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Note from Carolyn: The Wonder of Tech is honored to present the following article written by Jens Berget, author of Sly Marketing and an upcoming novel.
When Spotify online music service arrived in the US this summer, after being popular in Europe for years, I wanted to provide Wonder of Tech readers with information about the service from a Spotify fan. Jens graciously agreed to share with us this wonderful article that explains what Spotify is, why he loves it, and how to use it. Make sure you check out his awesome video at the end of the article!
Spotify is currently in beta (like Google+) and is available free by invitation only in the US. Read on to find out what Spotify is, why you want it, and how you can get an invitation code for Spotify.
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by Jens P. Berget
I listen to music via Spotify every single day. I always listen to music when I walk, I walk about 1 hour every single day, and I always listen to music when I write, I write for at least two hours every single day. I use Spotify to listen to all my music.
Finally, Spotify is available in the US at Spotify.com. You’re going to love it.
There are many reasons why I listen to music. I do it because I want to relax. I do it because I want to get more energy, and sometimes I do it in order to become more creative. There’s always a reason why, and I just chose the music that will fit the reason. I listen to a lot of different types of music, everything from Pearl Jam, to Lady Gaga. And, I really enjoy discovering new artists.
The Past
I remember what it was like before portable audio was possible. Yes, I’m that old. I remember when it was close to impossible to discover new music, when the only new music I listened to was played on the radio. And, if I liked the song, I had to listen carefully for the name of the artist. If I heard the name, I had to walk to the music store in town while crossing my fingers, because if they didn’t have the album in the store, that was it. It was hard to get new music.
The Present
Today, music is all about Spotify for me. I use it for hours every single day. I started using it as a free member when I got invited during their beta-period. I used it as a free member for a few months. Now, I have been a premium member for about a year. I pay $9.99 a month, and I get access to all the music on my iPhone and on my computers. Let me tell you the real reasons why I love Spotify. By the way, I recommend that you start as a free member, just to get an overview of their service.
Reason #1 – The Quality of the Audio is Crystal Clear
I’m not going to keep talking about how old I am, because I’m not really that old. But, when it comes to music, I feel like I’m close to ninety years. I remember when the quality was bad, and sometimes all I heard was static noise, and sometimes my records had been scratched, and it was impossible to listen to the songs. The music I listen to at Spotify has a very high quality. I’m not an expert or anything close, but I was very impressed by the quality when I first started listening to the music, and I am still very impressed.
Reason #2 – It works all the time
I have been using Spotify for a long time. I’m not sure how long, but probably 15 or 16 months. And, I have never experienced any problems at all. I didn’t experience it during their beta-period, and I haven’t experienced any problems after they launched.
Reason #3 – Spotify has 99% of the songs I want to listen to
I know that there have been some issues, at least in the past, that Spotify didn’t include artists like The Beatles and Metallica. This haven’t been a problem for me at all. Their database of music is huge, and they have 99% of every song I want to listen to. I can’t listen to The Beatles, I know this, so I just listen to something different.
Reason #4 – The price is low
I’m a premium member, and this means that I can listen to all the music 24 hours a day all year. I can listen to it on my iPhone and on my computers. There are no advertisements, and it feels like I own the music. I pay $9.99 a month, and that’s the price I would have paid for one cd. Now, it feels like I am buying hundreds of albums every single month.
Reason #5 – Using the iPhone in offline mode
The most important part of Spotify, is that it works perfectly on my iPhone. I sync the playlists, and I can listen to the music even though I’m not online. This means that I don’t have to pay anything extra to stream the music. They’re on my iPhone.
Reason #6 – Using my computer in offline mode
When I first started using Spotify on my computer, I had to be connected to the Internet in order to listen to the music. I didn’t think that it would ever be a problem, but believe it or not, there are times when I’m not online. And, creating playlists that I can play when I don’t have an Internet connection is a great feature.
Reason #7 – Spotify is very easy to use
I am a dad, my daughter is seven years old, my son is five. They are both using Spotify close to every single day. They are using it on the iPhone and on the computers. They are creating playlists, and they are finding new songs. It’s amazing to see how easy it was for them to start using it.
Reason #8 – Finding new music
I am always looking for new music. I listen to music for several hours every single day, and I get tired of listening to the same tunes over and over again, no matter if it’s one of my favorite artists or not. I really enjoy discovering new music. With Spotify, every time I am listening to a song, there’s information about related artists. And, there’s also a “what’s new?” in the menu, where they show new releases and top lists (the songs and albums that most people are listening to). This is how I discover new music.
