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Spotify – Streaming Audio Done Right

Scott — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:25:51 +0000

Spotify is a new audio streaming service that is unlike most of those that have gone before it. Once you have downloaded the app ( Windows and http://www.spotify.com/en/download/mac/ versions available ) you have a world of music available to listen to with no downloading required. Unlike other streaming services Spotify streams are high quality 160 kb/s Ogg files and begin playing the instant you click on a track with no signs of buffering or delays in startup.

Spotify has signed a number of deals with record labels and distributers who provide the content for the service which is currently only available in a free advertising supported version in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain with other countries coming soon.

Spotify has also provided a feature to enable sharing of playlists with friends by creating unique URL’s for each list which can then be shared via email, IM and on web sites. There are already a large number of web sites popping up that provide Spotify users with a way of publishing their playlists to the wider Spotify community. Amongst the better ones of these are SpotifyList, Spotify Playlists and SpotyShare

Additionally Spotify is Last.fm aware and will scrobble your played tracks to your Last.fm profile so fans of this service can keep track of the music they have been playing.

Overall Spotify is a stunning service which is highly rated by all who have tried it ( just try searchin

Spotify – Streaming Audio Done Right

Scott — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:43:33 +0000

Spotify is a new audio streaming service that is unlike most of those that have gone before it. Once you have downloaded the app ( Windows and Mac versions available ) you have a world of music available to listen to with no downloading required. Unlike other streaming services Spotify streams are high quality 160 kb/s Ogg files and begin playing the instant you click on a track with no signs of buffering or delays in startup.

Spotify has signed a number of deals with record labels and distributers who provide the content for the service. Currently the free services is only available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain with other countries coming soon.

The free service provides unlimited music access with only occasional ads dropped in between tracks and displayed in the Spotify application. The inconvenience is certainly very minor considering the amount of content that is available for free. Day passes and monthly subscription schemes are also available for those who would rather not be bothered by sponsors ads.

Additionally Spotify is Last.fm aware and will scrobble your played tracks to your Last.fm profile so fans of this service can keep track of the music they have been playing.

Overall Spotify is a stunning service which is highly rated by all who have tried it ( just try searching Twitter for comments to see evidence of this ). I for one hope it continues to develop and doesn’t lose any of the current features along the way.

Recommended.

How To Find MP3 Bootleg Recordings

Scott — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 14:14:26 +0000

In years gone by the Record Fair was the preferred way of getting hold of bootleg recordings for your favourite artists. Nowadays of course the MP3 has replaced the audio cassette and iTunes and Amazon serve a greater and greater percentage of the music buying publics needs and the record fair has faded into the past.

There are of course a number of sites that have good collections of rare and bootleg MP3 recordings some of which are shown below. These are largely soundboard or FM radio recordings rather than the typical poor audience recordings so they are usually well worth the time to download.

The Ultimate Bootleg Experience
Bootleg Browser
Soundaboard
Quality Boots

This is obviously a small collection, please feel free to drop a comment on this post if you have any other suggestions.

Warner Music Group Go DRM Free With Amazon Online Store

Scott — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:22:31 +0000

In a surprise move Warner Music Group have announced that they are going to be selling DRM free music tracks through a deal with Amazons Online Music store. AppleInsider have the following coverage of the announcment.