Spotify hits the US

[dee dee]

My username is dbtrucker

[one belt loop]

Can anyone send me an invite?

just go to the spotify website and sign up for an invite. I got mine in less than 24 hrs.

Thanks, bubba (and Smitty).

[beantownbubba]

Spotify says there's a problem w/ my soundcard and it won't play any music. Itunes and every other program w/ sound seems to work fine. Anyone else have this problem? Any suggestions?

[tinnitus photography]

i have some invites if anyone needs one.

my username is tinnitus_photo

[Tequila Cowboy]

After early reservations I have become a huge fan of Spotify. I've gone with the premium subscription and thus have cut out all my new music buying except for vinyl on my very favorite releases. I have listened to so much music in the past month that I never would have taken a risk on it's amazing. I listen on my phone at work and in the car and have it set up in my downstairs den at home (the turntable and good speaker set up is upstairs) I'm a bit ashamed since I realize artists aren't making much on this, but I just don't have the cash to really line their pockets in any case. Still I'm doing my part with live shows and merchandise. That will have to do.

[Tequila Cowboy]

Ok so I said as much in the post above but Spotify has changed how I listen to music, and has actually made me listen more often. I have Spotify on my iPhone and I also listen ast home where I routinely hook up my laptop to one of my sound systems. Prior to Spotify if I got an urge to hear something and it wasn't convenient (not on my iTunes, CD or vinyl not easily accessable, etc.) I would occassionally move on to something else, but more often than not I would just not listen to music at all. I'm very mood oriented that way, if there's something I want to hear it's usually just what I want to hear and nothing else will do so instead I'll put on TV for some noise to end the silence and forget about the music urge. I have listened to more new music in the last few weeks than I have in months, and I've listened to more music in general. I've listened to albums that I never gave a proper chance to and some that I dismissed long ago just to see if I was right when I judged them. Some of these I've actually changed my opinion on (sacrilege I know). Anyway for me Spotify has allowed me to listen to music in a way I haven't since the days when if I got the urge I'd go buy the album, Gotta be a good thing.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

To each their own but I've seen far too many of my friends distracted from everything that's going on around them because they're so caught up in whatever they have going on on their phones so I still just use mine as a phone. That said, I might find Spotify to my liking but I've gotten by without it this long so I figure I'll continue to be alright without it. Plus, I don't want to become one of those that go into a trance via their various electronic devices.

[Tequila Cowboy]

To each their own but I've seen far too many of my friends distracted from everything that's going on around them because they're so caught up in whatever they have going on on their phones so I still just use mine as a phone.

Oh I didn't mean to say that I listened to earphones, I rarely do that, but I do use my phone to plug into my car stereo and into my desktop speakers at work. That and the fact that I'm grandfathered in to an unlimited data plan make Spotify ideal.

[Duke Silver]

After much hemming and hawing, finally decided to plunk down $10 to test drive the premium version (mostly via iPad) for a month. First impressions? I hope they have a major overhaul of their mobile app in the works, because the current one is lacking. At the very least, it would be nice to be able to manage my playlists without having to log onto the desktop version.

[Duke Silver]

Actually, I retract that. Looks like you can manage playlists. If the interface was actually designed for iPad (and not tiny), this would be perfect.

Well, not quite perfect. The functionality is on par with the desktop version, but the mobile interface leaves a lot to be desired. Not intuitive at all.

[Penny Lane]

when you make a playlist, why does it automatically default back to the order you put the songs...i think you can hit shuffle but i'd like to be able to put songs in a certain order...

otherwise, I LOVE SPOTIFY..

[Clams]

otherwise, I LOVE SPOTIFY..

x2. Love it. It's great for checking out new music and also for listening to older or back catalogue stuff that I don't already own. I also like how you can see what all your facebook friends have been listening to. (note to my friends: my son is using my spotify account too, so if you see me listening to some shit by Seether or Green Day or My Chemical Romance, it's probably him not me).

[Duke Silver]

Still loving Spotify after a week of using it, but a few things bug me:

-You can skip and shuffle tracks within playlists, but not when they're in the "Queue"? Makes no sense.

-When I try to add a song to the Queue from a playlist or my Starred list, it adds that song and every song after that. And once they're in the Queue, there's no way to remove them without shutting down Spotify and starting it back up. Very annoying.

-I want an iPad app.

[Clams]

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Artists earn royalties when we listen on Spotify, right? So if I listen to DBT on Spotify, that means I'm putting a couple of cents in the band's collective pockets. As opposed to them getting nothing if I listen to the same songs on my iTunes. So if I'm listening to music on my computer, I'm actually doing bands a favor by using Spotify. Is that correct?

