Spotify - anyone heard of it?

I just did this. I had to uninstall nu-Spotify completely, then install the older version. THEN you replace that exe and sig file with the read-only blanks. That order of events is important, or else the new one will auto-install again.

Has anyone on a Mac been forced into the new version? With everything else – browsers, iTunes, ADOBE – I have to give permission for it to download a new version.

Now, I don't know what the hell was in those Terms of Agreement I mindlessly checked, so who knows.

The Mac fix is similar:

You just need to do following steps:

Make sure you don't have the new version installed
If you have 0.8.5 installed, go to your ~/Library/-Folder within your user folder
(if you can't see it in Finder, enter "open ~/Library/" in Terminal)
Navigate to: /Users/[YourUsername]/Library/Application Support/Spotify
There you need to create 2 Files with read-only permissions:
Spotify_new.archive
Spotify_new.archive.sig
(If the files already exist because Spotify downloaded them previously, just delete them before creating your own files.)

And you're done! You should now be a happy 0.8.5 User :-)

Can people see that you're following them? I liked it before when I got to spy on everyone for nothing.

I'm most annoyed by the loss of playlist times. It was having trouble adding new songs to playlists, too.

List of flaws here: http://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Desktop-Linux-Mac-and/Horrible-update-0-8-8/m-p/265126#M3260

List of issues that Spitify have pledged to fix: http://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Desktop-Linux-Mac-and/Horrible-update-0-8-8/m-p/316082#M34646

Several of the bugs mentioned existed before this update, like the album order issue and the ordering of search results.

Using that workaround with v0.8.5 is super easy and worth it.

this update sucks. i want to look at which playlists i am sharing. is there any way i can do it without scrolling through all of them and noting each one? i haev a lot of playlists!!

I searched for this, but couldn't find any results that made sense: how do you create those files on a Mac?

after i updated instead of having my facebook friends show up on my activity feed, it is now populated exclusively by a dutch guy into barbara streisand and some lady from detroit

la bateau ivre?

another shitty thing: the space bar - the universal play/pause button in all music programs including spotify up until last week - now activates some "post track to feed" thing

what the update improved is that when you press play the shit actually tends to work consistently now
what the update botched is most everything else

I searched for this, but couldn't find any results that made sense: how do you create those files on a Mac?

Those files are just blank text files named accordingly. Easy to do on pc, and presumably just as easy on a Mac?

Five play limit removed for free UK users

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9940432/Spotify-removes-five-play-song-cap.html

Free at last!

The commercials on Spotify are a deal-breaker for me -- when i stream, i use grooveshark.

That's because you're using the free version.

I prefer Grooveshark too, except it's not as reliable on the streaming and you're not guaranteed that every song you line up will play.

can't believe grooveshark hasn't been shut down yet by the riaa

Rdio is good.

I realize it's splitting hairs here, but Grooveshark is a completely rogue operation while Rdio/Spotify/MOG/etc are at least throwing a pittance back at the artists whose recordings they stream.

I signed up for Rdio, but immediately found they had only about 10 of the first 20 things I looked for and cancelled my membership.

I haven't had any major problems with the Spotify update or the UI changes.

It's not splitting hairs e.g. Grooveshark. The only thing missing from that site are speedometer.gifs with little bouncing needles and a Gamesheep banner ad.

I still use it though.

I just upgraded from the basic Nook to the color HD Nook (basically so I can read illegally DL'ed comix on it) and hilariously enough the Nook 'app store' offers Grooveshark alongside Spotify, something Apple refused to do...

I realize it's splitting hairs here, but Grooveshark is a completely rogue operation while Rdio/Spotify/MOG/etc are at least throwing a pittance back at the artists whose recordings they stream.

the major label artists who are on spotify are getting fucked probably either way and likely don't have a say, unless they are like pink floyd or someone like that

but indie labels can opt in or out of spotify based on whether they think the exposure/etc is worth the low royalty rates...grooveshark does not grant them that option

Spotify has been working a lot better for me, its not freezing up or stalling and the search seems to be better too.

