Spotify to launch in the US this week!!!

[AeonicSlumber]

http://www.metalsucks.net/2011/07/04/confirmed-rumor-spotify-u-s-will-launch-this-week/

Obviously this is huge news for the music industry, as this service has been touted by fans and industry peeps alike (most recently Earache's CEO, Dig) as one of the best and revolutionary things to happen to the music industry. It launched some years ago in Europe to much success and now finally it will come out in the US! The free version means having to put up with commercials, but the premium version is only 10 bucks a month for unlimited, commercial-free (at least I think) streams. And of course, it's all legal. What do you guys think? Do you think it's too late for Spotify in the US or are you as excited as I am?

 

[Cheiron]

I think it's very good news.

 

[J-Man]

Great news!!! Where do i sign up?

 

[AngraRULES]

It's about time we get Spotify here in the US!

 

[pollution]

Awesome service, been using it for a long time on a daily basis. At least in Europe the selection of stuff is rather extensive (lots of rock/metal, including plenty of prog/power stuff). Spotify in Finland right now for example has quite a good coverage of last two year's PP lineups up: out of this year's PP Friday&Saturday lineup Eldritch is the only band out of the total 13 bands performing at the main fest from whom Spotify doesn't have at least one full album up, all kickoff bands are included - and from most bands most of their albums or the whole discography is up. Out of last year's 17 bands playing the kickoff and the main show there are 4 bands without any albums up: DGM, Oceans of Sadness, Borealis and Six Minute Century.

I've been really happy to pay for the Premium service for the last year to get 320kbps bitrate (the streaming file format is OGG by the way) and to occasionally use the mobile client too. In the beginning they didn't have much ads over here but at some point they increased it to play some very annoying ad every few songs and paying for the Premium version (9.99e/month) removes those too. Pretty sure the free US version will have a lot of the ads from the beginning on.

Kinda odd how the news is up just on MetalSucks.net so far, hopefully they really have made the deal already and that Spotify will announce it officially soon!

 

[AeonicSlumber]

The news about it launching this week is only on MS, but it's common knowledge and being reported everywhere that it is launching very soon and that Warner finally signed the deal to allow for Spotify in the US etc.

 

[Akumu]

Yay, finally! I'm excited to try this.

 

[TribunalRecords]

good think i just nailed down my new digital contract!

 

[Mosquito]

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Great news!!! Where do i sign up?

It's going to be invite only at launch.

 

[Harvester]

You can now register your email address at www.spotify.com in hopes of getting one of those invites.

 

[Sumeet]

This is a pretty nice service IMO... I used the british version for a couple months about a year ago when it was available by invite and before it locked out most non-british users. There were a few weird slowdowns and freezes, but overall it was reasonably convenient. I never got any ads during the time I was using it, but I imagine there probably will be now. As far as online music services, I've been using Pandora a fair bit for when I just want to listen but don't want to have to specifically select an album or song, and I've been using Grooveshark sometimes when I do want to specifically select something. I also use Slacker Radio sometimes, but I tend to use Pandora more, since for some reason I never get any ads with Pandora.

Spotify is obviously hamstrung a bit by ridiculous copyright issues, whereas peer-to-peer file sharing and some other streaming sites aren't, but if they have arrangements with enough labels and music companies and their commercial load isn't too high, I don't see any reason why adoption rates won't be similar to what they're seeing in their existing markets.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Spotify is obviously hamstrung a bit by ridiculous copyright issues, whereas peer-to-peer file sharing and some other streaming sites aren't,.

Except bands and labels actually get paid for Spotify, whereas P2P is illegal and nobody gets paid -- well except the P2P service for selling adverts. Some bands/labels have made millions of Spotify in Europe.

 

[zedowns]

So just curious, what makes this different than say, Grooveshark?

 

[Sumeet]

Except bands and labels actually get paid for Spotify, whereas P2P is illegal and nobody gets paid -- well except the P2P service for selling adverts. Some bands/labels have made millions of Spotify in Europe.

Interesting. I wasn't aware of that, but I'm glad to hear it, and that's certainly cool for them. Still, that doesn't negate the existence or popularity of file-sharing, so it would be unwise on Spotify's part to not take that into consideration.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

So just curious, what makes this different than say, Grooveshark?

I think overall Spotify is a better service and I have never heard of artists/labels actually making anything from Grooveshark. Granted Spotify earnings are like .02 cents or something for every song streamed, but if millions of people play the same song (which happens on Spotify), it can be really profitable. So I'd say the sheer popularity of Spotify works to its advantage over Grooveshark. It's like asking "what makes Myspace different from Facebook?" yanno?

 

[i am fabio]

So just curious, what makes this different than say, Grooveshark?

I'm also curious. I use Rhapsody and this sounds like the same thing. What makes Spotify any different than these alternatives?

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Well the obvious difference from Rhapsody is that it's free.

 

[zedowns]

I think overall Spotify is a better service and I have never heard of artists/labels actually making anything from Grooveshark. Granted Spotify earnings are like .02 cents or something for every song streamed, but if millions of people play the same song (which happens on Spotify), it can be really profitable. So I'd say the sheer popularity of Spotify works to its advantage over Grooveshark. It's like asking "what makes Myspace different from Facebook?" yanno?

Fair enough! I'll check it out if they send me an invite.

 

[MetalAges]

mog.com is the only pay service I use and it's been pretty decent. The worst part about it, and the part that's had me considering ditching it, is the search feature. It's great if you know WHO you are searching for, but it is horrible as a discovery tool or searching by genre/labels.

I'm curious to see spotify and see how it works. Been hearing about it coming to the US for long enough now but I think they finally got most of the crap worked out with the big labels here.