Spotify, amongst many other interesting startups to have popped up over the last decade, reinvented the music industry; giving us access to whatever track we want –whenever and wherever we want it.

It all started with Napster, which let students exchange music collections without having to carry tapes or CDs. In short order, Napster revolutionized the world of music. Anyone with the Napster app could download music through peer-to-peer technology without having to pay a thing. Labels got worried and lawsuits ensued; the result was a Supreme Court against the company in favor of record labels. Napster evolved, however, not everyone was pleased. In fact, many argued that the company was a great service for music, promoting national artists internationally and helping people share music with each other (after all, it was for the common good!). Although the technology caused problems for recording studios with declining CD sales, it continued to benefit ‘music’ in more ways than one.

These days there’s a new Napster in town. Spotify, an online music streaming service, is where technology has brought music to today. Think of a song or artists and add it to your playlist without having to download it. Then you can play your playlists on from your computer, laptop or mobile device, even when you’re out and about.

Spotify uses cloud technology to power music. When you install the app for the first time, it scans your computer and quickly adds songs from your local storage to its cloud storage, letting you keep playlists in the cloud – meaning, you can access them any time, from anywhere in the world.

Spotify and many similar technologies make music accessible to multiple devices without having to store it on any one of them. These apps are not just helping music fans, they are great for the music itself. If we were to buy music on media it’s unlikely we’d be listening to a fraction of the songs we get to enjoy each day. Thank you Napster… and Spotify… and iTunes… and Pandora… and cloud technology… and internet phenomenon… and I could keep going. You get my drift.