Service Review: Spotify

What is Spotify - Its a music streaming service that started a few years ago in Sweden.

Platforms - Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, iOS (iphone/ipad), Android and many others

Cost - Free (by invite currently) or Premium Subscription for $9.99

Review:

Spotify recently arrived in the USA in Mid July and competes with many other services such as Live365 or Pandora. While Pandora allows you to build "stations" and listen to music that is suggested to you based upon what you've listened to in the past Spotify provides the ability to build custom lists and sync them accross multiple devices. Spotify also allows the use of social networking to share your songs and play lists with your friends via Facebook, Twitter and other outlets.

I have been using Spotify for about three weeks now. So far I've found 99% of everything I've looked for. There have been a hand full of artists such as AC/DC that haven't been available and a handful of albums by specific artists that aren't available. There have been things there I wouldn't have expected to find - such as entire albums by Roger Miller.

I am subscribed to the $9.99 premium package. Initially I picked this package simply so I could get in. I intended to get pay for a month, get some invites and drop. After having used the product for a month and seeing how my desktop interacts with my android phone however, I'm sold. I can add a song on my office computer and create custom play lists and know when I walk out to my car its instantly available for play.

I would say the price is a bit steep however. Nearly $10 a month for music is asking a lot in my opinion. You do get 10 invites and you can use the subscription on numerous devices so the value isn't that bad.  I feel like $5 a month would be more appealing to a wider range of people and they'd get more than double the user base paying.

Rating - 9/10