I finally got a chance to download and use Spotify. I downloaded it because I wanted music to romance my wife on Valentine's Day. I learned a lot about it. I'm gonna share the good and the bad of Spotify.
Spotify Review from the Fan's Perspective
I drank the Kool-Aid. Spotify rocks! Yup. There is no greater tool for finding and sampling nearly every song in the world. It's all at your fingertips.
When I wanted to make my Valentine's Day playlist, I started with Austin music groups, then I picked bands performing at South By Southwest. Not every band had music there, but most did. It was a breeze to quickly sample songs, see if the music was romantic enough, and then skip on to the next song or artist. I had a blast doing it too.
I had so much fun, in fact, that I started sampling Grammy nominees and winners. That was extra cool. I was a Grammy member for several years. The biggest problem that faced Grammy nominees was I had no clue who half the artists were or what their newest album sounded like. Spotify made that easy. I sampled a bunch of new artists. Yesterday, I even heard the first single from David Bowie‘s new album (It was boring).
There are a lot of Celtic musicians, both old-school and new, whose albums I hadn't heard. I listened to the Bilge Pumps latest album. Then I got sucked into Christy Moore. I listened to “Ride On” on repeat. I then got to sample his many albums, hearing him live as well as the studio albums that continue to secure him as a top notch Irish musician.
That's as far as I got. I understand you can buy music, but I still prefer to buy from Amazon first, and then iTunes. I don't really want another digital music retailer.
That said, I really love Spotify Premium. I'm not sure I can afford to keep it, even at just $10 per month. But it really is a fantastic service.
Spotify Review from the Musician's Perspective
If you follow the indie music biz news at all, you know that Spotify sucks! … sort of…
The problem is that Spotify is partially owned by the big record companies. They pay independent musicians less than they pay musicians signed to those labels. That pisses me off. It's tough enough making a living as an indie musician than to be excluded once again by the monopoly of the record labels and their bitch the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America, which actually may have nothing to do with this, but their lobbyists are part of the problem with the industry today, along with the narrow-minded execs who work at the record labels).
That's the problem. But I confess that the positive outweighs the negative for me. Fans can hear my music. They can decide before they buy the music if it is worthwhile to purchase. And of course, true fans will buy the music and support their favorite artists. My friend Voltaire agreed with me in a recent Facebook post of his. He too has all his music on Spotify, happily sharing it with the world.
I give away a lot of music under the same reasoning. I want my music to be heard. Spotify makes that possible PLUS I actually get paid a tiny bit any time someone listens to my music over and over again. Sure it's only a fraction of a fraction of cent, but with time, I might be able to buy a latte at Starbucks… Maybe… 😉
At least Spotify makes it possible, unlike Pandora which spent several YEARS rejecting my music for some unknown reason until fans wrote in and said, “WTF?!”
All in all, I am happy to endorse Spotify. If you know someone using it, share one of my songs with them. Let them sample my music to their heart's content. Then casually suggest they buy it too.
Been wondering about Spotify. In your opinion, is the free version worth using or just the paid version. I hate the thought of adding another monthly bill for something I may use sporadically.
I used the free version on my phone and you can only use the radio features. I don’t care for the radio feature. I *think* you can listen to anyone on the computer, but I mostly listen to Spotify on my Phone. Though now that I think about it. I might keep it on my computer if I don’t continue the Premium version so that I can still sample artists. But I certainly won’t use it much.
Personally, if you think you’ll use it a lot, get the Premium version. $10 per month ain’t bad, to be honest. And if money wasn’t so tight, I’d keep it.
Glad to see the review. I’ll give Spotify’s free version a look-see. I’d been using Last.fm forever; since they went for-pay, while I haven’t given up on it entirely, I’m at least tempted to test the waters.
The thing I liked best about Last.fm was that if someone listened to it, it got added to their database and associations made, even if it was the most obscure thing ever. I still listen to a lot of old Amiga chiptunes and PC demo music from the early 90s, so I’ve got some really, really obscure things, and this doesn’t fool Last.fm at all.
It seems odd that I’d make that a requirement, but this is kinda key for me. I don’t want to have the experience I have with iTunes’ “Genius” where I click on a song to make a magic playlist, even songs that aren’t all that obscure, and the software gets lost and confused and shrugs its shoulders and says, “Eh, ya got me.”