In one short week, Spotify has forever altered the way I listen to music on my computer.
For those of you who don’t know me personally, I LOVE music!
Now that was a gross understatement. I play guitar, bass guitar and I have a growing CD and Vinyl music collection (I just love physically owning the music I like). I listen to everything from Run-DMC to The Brian Jonestown Massacre. I like all genres; Jazz, Hip-Hop, Classic Rock, Indie, R&B, Alternative, Soul, Punk, Funk and well yeah, you get the idea.
This all brings me to my next point: Spotify.
If you haven’t heard of Spotify yet, allow me to give you a quick run through of what the company and service are all about: Spotify is essentially a free music streaming service that gives users access to a vast library of 15 million songs. Founded in 2006, it recently saw a huge influx in users.
Check it out for yourself and sign up for Spotify through Facebook here.
According to Wikipedia, Spotify has made “a Facebook account…mandatory for all new users since 22 September 2011”. This move clearly has huge implications for where the UK based company is headed.
Unlike other music services out there, like Pandora and Apple’s iTunes, Spotify is unique in its approach of harnessing social media as a music sharing tool.
From Left: Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook), Snoop Dogg (rapper) and Sean Parker (who had a hand in “Napster, Plaxo, Facebook, Causes, Spotify & Airtime”)
The picture above sums up Spotify and their bold yet elegant mission of creating a world where “Music is Social” (don’t mess with the Swedes), better than any words I could dream up.
Sean Parker (@sparker), who is both and investor and board member of Spotify, is famous from his days with Napster (for those of you who haven’t seen the hilarious parody of him played by Sean Green (the ‘real Napster’), in The Italian Job, click here). He has facilitated the partnership between Facebook and Spotify, enabling automatic music sharing, via Facebook’s status updates.
Much to my girlfriend’s chagrin, according to these status updates, since downloading Spotify a couple of days ago (it pulled me through finals week), I have reportedly listened to 151 songs on Spotify as of last night.
The reason I personally love Spotify so much is because of what it offers. First of all, with Spotify I have noticed that buffering is nonexistent. You click on the song and it begins to play. This is undoubtedly hinged to the cloud based model the company subscribes to, but is central to the image consumers get from Spotify. Precisely because there is absolutely no lag between the time you press play and the start of the song, Spotify has been able to make it seem as if the songs are right there, in your personal music library; a perception central to the service’s success.
Secondly, although this may seem an obvious point, Spotify has already exposed me to a wide array of songs and artists that I traditionally would never have listened to. The company’s ‘Playlist’ function, where you can listen to playlists made by other Spotify-ers, allows you to stumble across new music and then immediately share it with your friends.
Last but certainly not least is the product’s overall seamless integration and ease of use. It integrates wonderfully with Facebook and Twitter, really making music a social experience. Additionally, navigating your way through the features is quick and intuitive.
I’m especially excited about Spotify and I highly recommend you give it a shot for yourself!
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