Reason #9 – Creating my own radio stations
When I just want Spotify to do the work for me, I create my own radio stations. I chose the decades, and the music categories, and Spotify starts playing related music. I can also find an artist, and create artist radio. It will be a radio station with just related music to this artist. For instance, if I want a radio station based on the music of Lady Gaga, I will also be able to listen to Britney Spears, Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Katy Perry. This is all automated.
Reason #10 – Biography
I don’t just listen to music. I want to know information about the artists I am listening to. I want to be able to look at the covers of their albums, and I want to now about past albums and songs, and I want to know about who they are and their inspirations. When I find a new artist at Spotify, I always click on “biography” in order to read about them. This is a great feature, and it’s so much more fun to actually get to know the artists, and not just listen to their music. That’s it. The 10 Real Reasons Why I Love Spotify. But, I’m not finished. Finally, I have created a video tutorial for you, on the five ways I use Spotify to discover new music. I hope you enjoy it.
Jens P. Berget is Norwegian, but he blogs in English at Sly Marketing. He’s passionate about marketing, and sharing everything he is learning on his online journey.
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Spotify is available in three categories in the US. The free account, Unlimited at $4.99 a month and Premium at $9.99 a month (which allows you to listen to Spotify on mobile devices).
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Have you tried Spotify? What do you think of the service? Do you use other radio services, such as Pandora or Sirius? Let us know in the Comments section below!
* Image by Q. Thomas Bower
Hi Jens & Carolyn,
I’d love to try Spotify! I’m currently addicted to Pandora, so I’d welcome the opportunity to try a similar service to listen to and discover new music.
I may have missed it – what are the limits on the free version? Can you use it on an iPod Touch?
Thanks for taking the time to give us a great overview of Spotify!
And yes, I voted for Wonder of Tech again today! Go Carolyn!!
Hi Cho Cho
You’ll love spotify. I’ll send you the invitation, I just need your email. You can send it to jens(at)slymarketing.com
Jens
Hi Jens, I will send you a list of emails for readers who want promo codes at the end of the day so your email inbox doesn’t get too flooded. Readers have to provide The Wonder of Tech with their email addresses to leave a comment.
Thanks again for your generous offer of the invitation codes to Spotify! 🙂
That’s great, I’ll wait for the list to send out the invitations. You can send me as many or as few names as you like. It doesn’t matter for me 🙂
Hi cho cho,
Great questions! In the US, listening is unlimited on the free version of Spotify (for now). To listen to Spotify on a mobile device, such as an iPod Touch, you need to sign up for the Premium version.
I suggest you take Jens’ advice and try the free version when you receive your invitation code and see if you like it.
Thanks for your visit, awesome questions and helpful votes! 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks a lot for this opportunity and your kind words. Your blog is awesome, and I’m thrilled that I actually have a guest post on it.
Thanks a lot.
Jens
Hi Jens, I am thrilled that you wrote this brilliant article for Wonder of Tech readers. Thank you very much for your time and effort in writing the article and providing the video. Well done!
Thank you also for your generosity in sharing your codes with Wonder of Tech readers. You are very kind as well as talented! 😀
Jens, nice read. Glad to have you here as a guest author. Look fwd to much more articles from you.
Your point about creating your radio stations reminded me of something I did about 10yrs back. mp3.com was a service, which hosted independent artists (that was the real Social Network of music lovers as opposed to the failed Ping of Apple). I loved to go there and discover amazing artists from all over the world. I was proud of creating my own stations for dif flavor of music, and sharing with all my friends. I even created a branding for my radio station. I was so proud of people coming from all the places to listen to my stations. And then one day, it was shut down. Never understood why! (after all it was inde artists, and not commercially released music).
I haven’t tried Spotify yet, but I certainly am a convert by reading your detailed review.
Thanks to Carolyn for bringing a great author like you to Wonder of Tech.
Hey,
I actually remember mp3.com, it was awesome. Now it’s all about spotify for me, and I especially like the features where I discover new music. I do this all the time.
By the way, I’m going to buy iRewardChart today. And I’ll give you feedback as soon as I’ve tested it.
Thanks a lot for your kind words.
Jens
Hi iRewardChart, Thank you for your warm welcome to Jens. We are thrilled to have such a talented writer here at The Wonder of Tech.
Great story about you creating your radio stations, how cool! Except for the part when you got the rug pulled out from under you.
I bet you will enjoy Spotify, especially the opportunity to discover new music. Evanescence is a favorite group of mine and I discovered through Spotify that they have a new song and I got to listen to it and “favorite” it. Very cool.
