A while back, I saw a mention of Spotify, a sort of online Jukebox. When I checked their site, they were only in Beta and you had to wait for an invite. Eventually, I checked back again and found that it was possible to register. I was expecting something a bit like Napster (the original version) but what I actually found was music on demand. A remarkable quantity of music, much of which I had completely forgotten about or never actually discovered.
What really impressed me was that I had better control than my CD player at home, the streaming behaved as if I had a local MP3 file on the laptop. (It isn’t always this though, the other day it took the best part of a minute for a new track to start, so they might be having growing pains!).
Why does it eat up time? Well you type in the name of a song, an album or an Artist. It then shows you everything related to what you searched for and often a heap of compilation albums with stuff on as well. Before you know it, you are sitting in the gloom with everyone else in bed!
Surely there is a catch? Well yes, it plays you adverts occasionally, with increasing frequency as the evening goes on. You can pay 99 eurocents for a 24 hour daypass if you are having a party or if you really love music, for the price of a chart CD you can have a month of premium service which includes some new releases not open to regular punters. Also it hasn’t made it to America yet but it is imminent. (Details from Rupert Goodwins’ Blog, including ponderings on their business model).
You may or may not be able to try it out- have a look at their website- http://www.spotify.com and see, also see their Blog for a taste of what direction they are heading. I have a couple of spare invites going to the free service, first come, first served. (Email me or comment here if you are happy for your email to be in plain view).
(Not of personal interest to me, but they also have a version for iPhone imminent which will make technogeeks drool!)
Good ol’ Spotify. They just need to get Zappa’s albums up there and I need never visit a record store again. Although I probably will, I’m obsessive like that.
There are a smattering of obvious missing Bands like the Beatles and Pink Floyd, apparently the Record Labels are refusing to play ball.
If you search for something not there you often find interesting cover versions, backing tracks or Karaoke ones though!