[bovine knievel]

(note to my friends: my son is using my spotify account too, so if you see me listening to some shit by Seether or Green Day or My Chemical Romance, it's probably him not me).

way to throw Jr under the bus for your love of My Chemical Romance

[cortez the killer]

My user name is "Lick my half-wiped, sweaty, squash-playing, throbbing taint." My playlists fuckin' rock. I promise.

[olwiggum]

From what I understand, there are royalties to be made from Spotify but they're not much. I saw the numbers somewhere, but I can't remember where. They said that if you were to listen to the same album on repeat all day, the band might make a couple of pennies, if that. The numbers were kinda silly.

[Duke Silver]

a friend posted a graph on fb the other day that said an artist would have to average 4 million plays/month to make minimum wage off spotify royalties. Makes me almost feel bad for subscribing...almost.

[olwiggum]

They're not making much off of any CDs or vinyl that you buy either, so I wouldn't sweat it that much. Spotify is a great way to check out new stuff that you may not hear otherwise.

[Duke Silver]

yeah, that's my rationalization too. I still buy vinyl for stuff I absolutely need to have a physical copy of, but now I don't have to mess with amazon/itunes for mp3s.

[olwiggum]

Since I've started buying vinyl, I've bought more physical copies of albums in the last 2 years than I had bought in the previous 5-10 years combined.

[Duke Silver]

I wish I had a better understanding of how their release schedule works. Some stuff (like the new Todd Snider) shows up on release day, while other stuff (like the new Mark Lanegan) is still missing a month after release.

scratch that...looks like lanegan finally showed up today. still...why a month late?

[Flying Rabbit]

I think what Clams is saying is that he's bought the record, might as well throw DBT a few more fractions of a cent and listen to it on spotify as opposed to itunes, which doesn't give them anything.

I do this a lot as well. I buy a record and listen to it on my home system, but when I'm at work I spotify it up.

I wish I had a better understanding of how their release schedule works. Some stuff (like the new Todd Snider) shows up on release day, while other stuff (like the new Mark Lanegan) is still missing a month after release.

scratch that...looks like lanegan finally showed up today. still...why a month late?

Some artists/labels want to maximize their potential for people to buy the record. They probably figure a month after its release either you've bought it, or you're not going to.

[Duke Silver]

Anyone know why Gangstabilly would be on Spotify but not Pizza Deliverance? Really bugs the completist in me.

[Duke Silver]

Sounds like an iPad app might FINALLY be on the way.

http://gizmodo.com/5902263/is-this-a-pe ... s-ipad-app

[Tequila Cowboy]

Anyone know why Gangstabilly would be on Spotify but not Pizza Deliverance? Really bugs the completist in me.

Oddly it's available on my computer version of Spotify but not on my iPhone app, although it will resume on the app if I'm in the middle from the computer. Also you have to dig through the DBT playlists to find it. Very strange.

[Duke Silver]

Anyone know why Gangstabilly would be on Spotify but not Pizza Deliverance? Really bugs the completist in me.

Oddly it's available on my computer version of Spotify but not on my iPhone app, although it will resume on the app if I'm in the middle from the computer. Also you have to dig through the DBT playlists to find it. Very strange.

Weird. Maybe it's pulling the mp3 version from your hard drive? It shows up for me in Spotify when I'm on my home computer, but not at work.

[Tequila Cowboy]

Anyone know why Gangstabilly would be on Spotify but not Pizza Deliverance? Really bugs the completist in me.

Oddly it's available on my computer version of Spotify but not on my iPhone app, although it will resume on the app if I'm in the middle from the computer. Also you have to dig through the DBT playlists to find it. Very strange.

Weird. Maybe it's pulling the mp3 version from your hard drive? It shows up for me in Spotify when I'm on my home computer, but not at work.

Just tried on my work laptop and it came up. Two versions of it actually and it's not on my hard drive here. Very odd.

[Duke Silver]

I just discovered the "apps" within Spotify this week. A lot of them are junk, but I've found some cool ones so far:

ShareMyPlaylist is pretty much what it sounds like. Listen to other people's playlists or share your own.

Matador has an app that helpfully displays all of their releases in one place.

Moodagent has potential, but the execution is way off. It's supposed to create a custom station for you based on various mood tags, but I tried it last night and it kept coming back with only Spanish-language artists. Weird.

Classify has a bunch of classical music playlists.

LegacyOf (today's featured app) is very cool. Pretty much an "Artists of the Week" feature in app form. There are playlists, writeups on important albums, and a bunch of other stuff. Right now they're featuring Dylan. Past artists have included Hall and Oates, SRV, and Miles Davis.

Anyone else use the apps much?

[Duke Silver]

Found another quirk with the desktop version. Was listening to The Dirty South when all of a sudden a live version of Carl Perkins' Cadillac shows up in the middle. Can't figure out how to "unlink" it and replace it with the album version. Pretty annoying, actually.