Anyone heard of this?

http://www.spotify.com/us/get-spotify/overview/
http://www.hackingsap.com/blog/5-reasons-i-like-spotify-3

I know cloud computing (uploading your own music) has been the thing recently but I've always been a major supporter of services like Rhapsody that give you everything all at once for one flat fee. I don't want to have to deal with actually buying music and uploading it. It's a waste of my time. I'd rather have everything all at once for one price (and sure the ability to upload my music if it's not online). I think Spotify offers this ability.

They offer a premium subscription which gives you 320kbps streaming audio also. It's free to try and has Pandora like stations plus all their music on demand. Just got an invite if anyone wants one.

[Edited on July 14, 2011 at 10:42 AM. Reason : Just to clarify the free server offers all their music on demand with ads. That's hard to beat. ]

7/14/2011 10:38:00 AM

haha...glad I signed up for spotify back when they first started. now I don't need to wait for an invite, just needed to change my country to USA.

7/14/2011 10:45:30 AM

Isn't this the service that launched in Europe 2-3 years ago that everyone wanted so much? Basically Pandora on steroids?

I'll take an invite. you have pm

7/14/2011 10:46:04 AM

I'm going to set it up after lunch so I'll send out some invites when I create my account. I see the radio feature in that hackingsap review but I don't know if it's included in the US app just yet. Hopefully it will be soon. The 320kbps premium account is very appealing.

7/14/2011 10:48:13 AM

I would also like an invite if possible. Sent pm.

7/14/2011 10:49:24 AM

I'll get in line for an invite if you guys get another one. I may actually spring for premium if this turns out to be pretty decent. I'm hoping it's worth the premium over my Pandora One, which is still an incredible deal for as much as I use it.

7/14/2011 10:56:45 AM

pm sent!

7/14/2011 11:06:02 AM

downloaded the desktop app. This is pretty neat. In a meeting so I can't try it out but it apparently syncs with your ipod/iphone too.

And you can upload your existing library I think.

[Edited on July 14, 2011 at 11:09 AM. Reason : s]

7/14/2011 11:07:31 AM

Yeah. I signed up back in the day using a VPN. Hopefully I'll have some invites. Gonna check in a bit.

BTW there will probably be a monthly fee to use this on your smartphone.

[Edited on July 14, 2011 at 11:30 AM. Reason : ]

7/14/2011 11:25:23 AM

haha this is fun. Friend and I are creating a playlist. It's instantaneous.

7/14/2011 11:26:17 AM

Same as a few of you guys, I've had foreign 'open' accounts for a while now..but they always get killed after a few weeks. (could've used a vpn but was too lazy). Unfortunately, none of those have any invites.

I was able to snag an invite from Klout this morning..things are quite nice. I'll probably shift from Rdio to Spotify here soon.

7/14/2011 11:47:23 AM

.

[Edited on July 14, 2011 at 11:48 AM. Reason : .]

7/14/2011 11:47:23 AM

damn double post.

[Edited on July 14, 2011 at 11:48 AM. Reason : .]

7/14/2011 11:47:24 AM

Yeah no invites on foreign accounts. I got 4 when I switched to Premium though.

7/14/2011 11:58:12 AM

Sorry just realized you don't get invites with the free account. I may get premium today so I'll send out a few invites.

7/14/2011 12:20:33 PM

is the radio part as good as pandora's? I've yet to find a suggestion engine thats close to as good as pandora.

7/14/2011 12:37:34 PM

http://gizmodo.com/5821136/got-spotify-heres-how-to-use-it

Wonder how the uploading to their cloud works. If everything works as well as it says it does this service beats Amazon, Google, and Apple offering cloud storage for your music PLUS unlimited access to all other music.

7/14/2011 12:40:03 PM

Wow, a lot like lala.com except with ads.

Man I miss that site.

7/14/2011 1:26:20 PM

So what's the difference between this service and zune pass/rdio?

7/14/2011 1:28:47 PM

Zune Pass like Rhapsody only offers the subscription service. Spotify combines the subscription service AND the cloud upload service so you can upload your own music to stream.

7/14/2011 1:32:15 PM

If there's an invite to spare, PM me pls.

Gracias.

7/14/2011 3:27:04 PM

I don't think it's anything like lala.com

I would rather have ads than be only able to listen to the song once or pay 10 cent.

10.00/month gets you unlimited adfree streaming at 320kbps and smartphone support. To me it sound not bad to me.

7/14/2011 3:57:05 PM

i'm digging this

7/14/2011 4:02:04 PM

^^plus uploading your own music.

7/14/2011 4:10:56 PM

^lala.com allowed you to upload your own music and stream ALL your live music for free w/ no ads... kinda like Google Music does now, Google Music also provides free smartphone access.

