[quote=CNN]
The hottest music venue in Europe opened its doors on Thursday morning to a select group in the United States.Spotify, which makes Internet music-streaming software, launched the much-hyped U.S. version of its service after delays and years of negotiation.
At first, Spotify will only accept new members to its free service who receive invitations from the company, one of its sponsors or a current user.
"This is the biggest market in the world," Kenneth Parks, Spotify's content chief, said in an interview late Wednesday. "We haven't done a launch this large."
Google+, the new social network, also launched recently using an invite-only scheme. Spotify plans to welcome everyone for free after "several weeks," Parks said.
The Spotify computer program will let people choose from any of 15 million songs to hear for free -- up to 20 hours per month, with each track listenable up to five times. For the first six months, however, people who enter during the invitation period are exempt from the monthly limit, Parks said.
After that, users can lift the restrictions by paying $5 a month or buying songs individually, like iTunes. The smartphone apps can be accessed for $10 a month, which includes unlimited streaming and the ability to save copy-protected music for listening offline.
The ability to create and share playlists with Facebook friends has formed a beehive mix-tape culture among the more than 10 million users in Europe.
From a small office in Stockholm, Sweden, Spotify quickly spread its tentacles across Europe. But during the past couple of years, the company has been caught in a web of bureaucracy. Record-label executives have expressed concern that [URL="http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/12/10/spotify.us.launch/index.html"]Spotify's free offering devalues music[/URL] and doesn't drum up significant revenue.
"They wanted to be careful," Parks said. "Spotify has always had a view that the free experience was core to what Spotify was all about and key to get users to invest in the service."
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek echoed that belief at a technology conference in December, as he has in several public appearances before that and likely will again at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference next week.
"We really believe in our model," Ek said at the D: Dive into Mobile conference last year. "We would not just launch a subscription model, because we don't think that's going to work."
Now, the four major labels and Spotify have finally settled their disputes. In the time since, the record companies have given the go-ahead to competing digital music initiatives such as Rdio, MOG and, most recently, Apple's iTunes Match.
"We think there's definitely room and appetite for a service like Spotify," Parks said. "There really is nothing like it in the market."[/quote]
Source: [URL]http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/07/13/spotify.us/index.html[/URL]
Cool.
Be sure to sign up at [url]http://www.spotify.com/us/hello-america/[/url]
fucking finally
Awesome news.
Also, WHERE THE FUCK ARE THOSE CAT AVATARS FROM!?
I guess I have always been a Pandora guy.. never really heard of Spotify
[QUOTE=VengfulSoldier;31116595]Awesome news.
Also, WHERE THE FUCK ARE THOSE CAT AVATARS FROM!?[/QUOTE]
[url]www.pusheen.tumblr.com[/url]
So does it still have that 24 hour song limit thing or what?
Americans missed out on the listening for free without that stupid 10 hour a month bullshit
Grooveshark all the way.
I do miss good ol' Spotify though, but i listen to 10 hours in like a week, so yeah.
we americans need a spotify invite thread NOW
I'm from the UK, currently living in Sweden. I have several Spotify Free accounts, linked up through a collaborative playlist. I never had my time reduced down to 10 hours, or had any song play limiting. Been waiting for it. All my friends at work have had it done, but mines still as it was 6 months ago.
[QUOTE=MAspiderface;31116802]So does it still have that 24 hour song limit thing or what?[/QUOTE]
Not yet, but I am sure that in 6 months you will all get hit by it. It doesn't kick in till the accounts are 6 months old (which is why Kade is not seeing this effect).
Wait, so I can't just endlessly listen to music?
Well you could actually pay someone in Europe and let him register you a unlimited/premium account
I mean, I've paid for someone and it worked fine.
[QUOTE=Jsm;31119288]Not yet, but I am sure that in 6 months you will all get hit by it. It doesn't kick in till the accounts are 6 months old (which is why Kade is not seeing this effect).[/QUOTE]
My accounts are a good 8 or so months old now. When the change first kicked in they did drop down to 10 hours for a day. But then the next day they jumped back up again. I had a period of a few weeks where it didn't show me any indication of my time at all, and didn't show any ad's either, and I've never been Premium or Unlimited or anything. Weird.
Signed up for an invite yesterday, may be willing to pay the $5 for unlimited though, seems like a good deal.
I guess "America" only includes the United States, no Spotify love for Canada :smith:
I'm just using Grooveshark. It's available in Australia and free. I've found a bunch of songs that I like within the last couple days and it's better quality than online radio.
So I'm from the time when spotify still was free and ulimited but still bought premium. Now I have around 20 invites that are absolutely worthless in Europe, are they still worth anything in the US?
[QUOTE=ze beaver;31126099]I guess "America" only includes the United States, no Spotify love for Canada :smith:[/QUOTE]
Don't worry, we still have access to Rdio which is better then Spotify in every significant way. Try it out.
[url]http://www.rdio.com/[/url]
Let me guess, you get 10 hours of music a month for free and for everything else you have to pay. Same as over here.
And then everyone went back to piracy.
[QUOTE=nikomo;31129307]Let me guess, you get 10 hours of music a month for free and for everything else you have to pay. Same as over here.
And then everyone went back to piracy.[/QUOTE]
Don't forget the 5 song max limit on free accounts. Their excuse was that Spotify was mainly being used to find new music (bullshit).
Anyway, the subscription is really worth it
Premium is actually a really good deal.
Guys you get free premium if you get invited.
Also how is this late? It was just posted yesterday.
I think i'll just stick to downloading music with video2mp3.com...
So how does Spotify's audio quality compare with Mp3 ripped from CD? Basically if I run a recording application in the background, will I come out with something of decent quality, or will it sound like shit?
This is the coolest shit I've ever used.
Grooveshark all the way.
Really, I tried spotify using that proxy loophole a while ago. It was neat, but now that there are limits it's not worth it - just another Pandora.
I got an invite today. I wouldn't mind paying the $5 to remove the ads and such.
I can't imagine someone preferring to use Grooveshark over Spotify. I just can't.
If you have any kind of income the $5 a month for unlimited is worth it by far.
Premium all the way, worth it for 320kbps alone, but having it on your device is wicked.
[QUOTE=soad_jonas;31188003]I can't imagine someone preferring to use Grooveshark over Spotify. I just can't.[/QUOTE]
Because greedy organizations block Spotify from launching in your country with some bullshit :argh:
All while using Grooveshark is A-OK
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