p either..
but then, internet down? in what fucking retard country jungle bush to u live?
I really don't see why people are bashing this. I downloaded it and have been enjoying it all day. That's enough to satisfy me.
So I know i am using this program from the states so i have yet to see an ad or anything close to one in over two days solid of use, but how many times are you interrupted with ads in the uk while using spotify
Tagyourit: Here in the companys home country, Sweden, the average right now is one ad for every six songs. No more, no less.
If they get more companys who actually want to advertise, of course there will be more ads. It's not a service made for "love", it's a business. Good fun never comes for free unless there are pirates involved.
An alternative to Spotify is We7 - another ad-funded free music website which was officially launched in 2008. The service got excellent support winning us the BT Digital Music Award for the best digital music service of 2008!
The two sites are similar, but we think the the ads on We7, although more frequent, are less intrusive as whispers rather than full ads. Another advantage is the ease at which you can play music immediately, without having to be invited to use the service or even to log in.
Best thing to do is check it out for yourself - http://www.we7.com
Great marketing Hannah, but the trouble with We7 seems to be that the service doesn't have any songs. Really. Feel free to correct me here, I'd love a serious Spotify competitor.
1st of all: grow the fuck up (all of you), you sound like 12 year old schoolgirls.
2nd: It IS meant to replace owning your music, since it's a competitor for Bittorrent/downloading.
Roze, not calling people nazi's might help in them considering your point. Also plain dumb accusations like that nullify your contribution to the discussion since no one will seriously consider your points.
Really? We have over 3m licensed tracks so far - how many songs did you want? Having launched in early November, we're still uploading the full extent of our catalogue but I'm pretty sure we are a serious Spotify competitor.
Not sure what kind of music were you after but we have deals with all four majors, as well as distributors [PIAS] and The Orchard as well as individual deals with indie labels such as Sanctuary.
Spotify Campaign until April 9, 2009, at no cost to you something extra. Thereafter, the price 99 kr / month
Hey, NubCakes, did you know "you're" and "your" are two totallydifferent words?! Just letting you so maybe next time you won't make yourself look like a total retard, buddy! "You act like your crazy"= You're insinuating Roze owns a "crazy". Phail.
We don't need kids like you in what.cd, anyhow. Give your account to somebody that could make better use of high quality music that can be downloaded directly to your computer. Seriously, can't stop laughing at people saying this>what.cd. What a bunch of retards, you guys must have some 99 cent Wal-Mart headphones or something.
Hi John, welcome to piracy central. Why are you here again? To be ridiculed daily or just to try and spread your silly message? Either way, enjoy being a dumbass!
Spotify works very well, the program is really well written. I'll give them that. But I'm afraid in a couple of years we'll look back at this as the time when the industry managed to trick the users once again.
1) Scare users with lawsuits
2) Provide legal streaming "alternative", enjoy the hype
3) See piracy go down
4) Stop selling new music on cd
5) Raise price for streaming service, insert more ads
6) Laugh as former pirates try to share music without having access to source material
Firstly, stop using the word 'MAFIAA'. Makes you sound like an idiot, and you don't even have an R in there.
Second of all, about uploading your own music, you can. Try researching these things before making a fool of yourself. I refer you to https://www.spotify.com/en/work-with-us/labels-an...
Finally, this is a company INDEPENDENT of the record labels that you have come to not appreciate, it would seem. They paid money to these companies to stream music, and create money for themselves by the unobtrusive advertising that is included in the free accounts. Sure, you can't download the music, but then again, when you are not paying ANYTHING for it, why should you?
It is not meant to replace your current music selection, merely compliment it - so even if you did loose your own internet connection, you still have your own, purchased music to listen too.
Yeah, but, nobody is gonna buy into that overall. Only poorly informed dumbasses like "stfu".
Thanks for stereotyping people that are against it. However, in light of your massive amount of gathered intelligence on this situation, not everybody bashing it is from the USA. Also, a huge amount of us do NOT sit at our computer 24/7 listening to music, and we have hi-fi systems that pick out the shity quality in 160kbs streams. Sounds more like you're the fatty here, fatty. Go sit in front of your PC and snort/grunt while ingesting that bacon triple cheeseburger. Tool.
They need to provide Mp3 download client for premium users. I wouldn't mind paying $5 or $10 for unlimited Mp3 downloads through this and no ads in streaming.
Exactly! I'm not at my PC 24hrs a day. No ipod support, no native linux version and no availability in the US = fail! I think this will be moderately successful for the casual listeners who want to find a quick song while at their PC. But by no means will it combat piracy unless they can get a client on every ipod on earth!
Although it may not be in America, "MAFIAA" is very much an appropriate term.
They paid money to these companies to stream music
That is the problem.
Sure, you can't download the music, but then again, when you are not paying ANYTHING for it, why should you?
