creative deconstruction

Review: Does Spotify Live Up to the Hype?

Posted on 11. Oct, 2009 by refe in NEWS, TECHNOLOGY

Spotify is finally coming to the US

The internet fairies were good to me last week, dropping two exciting little goodies into my inbox. The first was to Spotify, which has been available in Europe for a while now but has yet to be released here in the States. The second was the much anticipated communications and collaboration platform Google Wave. I am still playing around with Wave and will likely post my thoughts on it in a few days.

I’m sure that Spotify is old news for all you Europeans who have been using it for months.  Those of us in the USA have been hearing constant buzz about the service for what seems like forever. Phrases like “iTunes Killer” and “the future of music streaming” have been tossed around by many online, but most of it is hearsay because few have actually had the chance to take it for a spin.

Streaming Done Right

I spent quite a bit of time with Spotify over the weekend and so far  I have been pretty impressed. iTunes has been my go-to music platform for years now (yes I still purchase all of the music I download) but I could definitely see Spotify challenging that.

For those who aren’t familiar with the way Spotify works, it is basically a heavy duty music streaming application. It sits on your desktop rather than being web-based like Last.fm or Pandora. Music is streamed live, and can be cached in offline mode if you subscribe to the premium version. Unlike iTunes you don’t purchase albums or individual tracks, which means that you don’t own the music you listen to on Spotify.

The interface is simple and clean. There are two home screens, one showing the newest available tracks, the other showing the top streams. I didn’t find either of these to be all that useful since my tastes are generally a bit more obscure. Instead, most of my time was spent with the search function, checking out bands I wanted to hear from and saving what I liked in custom playlists.

An example of the 'Top Lists' section

Just about everything can be clicked and dragged, which makes creating playlists very easy. If you drag a collection of songs from a single artist Spotify will automatically name your playlist for that artist, which is handy when you are making a bunch of playlists at one time. All of these playlists are available in offline mode if you purchase a premium subscription for ten bucks, or a one day pass for $0.99.

Spotify’s catalogue is impressive, but there are some serious holes. When I searched for the band White Rabbits, for example, their latest album It’s Frightening was missing. Same goes for Mates of State – no sign of Re-arrange Us. Spotify is still in the process of securing licensing agreements with many US record labels and publishing companies. It could be a while before these holes are filled, but for now there should still be plenty of tracks to keep you busy until then.

One very cool feature is the ability to share any track, album, artist or playlist by dragging it into an email or tweet. The recipient will need a Spotify account of their own to be able to listen to it, but provided that they do this makes for an extremely simple – and legal – way to introduce friends to new music discoveries.

Premium Subscriptions

A premium subscription buys you the following:

• Ad-free listening. So far it seems that Spotify has subjected me to about one audio commercial for every 4 or 5 songs. Not bad, but still annoying.
• Offline mode. I could see this feature being most important to those using Spotify on laptops, or with spotty internet connections. This also gives an illusion of ownership that may be important to some users.
• Mobile access. This is a big one. Spotify is available for iPhone/iPod Touch and Android platforms, but only if you shell out the dough. I’m not sure what I think about this. It makes some sense from a technical perspective – offline mode is a big part of mobile usage. However, withholding mobile capabilities from free users may seriously impact their experience of the platform.
• Higher sound quality. Premium subscribers are able to stream music in a higher bitrate, up to 320kbps. I’ve been using the free version and haven’t noticed any significant sound quality issues. I’d say this is primarily for those with great sound systems or a particularly discerning ear.
• Travel access. Move in and out of participating countries without losing the service.
• Hear albums before their official release.

Premium subscriptions cost £9.99/month in the UK. I don’t have a confirmed number for what it will cost US users to upgrade, but I would be surprised if it were much more than around $10, which would make it roughly the cost of downloading one full album per month on iTunes.

I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not I would be willing to upgrade. The premium features could be a bit more compelling, in my opinion, but offline and mobile access put it over the edge for me. I also may be traveling overseas for a speaking engagement early next year and it would be a bummer not to have access to my account.

Spotify founder has also indicated that the list of premium features is likely to continue to grow. “Instead of trying to make the ad product worse, we should try and focus on getting enough features in the premium version that people are willing to pay for,” Ek told Wired back in July. I’m encouraged to see that the company’s strategy involves attempts at adding value, rather than essentially removing it for profit.

Conclusion

My initial impression after using Spotify for the past three days is very positive. I can really see myself moving away from my old iTunes-centric ways and developing new habits around this service. Does Spotify live up to the hype? I think in most ways it really does. It is still a work in progress, which means that it’s likely to grow and improve as time goes on and more people gain access to it.

Have any of you had the chance to use it, perhaps more extensively than I have? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments section.

***IMPORTANT: I’ll be giving away a handful of invites Monday afternoon so make sure you are either subscribed to my RSS feed or following me on Twitter so that you can get in on the action as soon as it happens.***

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• Music and Tech Recap – April 2010 Edition

Tags: iTunes, online streaming, Spotify