Music On-the-Go...all of it

Well not all of it, but a hell of a lot. I blogged about music service Spotify a while ago and generally how superb it was. Well - it just got better. Today the iPhone application hit the iTunes store (and Google's Android store as well I believe).

When the history of music in the digital era is reflected on years from now this will be a watershed. Although my technology predictions are generally a bit dodgy*, I genuinely believe 2009 will be regarded as a landmark period. When Spotify finally gets a release in the United States it will just explode.

Spotify in its desktop form was an excellent and well-executed service, but I always had that niggling thought in my head - "I can't listen to these on my MP3 player, iPod or whatever - shame, really". No longer, I now have access to over 6 million tracks in my pocket, accessible through my phone. Just think about that for a second - 6 million. Through a phone. I like to keep up to date with consumer technology and, as a result, little that comes out on a day-to-day basis makes me go "Wow", but this has kind of blown me away. I'm still surprised Apple allowed it, as it poses a massive threat to iTunes long term. Naturally, you won't always have a signal good enough to stream music over which is why you can store anything up to about 3,000 songs (assuming you have the hard-disk space on your phone) for listening offline. The playlists you set up at home on your computer seem to automatically synchronise to your phone as well. Add on the collaborative playlists already available on Spotify (where your friends can add tracks as well) and the genius grows.

This isn't all a fairytale dreamworld, however; the mobile versions are only available to those paying £9.99 a month for the advert-free version of Spotify. I coughed up as there was no minimum term and I could axe it after a month if I wasn't satisfied. So far I am (although it did cut out a couple of times this afternoon) and will be keeping it on. In the last post on Spotify I did worry about the longevity of the service in terms of it becoming a money-making venture. this will certainly help. I wasn't a fan of subscription based models for music but if they can get me to sign up then something is obviously going according to plan. The only true problem is the inability to run the application in the background and check e-mail, text messages and such while the music is playing but this is more the fault of Apple than Spotify and it won't affect those running it on an Android based phone.

Once again, anyone who hasn't tried Spotify should. Even in its free (advert-based) form it is worth seeing. To that end, I have a spare invite going as a result of me signing up for premium so if anyone is after one then let me know.

*I effectively said Google Chrome web browser would flop. Whilst hardly the new standard, it's now my default browser on every system and I've been turning family and friends over to it. I have been proven to be talking out my rear end. D'oh!