There I was, sat on a train, 2 hours into my 4 hour journey, reading my beloved copy of NME. It was there where I came across an article about a new music system called SPOTIFY-a free, internet-based, jukebox, which has almost every song and album ever released (well except from the odd artist here and there) available to you at the touch of a button.
The basic principle behind it is that you download the programme from their website (www.spotify.com/en/get-started), create an account, enter in the artist you want to listen to and hit play. As easy as one, two, three really. Amazing really.
Now you're probably thinking, 'How is this different from other programmes like this?'. Well Spotify has one of the largest libraries of music so there is more choice and, unlike places like Limewire, you won't get any of the bad quality, recorded from the radio, types of songs. You get the official ones. For free. Also the layout is a lot like that of Itunes, which means that for a lot of society, it is easy to get used to, with a lot of its features being very familiar. You can also create saved playlists, to allow for ease of access for your favourite songs. There is also a 'radio' feature where you can choose from different genre's and decades and they will play recommended music. Perfect if you are looking for some new music to listen to.
However, like most things, it does come with some flaws. Firstly, none of the music can be downloaded, meaning that you can only listen to it from you computer. Not the greatest if you're life-source for all your music is your MP3 player. Secondly, in order for it to be free, it is funded by adverts and, as well as the odd advert around the programme, there is also an advert played every 7 songs or so. Now this can become annoying when you're listening to your favourite album, but it does make it sound a lot like you're listening to the radio. Also, the adverts do become very repetative, with only a few adverts being played. By the end of a day, you are able to memerise them in entirity, which although annoying, can be an amazing party piece. But these adverts are needed so that the creaters can pay the record companies for the access to the music.
If adverts are not your thing, you can always pay for them to removed. The lovely makers of Spotify have come up with two different payment stages to remove those pesky ads. The first is the 'Day Pass' option which costs 99p. This allows you 24 hours of advert free access to the library. This is perfect for parties and general days of music endulging. Then there is the 'Premium' option which costs £9.99 a month. This allows you to have absolute no adverts, ever. However, I must say that these two options take the fun out of the fact that it is completely free.
Spotify is defiantly the music programme that everyone should use, and I can see it taking over from other programmes in the near future, especially if/when they create a MP3 player to transport all the music around on. Itunes, beware.
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