Spot(ify) The Difference

Like most folk of my social group, I spend a lot of my time listening to music. I pretty much can't keep my concentration studying without some sort of cacophony ringing in my ears. Up till now I haven't had access to as much music as I may want, I don't use torrents (I barely really know what one is). That changed about a week ago when I finally downloaded Spotify.

I've had an invite to the beta of the free version since forever but hadn't bothered downloading it. Why bother? I'd tried Last.fm on the recommendations of almost everyone musically minded I know and have had a profile for months - I've only used Last.fm directly on a handful of occasions - although I have tracks from iTunes, and now Spotify, 'scrobbled' to it (wherever the hell they got that word from). "What's the difference?", I thought. However, a few folk I knew had it installed and in the press I was hearing good things, so I downloaded it about a week ago and haven't looked back. What I found was a fairly slick iTunes-esque interface with an easily searchable database and easy playlist creation - a far cry from my Last.fm experience.

There is one fatal flaw I find with Last.fm. It may be just me (but even then I blame it on a cackhanded user interface that doesn't suit neanderthals like myself) but what ever happened to simply playing a track? I just can't get that with Last.fm. Sometimes I don't want to listen to people that sound like Oasis or The Who, I want to listen to Oasis and The Who. No, I don't want to listen to the solo work of The Rolling Stones - I want to listen to Jagger, Richards and co as an ensemble. It may also have to do with the music I listen to - the artists that turn up on 'The Rolling Stones' radio are thoroughly unimaginative and I am fully aware of the comparisons between Oasis and Kasabian or Blur. I don't have this problem with Spotify and find it far less infuriating.

If I want to listen to a track I search for it and play it - end of. Naturally the library is still growing and there is a lack of, for instance, the aforementioned musical equivalent of Mancunian Marmite but most of what you search for you will find. As I've said before, I generally tend to rely on friends for musical tips and can check out last.fm after 'scrobbling' from Spotify if I fancy some recommendations. Collaborative playlists are a nice feature though and can easily help with the former. To that end, I would encourage anyone who might find themselves reading this to download Spotify first and then follow this link to add to the playlist therein. Through a test with this feature I've already found some new stuff and been reminded of a few tracks I'd forgotten about.

The only thing I worry about is the revenue generation. The free version has fairly inoffensive adverts (they never interrupt a track), but you can pay £9.99 per month or buy a day pass to listen ad-free. It seems they didn't expect the free version to be as popular as it has been, given recent deals which have been struck with the likes of 7digital. This worries me as just about everyone else I can think of expected that to be the successful bit. I sincerely hope Spotify endures though. Many things have been touted as the solution to 'free' music and keeping record companies happy in the digital age - Spotify is the first one to actually capture my interest and keep me using it.