Spotify questions and opinions please!

jenniewb

I have never used Spotify before desite now having a free membership. I am unsure of exactly how to use it and the site doesn't do too much to help explain things to me in a way I understand, either I'm thick or its not well written!

I have an MP3 player and an apple nano (veeery old 2nd gen refirb. model). This is how I listen to my music, I do not listen to music via my computer and do not have a hifi system or similar.

I hate adverts, so am not at all happy to listen to them on my mp3/nano, even if its free, I'd rather pay the extra and cut out the adds.

I did try to see if I could listen to anything the very first time I logged in and even without the option of taking off ads or even downloading I was asked to pay for the track I wanted to select, I hadn't even specified it was for an MP3 rather then computer! None are free then even with the adverts??

So I see they have a £5 version, does this mean I can download whatever I want, however much I want without any ads at all to my MP3? Or is this only to computer? or is it only streaming to my computer without ads, is this the premium service or is that something else?....really confused as to what I'd get by paying £5 a month!

I'd also like to hear how they go as far as variety, having tried e-music before I walked away with about 10 tracks...after 6 months of use because I just couldn't find what I wanted, old, recent, obscure, didn't matter what I looked for, nothing was there. It was only a trial but such a waste! Don't want to have the same experience with spotify.

Anyone able to help?

imho

I just thought it was for listening to music.You just search on their data base for what music you want to listen to and can listen for free but after so long a advert will pop up.You can listen to 10 hours free music a month for nothing.I not sure but i swear its £10 a month to listen to any of their data base songs with no adverts and no time limit.

erasion

In a nutshell, there are three types of music service:

Streaming (e.g. spotify): this is akin to a radio station, albeit one where you can choose the music they play. As with radio, the free ones often have adverts to cover the cost and the charging ones don't. You need to be logged onto the internet to use these, either via a computer or a internet-supporting device such as an iPad.

Download (e.g. iTunes, emusic): here you pay an amount either per track or per album, and can then transfer this to your MP3 player (e.g. an iPod) and listen to to your heart's content, wherever you are.

Combination sites (e.g. mflow): these allow you to listen to a range of tracks whilst on the internet, then buy those you want and load them onto your MP3 player.

If you want to listen on an MP3 player, including an iPod, you will need to purchase the music. In terms of cost it's always worth checking around as sites such as iTunes, Amazon, emusic, ovi music, HMV, Play and mflow can vary widely in price. Tracks which can be downloaded as MP3s can be played on any player; protected tracks (including those from iTunes) can only be played on certain devices including iPods.

mflow are the currently darlings of the download scene with a great range of music and regular offers (including 20p/track rather then the 79p+ at other stores) and the current Easter promo with many albums for £1. Well worth checking out.

Incidentally, emusic are an indie site which doesn't deal with mainstream commercial labels so if you were looking for well-known stuff if isn't the best place; on the other hand, if you like non-mainstream stuff the site is one of the best (and half the price of iTunes).

Hope this helps.

jenniewb

imho wrote: »

I just thought it was for listening to music.You just search on their data base for what music you want to listen to and can listen for free but after so long a advert will pop up.You can listen to 10 hours free music a month for nothing.I not sure but i swear its £10 a month to listen to any of their data base songs with no adverts and no time limit.

Am a free member already, saw the lists of tunes on the site and all are priced at 79p when I log in. Even if I try to play it just immediatly plays an add whilst a pop-up appears with the cost and requires payment

jenniewb

erasion wrote: »

In a nutshell, there are three types of music service:

Streaming (e.g. spotify): this is akin to a radio station, albeit one where you can choose the music they play. As with radio, the free ones often have adverts to cover the cost and the charging ones don't. You need to be logged onto the internet to use these, either via a computer or a internet-supporting device such as an iPad.

Download (e.g. iTunes, emusic): here you pay an amount either per track or per album, and can then transfer this to your MP3 player (e.g. an iPod) and listen to to your heart's content, wherever you are.

Combination sites (e.g. mflow): these allow you to listen to a range of tracks whilst on the internet, then buy those you want and load them onto your MP3 player.

If you want to listen on an MP3 player, including an iPod, you will need to purchase the music. In terms of cost it's always worth checking around as sites such as iTunes, Amazon, emusic, ovi music, HMV, Play and mflow can vary widely in price. Tracks which can be downloaded as MP3s can be played on any player; protected tracks (including those from iTunes) can only be played on certain devices including iPods.

mflow are the currently darlings of the download scene with a great range of music and regular offers (including 20p/track rather then the 79p+ at other stores) and the current Easter promo with many albums for £1. Well worth checking out.

Incidentally, emusic are an indie site which doesn't deal with mainstream commercial labels so if you were looking for well-known stuff if isn't the best place; on the other hand, if you like non-mainstream stuff the site is one of the best (and half the price of iTunes).

Hope this helps.

Thats really helpful, thanks

I suppose what I am looking for is something like Napster but that wont have continual errors on my computer where its "not responding". Their customer service was always helpful but only 9-8 monday to friday which was never when I needed help!

Napster was £15 a month and you could download whatever you wanted to your computer and up to 3 MP3 players (with NO ADS!) but apple wouldn't let anything from Napster onto their ipods and once the subscription payments stopped you'd lose all your music from them. I kept it up for about 2 years (you get a discount if you paid annually, £150 or something) but couldn't keep up with the costs. Miss having new music!

So Spotify doesn't offer anything similar then? no download subscription without ads?

Helix

jenniewb wrote: »

Thats really helpful, thanks

I suppose what I am looking for is something like Napster but that wont have continual errors on my computer where its "not responding". Their customer service was always helpful but only 9-8 monday to friday which was never when I needed help!

Napster was £15 a month and you could download whatever you wanted to your computer and up to 3 MP3 players (with NO ADS!) but apple wouldn't let anything from Napster onto their ipods and once the subscription payments stopped you'd lose all your music from them. I kept it up for about 2 years (you get a discount if you paid annually, £150 or something) but couldn't keep up with the costs. Miss having new music!

So Spotify doesn't offer anything similar then? no download subscription without ads?

Wasn't really a case of Apple not letting them, what you were downloading from Napster wasn't MP3, it would have been WMA (Windows Media Audio). For Apple to support it they would have had to licence the technology from Microsoft and pay for the privilege which they are unlikely to want to seeing as Microsoft are their main rival.

Spotify does allow you to have Offline playlists but you have to have a device you can install the app on. So iPhone/iPod Touch or Android phone, you can then install the Spotify app select the songs you want to have access to offline and it will download them to the app. You can't access the files it downloads - it doesn't download them as MP3. You can only play them back within the Spotify application on the device. You need the Spotify Premium account to do that though.