Now lets put aside the obvious legal issues that this may have and move straight onto a quick review of the application itself. After signing up to the free service, where you don't even have to give your name, which we assume is to protect potential customers in the possible event that Spotify is sued, you get greeted by a very sleek looking application. The first thi
ng you will notice is that Spotify looks like a darker version of iTunes. In terms of usability, it fairs well against all the other major media players and easily outshines Windows Media Player.After using it for about ten minutes, I am very impressed. It is very easy to search for your favourite artist and to make a playlist of your favourite songs. Of course, nothing in life is ever truly free. The only drawback to this 'free' service is an ad every once in a while, but only one advert. Considering that Sky channels, which we pay in excess of £30 a month, has adverts every 15 minutes, it's not bad. The quality of the music is also very good, I can't actually tell the difference between my own Linkin Park Meteora CD and the songs streaming over the net from Spotify.
So lets talk legalities. First things first, how can a company let people stream any song for free and only have a few ads. Conventional radio stations play a few select songs, play lots of ads and are practically crippled with having to pay for royalties. So what the hell is Spotify? Is it regarded as an internet radio station or does it pay a lump sum every year to the record companies? I would be inclined to go for the latter option, simply because it explains why adverts are minimal and the premium subscription is tiny.
Is it too good to be true? Probably.
Final Thought Byte : IF you haven't rushed off the sign up to Spotify, click on the link and do it now! All we need now is a version for the iPod Touch.
Tags : Spotify, Internet, Streaming
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