Thank you also for getting in touch with Jens on Twitter. I am touched at how readers are supporting each other. Please let me know if you would like one of Jens’ invitation codes for Spotify.
Greatly appreciate all of your support, your visits, comments, tweets and votes!
Hi Jens and Carolyn,
What a great article! I did not understand what all the buzz about Spotify was but this article made it very clear. Also I loved your video. It convinced me I need to get Spotify. Would you be willing to send me a code? It’s clear you put a lot of work into this and the Wonder of Tech readers really appreciate it 🙂 .Thanks again.
-Nicki
Hi Nicki,
You’re going to love Spotify. I’ll be happy to send you the code, I’ll wait for the email from Carolyn with all the email addresses (I need them in order to send the invitations).
Thanks a lot for your kind words 🙂
Jens
Hi Nicki, I agree with Jens, I think you will love Spotify. I will be sending Jens a list of email addresses shortly so he can send out the invitation codes.
Thanks for your wonderful comment, Nicki!
Wow, this sounds awesome .. no pun intended! What about using Spotify in the car? I have an older car so it doesn’t have the latest and greatest in technology. I assume I would need my mobile device for the car, which would mean the premium membership? Is that the main difference between a regular and premium membership, or are there other features that you would think make one a better option? Also, what about “sharing”? Both my son and I love to share music via i-tunes since we are synced to the same itunes account. Can we also share a Spotify membership? I would love to be able to try out the beta-version if there are any codes left!
Hi Carol,
I use Spotify in the car all the time, I have connected my iPhone to the car stereo. It works great.
I’m not sure if the US version of Spotify is the same as the one I am using in Norway, and the free version in Norway have been adjusted several times. At the moment, I believe that there are some weird limitations on songs. I think that on the free version you can only listen to each song 10 times or so, and then you can’t access it anymore. And you’ll have to listen to some ads (not that often), and you can’t listen to music on your mobile phone (or iPod Touch).
You can share a Spotify account, but you can’t listen to it at the same time. I share it with both my kids, but when I’m listening to it via my iPhone, they can’t listen to it via the computer and vice versa. I’m not sure if there’s a family membership where you can get access to several accounts and sync etc.. but there should be.
I’ll send you the invitation when I get the list from Carolyn 🙂
Jens
Hi Carol, It’s really easy to listen in the car, assuming you have an FM radio. You can get an FM transmitter that works with your phone (these are about $20 from Radio Shack, Amazon, etc.) and listen to your phone through the radio that way. You could also see if you have an Auxiliary port on your radio (a hole on your radio where you can plug in a cable).
But to play Spotify from your phone, you will need to be a Premium member, like Jens. In the US Spotify can only be played on mobile devices with a Premium membership.
The good news, at least for now, is that in the US, there are no restrictions on listening to music with a free account. You can listen to as many songs as you want as many times as you want! Believe me, Europeans are very jealous of this unrestricted access Spotify gives it its US customers with a free account.
I will be forwarding your email address to Jens soon so he can send you an invitation code.
Thanks for your visit and brilliant comment, Carol! 🙂
I like social aspects of Spotify (seeing your friends playlists) but beyond that I was not impressed. For me it’s too much work to use it. If I knew what songs I wanted to listen to I’d probably like it more. I generally just plug something into Pandora that I like and see where it takes me. The ads in the free spotify were really annoying, the volume was louder than the music just like some cable commercials. Really cheesey. If I did want to use Spotify I’d probably have to pay for it whereas Pandora I don’t have to but choose too. 🙂
Hi Joe, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I agree with you, Pandora is much easier and requires so little effort that it becomes very compelling. I also struggle with what to listen to and Pandora leads me by the hand gently and guides me to songs I enjoy.
But what I like about Spotify is the amazing customization. I love that I can specify songs and Spotify will play them. I don’t have to own the songs. Very cool. Beyond being curious about my friends’ playlists, I can find others’ playlists with songs I like and use those. I also like that you can specify genre and decades. I also subscribe to Sirius Radio and very much wish I could control the content in that way.
I respectfully disagree with you, however, about the difference between the ads on Pandora and Spotify. Pandora’s ads seemed very intrusive and louder to me than the music, so I think Pandora and Spotify are pretty much the same on that score. I can’t blame either one for having ads, they need to pay for their great services.
And with both Spotify and Pandora you don’t have to pay for the premium levels, but you can if you want to.
Thank you very much for your visit and insightful comment, Joe. I love to have all points of view at The Wonder of Tech! 🙂
Thanks very much for the informative post. Initially I wasn’t that impressed with Spotify because it requires a lot more clicking about than Pandora to “get to the good part” – which, for me, is finding new music. However, your post has encouraged me to give it another go and try out the radio station function.