Doesn't Grooveshark do all this stuff already too?

[Edited on July 14, 2011 at 4:44 PM. Reason : .]

7/14/2011 4:17:30 PM

I don't think it combines the uploading, cloud service, streaming subscription AND the collaboration feature into one.

I just thought of this.

Imagine how awesome this would be for parties as a collaborated DJ device. You create a playlist and send it to everyone with an account at the party and everyone can add songs on their phones and then you shuffle the playlist on your system. That'd be sweet.

The inbox feature is awesome too. If you like a song you send it to a friend. I hope they release the radio feature soon in the US.

7/14/2011 5:59:24 PM

I went ahead and sprung for the premium service for a month to test it out. I'm going to be driving a lot this weekend so I figured it'd be a nice change from my itunes stuff (& Pandora has started getting stale).

I have 3 invites for anyone wanting one.

7/14/2011 6:05:10 PM

Grooveshark mobile app is the biggest piece of shit.

Lala allowed uploading like 5months before selling to apple.

7/14/2011 6:14:32 PM

Get a Spotify account for free without an invite right now

I did it and worked exactly as described

http://gizmodo.com/5821244/how-to-get-spotify-free-without-an-invite

7/14/2011 6:35:13 PM

Quote :

"I don't think it combines the uploading, cloud service, streaming subscription AND the collaboration feature into one."

Grooveshark actually does.

7/14/2011 7:08:13 PM

anyone else have an invite they can PM me? I wanna give this a try

7/14/2011 8:00:20 PM

^^Not from what I've read (although I haven't tried it).

From what I can tell you can't share/collaborate on Grooveshark. Sure you can share playlists like any other music service but afaik you can't have a live ongoing collaborative playlist.

Also the quality apparently varies A LOT of Groveshark. It's not consistent.

Plus there's no iPhone app (only for Jail-broken).

7/14/2011 8:24:13 PM

If you have it add the official user:

http://open.spotify.com/user/spotify

Some good stuff on there.

7/14/2011 8:54:39 PM

Also would like an invite if anyone has one

7/14/2011 11:11:12 PM

^I should still have 1 left. If you haven't gotten in yet, pm me your email.

7/14/2011 11:28:17 PM

I'm a member...its great!

7/15/2011 12:22:16 AM

I want an invitation...

7/15/2011 9:50:20 AM

May I also have an invite if it's not too much trouble?

7/15/2011 11:14:23 AM

I'm out! Does anyone use Rdio? How does it compare? I know it has the radio feature and Spotify hasn't added theirs in yet.

I'm still hooked on Pandora though.

7/15/2011 11:21:51 AM

for those that want an invite, this worked yesterday for me

Quote :

"Get a Spotify account for free without an invite right now I did it and worked exactly as described http://gizmodo.com/5821244/how-to-get-spotify-free-without-an-invite"

7/15/2011 11:40:46 AM

the only caveat is that you don't get the 6 months unlimited, if you do it that way you fall under the UK free service which is 20 hours a month.

i'm telling you guys you need to look at grooveshark and rdio, spotify is just hype, it's what these other services have been doing in the U.S. for months!

[Edited on July 15, 2011 at 12:17 PM. Reason : .]

7/15/2011 12:16:27 PM

and im in!

7/15/2011 12:16:57 PM

^^yes and no. Like I said earlier they don't offer ALL the same features. They don't offer the same sharing/collaboration feature and that's what I've found cool about Spotify. The ability to create play lists across multiple friends with real-time updating.

I signed up for the free 7 day trial of Rdio though. Going to give it a shot since it has the radio feature. Probably still stick with Pandora though.

7/15/2011 12:49:11 PM

^grooveshark has file sharing with facebook, twitter, reddit stumbleupon, widget, a twitter like feed to follow and fan people, play music that other people are playing, subscribe to people, share playlists... please explain what "social" features spotify has that grooveshark doesn't.... and grooveshark has HAD these features long before Spotify. Grooveshark also has a radio feature and the ability to plug into last.fm

where the hell is the web interface????

grooveshark is 100% online, why do i need to download and install an app for spotify? not gonna happen at my workplace.

Quote :

"Let’s say you’re at a friend’s house, and their music collection is - being tactful - a little light. Just login, download and install Spotify, and let the music begin."

i'm not going over to a friend's house and asking them to install software just to play music...

[Edited on July 15, 2011 at 3:07 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on July 15, 2011 at 3:15 PM. Reason : .]

7/15/2011 2:57:41 PM

invite pls

7/15/2011 3:01:52 PM

^^

Quote :

"^grooveshark has file sharing with facebook, a twitter like feed to follow and fan people, play music that other people are playing, subscribe to people, share playlists... please explain what "social" features spotify has that grooveshark doesn't."

