Since moving back to Canada, I haven’t been able to get my music fix with Pandora (listeners located outside of the U.S. can’t use Pandora). I’ve never been a huge Last.fm fan – the catalog of streamable music doesn’t include a lot of my favorite bands. In general, I’m just not a huge fan of online music services. Until now. Spotify, a lightweight Windows and OS X client, connects you to a vast collection of music. And it works outside of the US. Keep reading for my brief overview.
- Like most Web 2.0 services, Spotify is in a “limited beta testing” phase. Submit your email address and when a spot opens up, they’ll let you know you can create an account and download the software. It took about 2 months from the time I signed up until I received the email saying I could create an account. But good things come to those who wait.
- The interface is painfully user friendly (and identical for Windows and OS X). Once you sign in, you’re presented with the “home” screen.
- Use the search box to find artists/songs. Your recent searches are saved in the sidebar for easy access at a later point.
- Just double-click a song to start playing.
- Right-click (ctrl-click for single mouse-button Mac folks) a track to queue it, add it to a playlist or copy the HTTP/URI link to send to a friend (who will need to have a Spotify account in order to listen to the song).
- OS X users will enjoy Growl notification support built into Spotify.
- If you want to listen to music without having to create a playlist, you can use the Radio feature. Radio allows you to specify the time-frame and genres of music you want to stream.
I wish to have one, do you still have any invitation code ?
got a 404 error when I clicked on the link:
Not Found
The requested URL / title= was not found on this server.
Apache/2.2.3 (Debian) PHP/5.2.0-8+etch11 Server at http://www.spotify.com Port 80
Thanks for catching that JP! I fixed the link…
kokyun – it’s not a service that allows users to invite other users (at least, not yet). Otherwise I’d have offered up the invites here on Simple Help. If they ever do decide to let users invite, I’ll send one to you. For now I’d suggest filling out their beta-invite request form.
Hi, how did you make it work in Canada? When I try it just says this: Unfortunately, due to licensing restrictions we are not yet available in your country. We understand that you are currently in Canada… Would appreciate it if you know a way to go around this problem! Oh btw, some users do get to invite a couple of their friends (I know this from some of my friends in Europe).
Likewise I find this does not work in Canada, but this does:
http://www.finetune.com