I appreciate it!
JL
Hi Jonathan, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! The minimal effort Pandora requires is truly enticing, but I agree, effort put into Spotify will pay off with music tailored to your taste and the ability to discover new music.
Thanks so much, Jonathan, for your great comment. I’m glad you’re giving Spotify another try!
Jens & Carolyn,
Would you believe that Klout “perked” me Spotify – only to take it back when Spotify’s IP-sniffing showed that I’m in Japan. Pity, my wife would have loved it, always tweaking this and that for music, she is.
Hi Saul, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! That is so disappointing that Spotify figured out you were in Japan. I was an American ex-pat living in England until last year and I was always so frustrated when I was blocked from sites because I lived in England (though, ironically, I was able to get Spotify in England and not the US then).
I hope Spotify is able to expand to Japan very soon so your wife can be reunited with her music!
Thanks so much, Saul, for your visit and brilliant comment. 🙂
Great job Jens, you did fabulous explaining all about this site. I’ve heard about it but have never visited it. So I guess on your recommendation, the least I can do is check it out.
While I’m online, I can’t listen to music. I can’t read or concentrate with anything playing even in the background. Which is why I don’t listen to anything until I go for my evening walks. I have my favorite music already downloaded on my iPod Touch (thanks to Carolyn) and you won’t find it on any site online. These are local bands that I listen to the majority of the time.
But I will check it out and great job on the video. I got to hear you twice in one day. How cool is that!
Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, I am the same way. I can’t have music playing when I am writing or I can’t concentrate. I have tried all sorts of genres, but it just doesn’t work. But there are plenty of other times I enjoy music so that’s okay.
Would you like an invitation code from Jens to Spotify?
Thanks so much, Adrienne, for stopping by and leaving an awesome comment! 🙂
If it’s something like water rushing or wind blowing, stuff like that doesn’t bother me because I can turn that down low but singing and listening to the words while I’m trying to concentrate, I end up listening to the music and not able to concentrate at all.
Yes, I would love an invitation code. That would be so cool.
I’m going to send you an email here in a minute. I have a cool app I would love for you to write about in an upcoming post. I’ll tell you ALL about it soon. Stay tuned!
Thanks Carolyn… As always, you’re the best!
Hi Adrienne,
Thanks a lot. I listen to Spotify every single day, but I don’t have any of the local bands you’re listening to, but I am listening to some fairly unknown bands, even Norwegian bands from my town 🙂
Jens
Hey Jens, I get to hear you twice in one day. Excellent post; I have Spotify but haven’t loaded it up yet. I will have to favorite this and come back and dig a little deeper. You are the man of many hats.
Good info and thanks for sharing.
Hi Bill, Yes, Jens did a great job explaining the many exciting features of Spotify. It’s definitely worth your while to stop back by to learn about this great service from Jens. That is, if you like music, which I’m pretty sure you do!
Thanks so much, Bill, as always, for your visit and awesome comment!
Hi Bill,
You should start using Spotify, because it’s awesome. And you can listen to Journey while writing 🙂
Talk to you soon, and thanks a lot for your kind words Bill.
Jens
Spotify is one of those great things that show up once in a while, filling a need you never even knew you had in the first place. Really, you start using it and realize how much you’ve missed something like it.
Yup, i love it, no shame in admitting 🙂
Hi Lynn, So glad you’re a Spotify fan too! It really is an amazing service, so there is no shame at all in enjoying the goodness of Spotify.
Thanks so much for your visit and comment! 🙂
Thanks for the wonderful article, Jens! 😀
LOVE me some Spotify, and honestly think it’s going to take over the web in 2012. It’s got too many things going for it, and the world has been waiting for an end-all be-all music site. Here it is. Anyway, great post. 🙂
I love Spotify as well. I’m still listening to it every single day. And I have recently bought a SqueezeBox (radio) that I’m using in the kitchen mostly to listen to Spotify.
Thanks a lot for the feedback 🙂
Hi SEO, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, Spotify is well-positioned to continue its impressive growth into 2012. Interestingly, both Spotify and Pandora are growing at a rapid pace in the US. Spotify’s arrival in the US this year doesn’t seem to be at the expense of Pandora. Instead, internet radio seems to be growing as a whole.
Wow…..if even your 5 and 7 year old kids can use it, it must be very easy to use. 🙂
Hi Shine, Yes, Spotify is very easy to use, though I’m certain Jens’s children are incredibly brilliant. 🙂
Carolyn’s right, my kids are incredibly brilliant 🙂