Got Spotify?
Every now and then some geek in a cubicle comes up with a genius way to improve how we find and listen to music online. Several years ago, Pandora was launched and everyone was blown away by the ability to create personalized music stations to stream through computers at work and home. Although a little late to jump on the bandwagon, I tried my hand at Pandora. I enjoyed it initially but quickly got tired of the program picking out songs that it thought I would like based on my station artists. My cyber-relationship with Pandora slowly faded.
And then about two months ago I received an invite from The Avett Brothers through Facebook to try Spotify. Well if The Avett Brothers are on board with Spotify, it must be pretty cool right!? So I gave the free version a shot and was instantly impressed by its sleek appearance and ease of use. While I still haven’t completely explored everything that Spotify has to offer, I can tell you this – it allows me to listen to what I want to listen to without some program telling me what I might like. No longer do I have to skip a song or give it a thumbs down. I haven’t run into any restrictions yet. I make a playlist of basically ANY song I want and I have the freedom to listen to that over and over and over again, with very few commercial interruptions. Spotify also imports all of your iTunes music into its Library so that you can add them easily to your playlists. If you want to upgrade for $9.99/month, you ditch the commercials and get to take your playlists with you! You can share your playlists with friends on Facebook and also use Spotify on your phone (if it’s compatible). Spotify also has its own radio stations based on music genres, so if you are missing a little bit of that Pandora magic, you can still hang on to the past without being limited by the number of “skipped songs” you are allowed per listening session.
In the end, the tool has been improved and I am sure it will be improved again in a few years. Until then, I am a Spotifier through and through! Give it a try!
Evolution of a Fan 