I thought this day would never come, but the licensing got sorted out and Spotify made it to New Zealand. Quick, let's complain about it.
So generally, the service is pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised by how well the LastFM integration works and just how fast I could go from "hmm this band sounds all right" to listening to an entire album. That is nice. I also didn't realise you could still listen to all your local iTunes music, which it imported with no fuss, along with playlists. The "radio" feature is also nifty, especially when it bases a station on a whole playlist rather than a song. This is much more useful than iTunes genius, especially since it has such a huge library to pick from. The apps in general are just excellent: reading a review of an album and being able to hear it instantly is how things should be done. Anyway, I'm off track, as nice as all this stuff is, I had to download Spotify. Like, download and install a program.
Why can't I just access it all through a website?
I was at a friend's on Saturday and we were putting on music for a whole load of people from a laptop hooked up with speakers. Someone immediately suggested Spotify, but I wasn't exactly going to download and install it on someone else's computer. Installing software on someone else's machine is most definitely a bridge too far for me. So we went to Grooveshark and made an ad-hoc playlist without having to download anything. Kind of illegal, but a whole lot politer.
Now, this kind of makes sense. Accessing my iTunes library wouldn't really work from a web app, and the user experience might suffer. The p2p (think uTorrent tech) backend of Spotify also requires something on the client (your machine) side. The general unbuggy responsiveness of the program might suffer in a complete web app. But. The whole point of the cloud, for me anyway, is the freedom from device/location constraints. I could be typing this blog on Google docs anywhere within a few seconds; the same can't be said for a Spotify track. A whole lot of people use computers where they can basically only control the browser. I'm not about to install Spotify at work - I can't, actually - but that is probably the number one place where I want to stream music, since I don't have my full library at hand. Sure, I can install the app on my phone (if I pay) but a browser-based experience would be much fuller than a native mobile app.
I'm not asking for the full program as a webpage - I think they need the control of the native client and the p2p backend it provides, but a basic player of my library that looks like Grooveshark - that would be excellent. Yes, I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth, but that's kind of what the internet is for.
Are you guys hungering after a Spotify web app or am I spoilt brat?
* This is too cool to wait for Friday.
Email Henry or follow him on Twitter.
Sponsored links
Newest First
Oldest First
@1 Quite possibly! Good suggestion. Rdio is only free for seven days though.
How good is the sound quality for the free version?
@3 Sound absolutely fine on an alright stereo, I think it varies depending on your speed. Haven't tried with headphones.
Install to portable hard drive???
@5
That is actually an excellent idea. A bit hacky, and I don't always have a flash drive on me, but nonetheless a good plan.
Isn't it funny that a few years ago, everyone wanted to access everything as a web-based service with no installation required, and now a bit of marketing and everyone is scrambling to install as many apps as possible onto their phones and tablets, many of which don't do anything a web service couldn't go just as easily?
I haven't really had any problems with Spotify, except the constant ads and the necessity to pay to get it on my phone. Personally I think it should go the Facebook way and make mobile free and advertise mercilessly on the desktop ad. It should also can the audio ads. I mute my computer when they come on.
I have the opposite problems with Spotify. I actually prefer to have a program installed on my PC but I am so disappointed with the local library features. I like to be able to organize my music by grouping(ie label release #) and by bit-rate as well and Spotify just doesn't have any option to sort this way. I'm desperate to find a music player to replace itunes as it is a slow beast on Windows. I had hoped that Spotify's might have been my replacement but I am a bit disappointed and not as excited about using to now.
@8 While that would be lovely, I think it's a bit different with Facebook. When you use Facebook you are looking at the screen, but most people will just put a song on and change the window - plus people automatically block out visual ads a lot of the time.
Major US bridge collapses, throwing cars into water
Gallant Chiefs win heavyweight Super clash
Aniston turns stripper in new movie
South London attack a possible terrorism act
Jet deployed after incident on-board flight
Prom plea teen scores hot date
Bride-to-be killed fiance on wedding day
We came to NZ for a better life
Rdio seems likely to solve the problems you have with Spotify.