5 Reasons to download Spotify

This week I have been heavily trialling Spotify to see for myself what the fuss is all about. I can say with a great degree of enthusiasm, that Spotify is so gratifying, that if you’re a fan of music, it will simply melt your face!

Spotify is like any other music library, except you stream the content from a server. This leads us to the first reason for having Spotify in our lives; it saves space on your droid. As you stream the content from the big magical cloud in the sky, there is no reason to have the hard drive space on your phone filled up with music. So, this leaves space for other things, likes photos and movies, and with the ability to record at 720p on later phones (Droid X and Samsung Galaxy S), having that space is a real bonus.

The amount of music there is to be found on Spotify, is quite remarkable. Reason two, right there. Since downloading the app, I have not been able to find two artists out of a vast amount I tried, which is not bad going. However, those of you thinking that this may be the downside to using a server in the sky for their music had best hold their horses!

With the Spotify app, you can add music from your phone's hard drive to your library, meaning you can mix songs from Spotify in with your own music, to make the playlist you desire. That’s the third reason on my list. Who says clouds don’t have silver linings? The content is superb and it is very up-to-date, featuring sections such as “top tracks” and “what’s new”, that open your eyes to artists and tracks you may have never of thought of listening to. The vast majority of artists have also got biographies too, so you can also read up on your favourite artists.

Reason four takes us to the social networker inside of us. Spotify allows you to post a playlist or an artist on to Facebook, so that others can see your taste in music. However, this could be for better or for worse in your overall cool factor (I preferred not do this for that very reason, but a brilliant idea nonetheless). Furthermore, you can email your contacts a link to the specific artist, and if a fellow Facebooker also has Spotify, then they are automatically added to your friend list on Spotify. The benefit of having friends with Spotify, is that you can share playlists you have created, or albums/artists you love with a friend, and they can subscribe to it.

The sound quality is very good, ranging from lower bandwidth to higher bandwidth (which runs at a maximum of 160kb/s) and the MP3 files are encoded at 320kbps, which is much better than the 128kbps standard that the majority will have heard from downloading “choons” from the likes of Limewire or Kazaa (ah Kazaa, those were the days). Sound quality is my reason number five.

Now, if you have liked what you've just read, and are thinking: “I need to have this app” then I am sorry to have to say that the only bad news about this application is that it is not completely free. It will cost you up to £9.99 a month.

There are three types of Spotify subscription. The first is “free”, which gives you access to the library, but gives you adverts inbetween songs (kind of like radio, but user controlled). The second is the “unlimited” package, which gives you unlimited streaming and no adverts, but at an ordinary bandwidth with a standard sound quality for £5.00 a month. Then thirdly, there is the “premium” package, which is what you really need to have on your Android (which would love to see this app).

If this puts you off Spotify, then it’s a real shame, because the premium content gives you the the features above, all on your phone! To me, this is a really amazing way to enjoy music – no more fussing around plugging in to your computer, great sounding music, great social networking features and music when you’re on the go. Oh, so long as you don’t live in a Faraday cage, or a woodland area where no data can pierce the thick blanket of trees covering your anti-techno pillar box.

If you have Spotify, speak up and let me know what your opinions on it are.