Most online music services offer a feature to share a playlist. I'm talking about the collaboration feature. Maybe Grooveshark has it but I couldn't find it online.

When you create a playlist you can choose for it to be a "collaborate playlist." Then you right-click and copy a public URL that you can send to people and people can subscribe to that particular playlist. If you let them they can add/delete from that playlist. So you essentially have an on-going work in progress playlist.

So lets say we're at a party and anyone who has the app wants to add to the playlist. Instead of going up to the computer and adding it they just search for the song on their phone and hit "send to xyz playlist." Then the playlist is shuffled and everyone gets their input.

There's no way to have a live playlist like this in Grooveshark.

There's also an inbox feature where if you like a song you send it to someone and it pops right up. Seems simple but my friends and I have been throwing songs/albums back and forth all day.

I really could care less about a web interface. If you work somewhere where you can't install an app like this than I'm sorry don't get it. The dedicated app is much more responsive than similar web apps I've seen.

7/15/2011 3:11:34 PM

ok, collaborative playlist... sounds like a good idea in theory, but i really don't see it as being all that useful unless you are collaborating with someone with similar interests. it's hard to believe that all this hype is because of one feature.

also no web interface not a big deal, are you nuts? this is like one of the nicest features about EVERY OTHER music service out there, Pandora, Last.fm, Grooveshark, Google Music, Slacker.... the LAST thing i need is another installer and a music service that's dependent on it.

the only real difference i guess is the legal structure, it sounds like grooveshark doesn't actually own the music and spotify does, which is a shame, because grooveshark is just as good if not better (since it has a web interface) it also does an excellent job at DJ'ing with drag/drop playlist interface and ability to crossfade

i mean seriously, Spotify has been around for years and the only reason why it's getting hype is because of it's invite-only U.S. launch

[Edited on July 15, 2011 at 3:29 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on July 15, 2011 at 3:34 PM. Reason : .]

7/15/2011 3:22:29 PM

Quote :

"ok, collaborative playlist... sounds like a good idea in theory, but i really don't see it as being all that useful unless you are collaborating with someone with similar interests. it's hard to believe that all this hype is because of one feature."

Good thing I have quite a few friends with similar tastes in music. Even if we don't share ALL the same tastes it's nice to be able to browse the playlists they're listening to in real time as well as collaborate on mutual playlists.

Quote :

"also no web interface not a big deal, are you nuts? this is like one of the nicest features about EVERY OTHER music service out there, Pandora, Last.fm, Grooveshark, Google Music, Slacker.... the LAST thing i need is another installer and a music service that's dependent on it."

The first thing I did after paying for Pandora One was download the desktop app and iPhone app. It's silly to have any type of web app when there's a perfectly good dedicated app out there for numerous reasons:

1. It doesn't get lost in my other tabs
2. It's faster
3. It looks cooler

The only reason I ever see the need for a web app is if I can't install a program. Web apps aren't as slick and typically poorly implemented. Not to mention if my browser crashes or I have to do some type of reinstall or restart of it then my music dies.

Quote :

"it's hard to believe that all this hype is because of one feature."

Remember Grooveshark is based upon user uploaded songs. Spotify matches your songs and gives you 320kbps where ever you are. I've heard of some pretty poor quality stuff on Grooveshark not to mention it's quite jumbled.

ANNNDDDD there's no native iPhone app (or android one).

Just read some reviews. Most people are placing Spotify above Grooveshark.

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/07/14/showdown-spotify-vs-rdio-vs-grooveshark-vs-pandora/
http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/spotify-vs-pandora-vs-grooveshark/

The only advantage I see with Grooveshark is slightly more user uploaded music.

[Edited on July 15, 2011 at 3:37 PM. Reason : l]

7/15/2011 3:32:49 PM

first of all a lot of your points are based upon your perspective and completely subjective. "It doesn't get lost in my other tabs"? It's called the Grooveshark Desktop app... "It looks cooler
" completely subjective, personally i find them both to be comparable, if you mean "looks like iTunes" then yes Spotify looks more like iTunes.... you really haven't dived that deep into Grooveshark to really make a fair comparison have you.

yea, no native iPhone app sucks for a lot of people.

^i'm not saying Spotify isn't great, i'm just saying it's pretty much the exact same thing as grooveshark, just nobody has spent time to do their due diligence and instead hopping on the hype train

[Edited on July 15, 2011 at 3:51 PM. Reason : .]

7/15/2011 3:41:56 PM

You're right most of what I've said is based upon first impression. I signed up for Rdio and need to give Grooveshark a try for a longer period of time. Didn't really intend to put one down was just highlighting what I liked about Spotify.

[Edited on July 15, 2011 at 3:46 PM. Reason : s]

7/15/2011 3:45:53 PM