There’s been a lot of buzz lately about the US launch of Spotify’s music subscription service, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to review it for those who either haven’t received an invite and are hesitant to pay out for one of the premium packages.
Spotify currently three different subscription levels in the US: Free, Unlimited, and Premium. A Free subscription allows you to listen to up 20 hours of music a week from a desktop with the occasional ad. The Unlimited subscription ($5/month) removes the ads as well as well as the time limit (hence it’s aptly named.) Taking the jump to a Premium subscription ($10/month) adds the ability to listen on mobile device as well as store music on your desktop or mobile for offline playback. In addition, you have the option to stream the music at a higher bitrate (quality) than Free and Unlimited subscribers (160 kbps vs. 96 kbps.) For more details on the different subscription plans, refer to the Spotify site.
Like Rhapsody, Napster, Zune Pass, and Thumbplay, Spotify allows you to chose exactly what artists, albums and or tracks you want to listen to. Unlike Pandora, you aren’t going to be provided with a playlist based on your past interests and recommendations, but are required to either create your own selections or use playlists created by others in the community. If you only know what type of music you like but not specific artists or albums, then a subscription service probably isn’t for you. You also probably aren’t forking out $10-$15/month for albums on iTunes or Amazon.com, so subscribing to any music service is unlikely to be in your budget. Continue reading …
