My previous review on Spotify wasn’t very nice on Spotify. Now 6 months later I must admit that it’s the only source of music in Internet I use.
Here’re some tips for every new users on both Windows and Linux.
Hey, it’s not beautiful but I made it myself :)
Invitations
Yes, you need one if you want to listen to Spotify and don’t want to pay 10e/month for Spotify Premium (no ads). You can ask some of your friends for one or try at http://invitify.fleo.se/
Tai jos olet nyt satut tuntemaan minut jossain määrin niin heitä minulle viestiä, saatan joltain kaverilta saada välitettyä kutsun. Laitetaan vielä ulkomaanveikoille hämäykseksi tuo sama osoite mistä noita voi yrittää onkia: http://invitify.fleo.se/
Installation
Yes, you can run Spotify also on Linux. You’ll need Wine for that. Check installation instructions for Linux.
Spotify URLs
No matter how bad music you listen, you can always share it with your friends! Right click on track -> Copy HTTP Link. Send this link to your friend, just paste it to e-mail, instant message or Facebook.
Now some things that you can do with an URL you receive.
- Paste it to http://spotify.url.fi/ to see what song it is.
- Paste it to the search field of Spotify client to open the song / playlist.
- Open it in directly in your browser and you’ll see an ugly useless web page. It’s possible to hack also your non-windows browser to support opening the song automatically on Spotify. Instructions for Firefox (see the bottom of the page) and Konqueror (in Finnish but you’ll still be able to read the code bits.. :)
Playlists
Create you own playlists by selecting the songs, right click -> Save to.. and select either ‘New playlist’ or an existing playlist.
Share your playlists by right clicking on the playlist name -> copy HTTP Link. And share it with your friends.
You can also make a playlist ‘Collaborative’ by right click -> ‘Collaborative Playlist’. Now everyone who you’ve share the playlist with, can also edit it, and the changes will be seen by everyone who have the list loaded.
Some places to share your playlists:
- http://sharemyplaylists.com/ (the ‘official’)
- http://www.spotifylists.com/
- http://soittolista.com/ (in Finnish)
My playlists
Hera are some of my playlists for you to enjoy. Feel free to suggest me to add missing artists there.
- Worship
- Gypsy Jazz – see my Jazz Manouche blog post.
- Wanha kotimainen (=oldish Finnish)
- ‘Girl Power‘ (Finnish Girl Power!)
Spotify Guide to World of Classical Music
A friend of mine has been looking for the classical masterpieces with the best recording quality and listed those here: Spotify Guide to World of Classical Music!
Also check hist ‘Weekly classical‘ for the latest classical hits in Spotify!
Review
Spotify’s still closed (although open source client Despotify is available). As far as I know, it’s not making any profit yet. S60 mobile client (only for premium subscriptions) is a nice idea. The ads, where a guy with a strong Swedish accent reads the text in Finnish are horrible.
Spotify is failing big time on the community aspect: Sharemyplaylists is not enough. I want to be able to add friends on the client, see what they listen and send them recommendations. How about integrated statistics?
And artists are not happy: The most played artist, Lady Gaga earned about 113 euros in 5 months, being the most player artist in Spotify. Spotify badly needs more Premiums users, and artists need badly better deals from the record labels.
However, it’s still the free best source of music in Internet having the widest selection, new releases and everything.
Related posts:
- Kotimaista kristillistä musiikkia Spotifyssä Kokosin Spotifyn kotimaisesta kristillisestä musiikista oman soittolistansa nimellä FIN christian...
- Gypsy jazz, jazz manouche The other day while sitting on the bus coming home...
- Videos: Wedding music As this is released, I’m playing piano in the wedding...
You don’t need an invitation if you use this link:
https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/
So I’m told anyway, I haven’t tried it as I already have an account, but it certainly seems to be the same form I signed up with.
Hi G-A-C!
The form says “Sign up here and we will contact you as soon as Spotify goes public.” – to me it looks like it might take a LONG time before you actually are contacted. Not sure, but doesn’t convince me. However as it sometimes is hard to get invitations, this might be an option.
Oh, I wonder if it’s country-dependent? I just visited it here and created myself a new test account with no problems at all, although I’m based in the UK.
I do have 2 invitations left on my normal account, so if any of your readers want to use Spotify then the first two people who contact me somehow can have them.
Or if you can explain how Invitify works (I’m a typical English speaker who doesn’t “do” any other languages), I’ll happily donate them there.
Oh, right, I think it might be country-dependent. I think some solutions even suggest to use UK proxies to look like connecting the Spotify servers from UK to be able to register..
I don’t know how can one donate invitations to Invitify, it isn’t very clear. Let’s see if someone reading this blog want’s to get invitations, thanks G-A-C!
Yes, it’s country dependent. I didn’t get an invitation, but I still have Spotify. I got it through one re-direct site which made look like I was from UK, then I just changed my country back to Finland when I had registered.
I think Spotify doesn’t mind too much since I’m just one person more to see/hear their advertising.
Another tip: Backups!
You can select your playlists and copy/paste all the tracks into a spreadsheet in order to back them up.
If you do it right, you’ll be able to past the artist/track title as the text and the spotify uri as the target of the link.
That way you can rebuild your spotify playlists or your whole music collection if spotify ever gets shut down.
@Jackflap: Great tip, thanks!
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How to get free Spotify PREMIUM!: http://www.premiuminvites.com/?r=27181
ENJOY ;D
PS. only drawback is you may have to take a survey, just answer no to everything :P
So Spotify free use is totally destroying the incomes of artists – I strongy recommend to pay for it and not to use the free version. Artists and their families do need salary and incomes too – they can’t live without. It’s so wrong and selfish to listen free music and to use that money to something else. And people need music companies too, to give work and incomes for other peoples too than just the artists – society needs such economy structures. If music listener just wants lots of cheap or free music, is that right? Is mass-consuming right? compared to give value to music and not just consume it freely as much as possible.
I disagree. In order to get their music distribution licenses then Spotify must be paying an appropriate amount to “the recording industry” (as an entity) in the same way that physical music distributors do. However, whether they do that with my premium subscription fees or advertising revenue they’ve received is a bit irrelevant. IMO Spotify’s Premium offering is more about making profit for Spotify themselves as they’re only liable for the same fees, the industry don’t expect more for every premium subscriber.
I’m pretty sure the RIAA and chums are getting the correct cut, or else they would have stomped Spotify out of existence by now. And as for “give value to music”, most of the music that comes out (at least in the UK) has little value anyway, I’m certainly not about to go out and buy it. I settle for listening to the radio (in the UK this is either funded by my TV license, or advertising, depending which station I listen to) or Spotify (which essentially also comes with either a license fee or advertising). This model has worked for many many years and still does today, so I don’t see Spotify Free destroying artists’ incomes….
great tips, thanks. I love Spotify music