What is Spotify?
Spotify is a music playing program developed and launched in 2008 at Spotify Sweden AB in Stockholm, Sweden [i]. It is an on-demand online music library that allows subscribers to listen to their favourite songs, new releases, or even the greatest hits in history. You can download the application onto your computer, tablet, and/or mobile device, and use Spotify to connect to the internet to search through millions of songs.
Functions
The main interface is similar to YouTube with new and trending songs being the first thing that you see (this information is updated frequently based on usage). Like YouTube, tracks are streamed and consume data when listened to. When browsing Spotify, the user can look through top charts, genres, moods, new releases, and recommendations based on previous play history. In the search, the results appear in four categories: songs, artists, albums, and playlists. Playlists are created by users on Spotify to share and update for followers. Some examples include workouts, piano pieces, acoustic covers, and rainfall tracks. The “follow” option for playlists, syncs updates from the owner to the follower, who receives notifications online through email about the changes to the playlist. Spotify can also be controlled remotely by having the application installed on a computer and on a mobile device, [ii] where your phone acts as a remote control. You can control the music from either device on the same account and continue to play tracks right where it left off.
Subscription
Spotify has two versions for consumers – free and premium. As a free user, you have freedom to search through playlists, artists, and charts for new, old and favourite music. There is, however, a limit to how many songs you can play before advertisements interrupt your usage. The premium subscription offers advertisement-free use, unlimited skips, offline listening, and the highest quality audio available for all tracks. Listening offline does not save tracks to the computer or device storage, but Spotify can play saved music and playlists without having to connect to the internet. The tracks are downloaded to the user account exclusively on the application in the same way as a driver, and allows unlimited access until deleted. The premium subscription costs $9.99 CAD per month or $119.88 CAD (with tax) per year.
Pros and cons
Although there is a large variety of music to listen to every day on Spotify, chances are that some tracks may not be available anymore depending on the artists and their record companies [iii] However, Spotify not only supports mainstream artists but also artists who want to make a name for themselves. Acoustic covers of songs, in particular, are very popular on Spotify. Because the subscription is based on time rather than usage, people are likely to listen to as much music as possible in order to make the most out of it.
Spotify, in conclusion, is an effective way to discover new artists and revisit old hits much faster than searching for them all over YouTube or SoundCloud. It can also expand the user’s musical library. It saves storage space on your hard drive and mobile phone, and with its time-based subscription model there is less concern of data usage.
[i] “Spotify Sweden AB.” Largest Companies. Largest Companies. October 26. 2015. <http://www.largestcompanies.com/company/Spotify-Sweden-AB-494189>
[ii] “Music for everyone.” Spotify. October 26. 2015. <https://www.spotify.com/ca-en/>
[iii] “Spotting Spotify’s Pros and Cons.” How Spotify Works. How Stuff Works Tech. October 28.2015. <http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/audio-music/spotify4.htm>
[iv] [Spotify Logo]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/zfHNFDb5.jpg
