Spotify?
 

Is anyone using Spotify?

I've been happy with Rhapsody for sometime but Spotify is generating a lot of buzz of late and at $9.99/month for the premium (which allows streaming to my PC and phone) it's significantly cheaper than Rhapsody.

I played with it for a day. I don't think I quite got the idea.

It did seem to have a good selection, but I couldn't, for example, figure out how to get a random mix of music, Pandora-style, which is what I would want from that kind of service.

I do enjoy the social aspect of it, seeing friends' playlists and top artists and such.

I signed up for a trial and received some Spotify invites. If anyone needs one PM me.

Same here. I don't quite understand how it works, and it seems that if I want any sort of functionality beyond my home laptop, I would have to pay.

For free you do still have access to play any song in their library. You just can't download it to play offline, and you are limited to something like 10 hours of play time per month.

I haven't had time to play with it, but admit to being totally confused. So you friend people like on facebook or some such, and then you have access to playlists they create for spotify and they have access to any such playlists you create? Huh?

That is one of the things that it does, yes. Sharing of playlists, collaborative playlists etc. It makes it pretty easy, if someone else is a member, to say, "Hey, check this song out."

The other thing it does is, being a member, gives you access to all of the songs in their library. For free.

Being a PAID member gives you access to all of the songs in their library, the ability to DOWNLOAD all of those songs for no additional cost, ability to play those songs on just about any device, and the ability (like google music) to make your own library available anywhere any time any device.

But I still want it to do smart playlist/suggestion type stuff and I'm not seeing that.

To start with Spotify has the most complete music library of any online service since Napster. Not everything to be sure, Disney soundtracks are conspicuous in their absence for example.

With a Premium (paid) membership you can plug in all the songs/albums/artists you like and listen to them all day/night long on your PC, Smartphone, and some other devices (like Onkyo receivers).

Past that you can share the lists you have created with others you know.

As GD says, Spotify does not seem to have a "Radio" function that lets you listen to random songs, however there are third party sites like topsify.com that it seems are trying to fill that gap.

Well, of course, the first thing I looked for could not be found. Of course, it's a pretty old, not too popular song, hard to find in digital format - can't find it on iTunes or Amazon, for instance. But that's why I went to Spotify next. I don't "steal" unless I'm given no other option. But to have Spotify fail on my first try was disappointing. If I want easy stuff, I'll just buy it.

Sharing playlists might be fun tho.