https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started?inv=...656423647365347

Subbers have had a first refusal, so here's everyone else's turn. Spotify is a rather fantastic free (supported by occasional ads) and legal music-streaming prog, which is currently in invite-only beta. It has a vast and pretty wide catalogue (it's got obscure 1978 Skids b-sides, for example), all of which somehow start playing the instant you click on them. The interface is lovely and allows for incredibly easy sharing of links and playlists - there's a WoS collaborative one on the go here:

http://open.spotify.com/user/markx/playlis...4fszdy3n5fJ6XpR

that you can listen to and add tracks of your own.

Um, that's it, really. Invites are limited so get in quick, but if/when these run out there are several of us with a few more who might donate spares - we should be able to get everyone in one way or another.

Thanks Stu. Saw this in the subbers thread earlier but misunderstood what it was all about. It's a nice and elegant little intertubes radio.

Works with Win 7 too. Happy joy :D

actully this is better for tuneage in the background than youtube. Now if some one could just sort net radio ey?

What an excellent little program! Cheers Stu.

Sound quality seems a bit restricted (or it may be my ears). Anyone spot what format+bitrate Spotify uses? I'm guessing AAC or AAC+ at 64kbps.

*EDIT* Looks like between 128kbps and 160kbps being streamed, so probably mp3.

mmm, it asks me for the invitation token in both safari and firefox,other macusers more luck?

Aw, no Wipers. Thanks nevertheless, I'll have to add what I can.

This sounds great, but I just waned to share with you guys the BEST ANTI-BOT CODE EVER:




What are the odds, eh? :lol:

I was able to use it ok, though I signed up first on a windows machine. It let me sign in and download the client on my mac though.. how far have you got?

You should thank Grim..., really, they're his invites.

PM'ed a code over to you, that should hopefully work. If anyone else is stuck, I've been given a fresh bunch of invites.

Is it me, or is that collaborative playlist broken? I've tried copying the link directly into Spotify, and everything.

Fine here. I hadn't heard that version of Brain Failure's "Coming Down To Beijing" before, good work someone.

I signed up from Safari just fine last week; if you want a direct and unique invite to try, feel free to PM me.

:D

Awesome! It even works perfectly in Wine, integrating with Gnome's icon bar and everything.

discovered due to mark's code (thanx), that the problem isn't the mac,it\s a dutch ip address..

This is very, very useful, ta very much!

Looks like eighty-ninety percent of the music from any one person's range of taste is on there and its all quick and easy.

One stumbling point (and this is very much clutching at straws) is that any fan of classical music has to wade through thirty recordings of pieces sight-read by a group of eastern European amateurs, or the 'Ljubljana Octogenarian Marimba Quartet' or something, before you find a listenable version of the piece you're looking for.

If you're into Morricone you'll also have to learn Italian and witness some of the worst bits from the many 'best of Morricone' (played by the Belsen Pygmies Orchestra and some guy with a Casio keyboard) albums before you the original motion picture soundtrack.

Other than that, Spotify is brilliant.

Thank you Stu and Grim, this is changing my whole surfing experience.

Great for Karaoke too!!!! Search Karaoke, there's loads of stuff.

God, no!

Is there a particular Wipers track you are after?

Minor threadjack! Shortly before Christmas, I was playing with one of these internet jukebox websites, but completely neglected to bookmark it and now can't remember what it was called. Its defining feature was that once you typed in your initial artist, it showed the forthcoming playlist in a graphical manner akin to a flow chart, with related artists appearing in nearby "bubbles". You could click on these bubbles to change the playlist accordingly.

Ring any bells? I may even have followed a link from here to get to it in the first place...

My guess is liveplasma.

Is anyone else finding that the Spotify ads are getting annoyingly frequent now?

Hmm... Either 'Over The Edge' or 'Land Of The Lost'. The latter manages to out-badass the Mary Chain's 'Sidewalking' (not a throwaway comment around here, I'd imagine).

That's a categorical YES from me.

Every three or four songs I reckon...

I like Moira Stewart's voice.

Thanks for the suggestion, and it's a similar visual style, but the site I visited before played the music as well, whereas from the brief look I just gave to Liveplasma, it is purely a list site without the Live.FM-esque jukebox and playlist functionality.

Just to get back on topic briefly, the Spotify adverts are getting quite annoying here, as well.

-----Five Minutes Later------

EXCITING BREAKING NEWS EDIT!

Having added "Liveplasma" to my previously vague Google search terms, I've been able to find the site in question: Musicovery, which turns out to be a sister site of Liveplasma. Full kudos to Tael for the helpful hint.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicovery
http://www.musicovery.com/

</Threadjack>

Thought you might be interested in reading this:

Spotify news from cnet.co.uk

I was put off Spoitfy quite quickly by the ads for DirectGov (YouGov maybe? I forget, but it was Government based) but I certainly don't want to see the place get kicked about by record lables, however inevitable it was.

Wow, that's a really shitty article.

So they got some regional licensing stuff to contend with, no biggy and no big surprise given the way the majors operate.

To jump from that to "OH TEH NOES TEH DOOMED!" is fucking stupid, no?

The Smiths are still very much present and correct on Spotify for me.

Going by the Spotify blog, the changes are to be made over the next week. So, try and get all of your Smith-listening done now, I'd say.

PM'ed

I've added some old tat to the collaborative playlist.

This is still the greatest thing ever, btw.

yeah i've been dicking around with this for a little while and WILL NOW MAKE MY PRESENCE FELT IN THE PLAYLIST

Who wants to hear about 175 bad cover versions of TV themes? I give you The TV Theme Players: http://open.spotify.com/artist/3izxIb8kNtirg63VhYPW8u

For the more discerning listener, a live performance of Richard Stilgoe and Peter Skellern doing songs about things like the Sinclair C5: http://open.spotify.com/album/0eY7qorUK9l5DQNRxUnUDt

Awesome, we've been collecting cover versions over on another forum - not necessarily quality ones ;)

http://open.spotify.com/user/oddbob/playli...PMs9Ul0URnleOm7

Feel free to bung more in.

That covers playlist doesn't work.

Works for me, I've just cadged it over to the missuses account on the Mac.

Had to give it a couple of tries, mind.

"Playlist not found" here too.