Spotify made its big U.S. debut on July 14, 2011.
In one week, we’ll be marking the streaming music service’s six-month anniversary.
And in one week, all those users who signed up for the free all you can eat desktop music that day will find out that they’re going to be limited to just 10 hours per month now. You’re also only allowed to play individual tracks no more than five times per month.
(Some of users have already received notices from Spotify that the party’s over.)
That’s because Spotify’s unlimited music on your desktop feature, which is ad-supported, is only a limited time offer.
After your six month period is up, Spotify will hold you to 10 hours of streaming per month with hopes that you’ll sign up for one of its paid plans.
Those paid plans cost $4.99 per month for ad-free desktop streaming and $9.99 for access to the mobile app.
First of all, JayS nailed it, although I prefer Pandora.
I actually did pay the $10/mo for several months with Spotify and a couple with Rdio because I wanted to try the services.
At the end of the day, they’re bullshit.
Unlike movies, which I typically watch once and then never watch again (with exceptions, I’m sure everyone has their favorites), I listen to a lot of the same music over and over. I don’t think this is uncommon, so a subscription model doesn’t make a great deal of sense for most users. Instead I could buy 2 new albums a month through Google Music or Amazon for $5 and augment my collection, and then I can be responsible for backing up and storing my own data.
I don’t like the idea that I could spend a year at $10/mo for a total of $120 and then have the service go kaput. Labels have already dropped from the services, so where does your $120 go? If I’m going to pay that much for music, I’d like to own the rights to my content.
I signed up for Spotify freebie a while back but never really used it since I didn’t get what its purpose is. How does it differ from Slacker or Pandora?
It’s more like having a streaming iTunes with a ton of music in it, whereas Pandora/Slacker is internet radio so don’t control what song you’re listening to, apart from skipping.
My problem is I don’t want to put the effort in to creating playlists and constantly updating them so I’m hearing new stuff. I want to select a genre and have someone else do all the work of selecting music from that genre for me, while constantly adding new songs. That’s why I love Slacker, because it allows me to be a complete music slacker. If it adds a song I hate I just click “ban this song” and it never plays again. And if it’s an artist I hate, I just click ban this artist.
Pandora is free obv but the commercials and limited skips pissed me off.
Last.FM really blew when it came to putting in artist and playing something decent.
Slacker’s interface bothered me, I have’t used it in a few months so maybe it has improved.
MOG I just finished a free 2 weeks of and really enjoyed it. I might actually pay the 5 bucks for it.
I’ve got both Pandora One and Spotify premium, and have my phone setup to work through my car stereo. I love this setup. I find myself on trips jamming to various Pandora stations, hear something interesting that I’ve never heard before, switch to Spotify, load up a few albums of that artist, and try more of their stuff. It’s really opened up a lot of new stuff to me