Spotify - anyone heard of it?

All the majors have signed up in europe, though. I suppose it's whether the US ones are far-sighted enough.

It's also notable that most of the big digital music holdout bands aren't represented- no Beatles, Metallica, AC/DC.

Every Stones album is there though, yay!

Another thing I've noticed is that the service avoids any queueing problems, as you occasionally get on, say, last.fm.

Last.fm is screwed unless they can come up with something as wide ranging as this.

The DJ Khaled selection is spotty and Denim aren't on there either.

I do like the way that you get to see all the crummy compilation albums that bands appear on. If you pick someone like The Sweet it takes about 5 mins to scroll through them all.

How on earth are they going to make any money out of this model? I can only imagine that once they've got a critical mass of people using it, they're going to radically increase the amount of advertising.

That and premium subs I guess.

At the moment, the advertising is pretty unobtrusive so I can't see why anyone would want to be a paying subscriber. Which is why I'm guessing they'll up the advertising once they get enough people hooked.

Indeed, at the moment the advertising is infrequent enough not to annoy but I'm sur it'll increase in frequency. Service is good but not quite thorough enough, some bizarre gaps in artist's discographies e.g most of Sparks 70's output and their most recent work but little from the 80s/90s. Once they can plug those gaps, get on board the digital refuseniks and most importantly provide a mobile service then £10 a month would be very tempting.

Getting enough people hooked should mean they don't have to up the advertising - advertisers will simply pay more for a bigger audience.

Maybe if they get enough people hooked they'll be able to offer ad-free for £4.99 instead of £9.99.

I wonder how much artists are paid through this. We could have weekly campaigns where we all play obscure tracks from some almost forgotten band so they get surprise royalty cheques.

I do like the way that you get to see all the crummy compilation albums that bands appear on

So true - the other night I found myself marvelling at how many "a tribute to" albums Sigue Sigue Sputnik have appeared on (from memory: NiN, Soft Cell, Smashing Pumpkins, Madonna, KMFDM, Prince...) - who keeps asking them?

We could have weekly campaigns where we all play obscure tracks from some almost forgotten band so they get surprise royalty cheques.

Or those bands could just set up a computer with their songs on repeat!

I wonder how much artists are paid through this

Maybe, John D could answer. Hopefully I made him a few cents when I listened to 'Palmcorder Yajna' earlier this week.

Well last.fm's royalty rate is $0.0005 per play, and presumably something similar in Europe too.

So a million plays required for a measly $500? I don't think mobilising the ILM masses will be enough to get J0hn D that rockstar mansion.

I didn't think that the artist would get much from each play but $0.0005 is shockingly low.

My guess is that record company gets half a cent and the artist get 10%.

Here's a collaborative ILX playlist. just click on the link to get it going. I've called it ILX Feb 09 coz January is nearly over. Have at it.

Here's the Pazz & Jop Top 100 singles list. Only 10 tracks are missing.

both those links give me "playlist not found" ;_;

Me too any chance of a re-up?

I've just re-checked, and both links are valid; indeed, I picked up Patrick's ILX playlist earlier today and added to it, and someone else has added to it since.

You have already got Spotify installed, yes?

no King Crimson

Eh? The first album I listened to on it was In The Court of the Crimson King!

x-post yeah all that's fine, it says "playlist not found" when the link prompts the software. Ah well.

Yeh, I tried the Pazz and Job playlist just there and got "Playlist not found", too. (And, er, yes: I think most of us posting on the Spotify thread about how we use Spotify etc have got Spotify installed ;)

Er, Jop. Obviously.

xpost Just re-checked, and there's still no King Crimson. The nearest you get is "The Court of the Crimson King" by 21st Century Schizoid Band.

Whit? Hang on ...

Try this in the Spotify search window?

spotify:user:miketd:playlist:2zYHbXxldh3YIti4SM3doz

And also this:

spotify:user:raw_patrick:playlist:5QqAXZcbQtPFL0w1ShUiem

xpost

... fuck me, yes. It's all gone. But there is still a ghost page for them -- put in King Crimson and you'll see their name comes up in the little cluster of artists at the top left. Click and you get a pic and a biog but absolutely no tracks.

That's a fucker, because there was a tonne of their stuff up the other week. I thought I'd seen some other stuff disappear, too -- can't remember what, but I just put it down to not having paid attention. But no, some bands are obviously being taken down. Wow.

Ah bollox, that wasn't the P&J playlist - try this one instead:

spotify:user:miketd:playlist:2tpQvA2ojTVgOLr6fozpFh

Hang on: Mike, are you a subscriber?

... 'cos I can't get any of these shared playlists going. It's either a subscriber thing or a Mac thing, I reckon ...

can you (mike or grimly) see
http://open.spotify.com/user/ledge/playlist/1KqRMynsECGZ0Q4JTJ0sHJ

Yes: I can, Ledge. You Mac or PC?

pc.

Yes, I can see that one, Ledge.
I'm not a subscriber - I'm on the free version.
And I'm PC.

Hmmm!

OK. Who can see this?

http://open.spotify.com/user/weesimon/playlist/78t1yokW5g0OI3yOaG9S0z

Works on my PC too.

can't see yours, grimly.

itsamystery.gif

Can someone try mine again now? I've just thought of something ...

xpost ... ah! Got it. Two seconds, Ledge ...

Right. Ledge: can you try again now?

Grimly, I get "playlist not found" on yours. Weird.

Try again now, Mike ...

nope. i mean, nope still can't see it

what did you try?

xpost

Oh, OK. That's fucking weird, and puts paid to my incredibly simplistic theory, which was: it works when the sharer has Spotify running, and not when they don't.

Hmm.

Still get "playlist not found".

I've just changed the Pazz & Jop list to "collaborative". Does that make a difference?

http://open.spotify.com/user/miketd/playlist/2tpQvA2ojTVgOLr6fozpFh

Spotify removing good stuff? Oh well fuck spotify then.

xpost

Nope: I get "playlist not found" for that link too, Mike.

Curiouser and curiouser: having deleted my own shared playlist, if I click the link, it recreates the fucking thing! This is absolutely fucked-up.