To be able to do whatever one wishes with the music. Guess that it is not better than P2P after all.
Now stop being a Nazi sympathizer. (But of course, you won't, since you are clearly a hired advocate for them.)
No…………………. it's not……………………….
What do you mean it's "so much simpler than BT"? So installing uTorrent and clicking "download torrent" is hard work? I don't recall people being this retarded.
Top post there numbnuts. If it isnt working, then you listen to something else huh? Oh wait, that requires a minimal ammount of thinking, something you obviously fail at. Its not meant to replace owning your own music, not like you actually know what owning your own music is becuse you probably let other people actually buy it and you get it from them for free.
you are the moron, stfu, who is too stupid to know he is a moron. damn idiots are out breeding the intelligent, please dont have kids.
Get on with your bad self, fascist.
Try this: http://digg.com/tech_news/Spotify_An_Alternative_...
It worked for me, I'm from Germany as well.
I don't think they are trying to stop piracy… just make a few bucks
Do you know off hand what percentage of the distributor and label cut goes to the artists?
For what it's worth, I asked, and I appreciate the explanation. I still think that P2P would be easier than recording a stream, but the fact that the capability is there is really all that is needed.
Anyone know how to sign up now? I have an invite but it won't let me go on since I'm in the US.
Won't this just help people find new music to pirate?
I have been using Spotify for months since October. Here is our review, http://crenk.com/spotify-ad-supported-music-strea...
Not lossless. Not worth it.
Not Add free. Not worth it.
No obscure content. Not worth it.
Supporting the MAFIAA. Not worth it.
Inability to use content as you see fit (IE away from computer). Not worth it.
Yeah, this is pretty much useless for me. Some people don’t care about lossless codecs, and don’t mind the adds. I do. Many others do as well. Many people don’t know or care about the more obscure content. I find that some of the best stuff is hidden there. Even though I spend a good portion of the time that I am listening to music at or near the computer, I do not like such arbitrary restrictions put in place on materials in my possession.
Very neat product even though it has been a hassle to get my account created since I am located in Canada. I had to use a France web proxy to succesfully use my invite. For an unknown reason, I couldn't access the Spotify website through a UK proxy. Anyway, thanks Ernesto for the invite!
Instructions to get Spotify outside of the U.S.:
1. Get/install Firefox (mozilla.com)
2. Get/install FoxyProxy Add-On, restart Firefox
3. Pick out a European Proxy server from here: http://www.publicproxyservers.com/page1.html,or be lazy and try the one I found to work: 89.234.27.15 port 80
4. Tools -> FoxyProxy -> Options
5. Add New Proxy
6. Add name of your choice, and notes if you wish
7. Proxy Settings Tab, select Manual Config, paste IP and port 80
8. URL Patterns tab, Add new pattern, Check enabled, and paste this into the URL Pattern box: *://*spotify.com/*, leave whitelist and wildcards radio buttons selected "
Seen here: http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/spotify-my-setup-and...
I obviously mean outside of the UK or any other market where it is accessible. I have selected a UK proxy which works like a charm.
Hope this helps
Awesome product, great selection of tunes. Thanks for the invite.
This is absolutely brilliant. It even beats torrenting for music becuase it plays instantly as if it was already downloaded, and the range of music available is surprisingly huge, even at this early stage.
In the given website suggests about the spotify music services and their function and the operation, You only need to access the site and browse through the library of songs. Since everything seems too easy, people are quickly tempted to go with these sites, without having to ask any important questions beforehand…
I do like this. It reminds me a bit of lala.com which you have to pay for, I think, and which I had been planning to use, it’s about 10c to buy a song for streaming or something? But then blip.fm came along, which basically lets you stream any song for free anyway, so I’ve been using that, but I’m not sure they’ve got rights clearance for everything, so they might start truncating songs soon. But Spotify so far is great, but of course it’s beta so they haven’t put the adverts in yet. But I’ll still probably use it when they do, because prefer to do things the way to rights holders want them to be done, it just seems fairer.
I havent been to impressed with spotify yet..
1024 gbps is shit
Don't give up stfu :P
Thanks for the invite Ernesto! Cant wait to try it out :) Will come back here if I get some invites on my own to share.
I haven't downloaded any mp3's since i got this about 2 weeks ago. If there were an app on the iPhone, this would be nearing perfection.
Ok. I bet Spotify will be more successful than Firefox when it's mature.
I'm using it in the Netherlands (Amsterdam) no problem! However, I did set it up in the UK, but I don't see how that would matter…
Well i guess spotifiy is doomed now anyways.. They already didnt have enough music to catch my intrest, and now they are forecd to remove content .. great .. so just bring on the Sharing and the caring at TPB. Downloading and having the music on your own computer or media device is 10000 better then streaming. When i want my music i want it now… i may stream from my collection to my phone, but when other people are telling me what to listen to i might as well just listen to any web radio.
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