I've been perfectly happy the last few days with my rigged older version that prevents the update. When they work out all the kinks and maybe fix the UI, I'll upgrade again.

That's because you're using the free version.

Neither service is worth paying for, IMO

if spotify was the blue note app alone it would be worth the cost of two cups of coffee a month for a subscription, throw in everything else and it's pretty easily worth paying for unless you're destitute or something.

yeah i can't even fathom how could can say it's not worth $10 or $5 a month

_That's because you're using the free version._

Neither service is worth paying for, IMO

$10/mo is nothing. If you can't afford it, you can spend $5/mo for ad-free streaming. If you can't afford that, you're a loser.

At the moment, I'm also subscribing to MOG because I really want to ECM catalogue as well. So that's $20/mo, which is--gasp--$240/year total. Which probably equals a couple of months of what I used to spend in a pre-P2P era.

When you consider that you are getting instant access to virtually every record you ever wanted, have some principled stance against the idea of subscription services because they pay so little to artists (a fair criticism), or don't buy $120 worth of music per year, it's a no brainer, really.

Er, that's supposed to read:

UNLESS you have some principled stance...

Otm. Try to put back some of what I don't spend by going to gigs, where I may even buy a CD directly from the artist.

It's worth the money for having no annoying ads and the usage of the mobile app, which has changed my listening habits more than pretty much anything else ever, it's amazing.

it's hard to argue that the ability to download 10,000 songs of your choice to 3 mobile devices isn't worth $10 a month

wau @ the blue note app

wau

just listened to a whole album by this guy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmo_Hope

Love that guy. First heard his record way back in Paris at La Paillote on Rue Monsieur-le-Prince then decades later saw his widow Bertha Hope, who latter married one of the jazz Bookers - Booker Little or Booker Ervin I can't remember, don't think Walter Booker- perform once at one of those little restaurant jazz gigs I like to go to before they finally shuts down first the jazz and then the restaurant.

Of course in the future we won't have any more of these kind of stories, it will all be more like - "I first heard that song when I finally successfully upgraded after they fixed the bug in the search engine and the scrolling unfroze."

Also, meant to type last night that I recently got a mass mailing from a friend saying he just finished recording his latest album. Yesterday I checked it out on Spotify after which I sent him an email to tell him that I liked it, upon which he immediately replied to ask where I had heard it. An hour or two later he sent out an email about his tour to support his new recording, now available at iTunes, CDBaby and streaming on Spotify. Meanwhile as I was talking to another guy about this and pointed to a third guy saying "you know he took his record off Spotify" to which the second guy replied "I told them to take mine off too" and then of course he admitted, like Damon Krukowski before him, that he used the service himself to listen to stuff. Not sure what my point is exactly, just trying to anecdotally limn the mixed-up, shook-up digital world that we live in.

That brings up back to the ownership vs. access culture regarding media. I'm fine with having access the rest of my life, because I've owned too many albums in my life and getting rid of them is a hassle and they take up space and I'd rather dedicate my time to buying other things when I can just access music new and old like I do cable television or movies on Netflix or any other monthly expense. I'm sorry the streaming model seems like a ripoff so far, but I'm prioritizing ME and my wants.

So selfish.

I'm still not really clear how an album I recorded in the 90s ended up on Spotify and who gets paid when it gets played.

You should contact them and find out. I'm sure that's a question a lot of people have.

I'd like to find out just for curiousity's sake. I like that it is available and I'm positive no one is actually profiting off of it.

my band's old stuff that's on spotify is the stuff that we sold through cdbaby, so i guess cdbaby and spotify have a connection, either directly or indirectly

if it's turning people on to elmo hope, it's doing SOME good

Ha, I just found my old band on there too.

Spotify should be paying you if you get stuck with those on a playlist.

$10/mo is nothing. If you can't afford it, you can spend $5/mo for ad-free streaming. If you can't afford that, you're a loser.

Poor people. Fuck em.