I don't know about you but I love music, I love to hear it, I love to chair dance to it, I love to make those awkward hand moves on certain songs when you just feel it. I tend to have a sound track running in my head as I get into various situations, I may not always remember the name of the group or the song but I will remember one of the two. If I don't I'll remember the movie or TV show I heard it on, usually thats enough to get it stuck in your head and drive you insane. Thanks to all of our digital devices we can stream music pretty much anywhere, thing is it's some "created by an arbitrary rating process" playlist that sometimes may hit the song you want but other times it just has you waiting for your favorite or hoping something new and hot comes on.
Spotify allows you to look up the group or the song(I had to use it for Brick's Dazz earlier because ahem too many things use Brick in the name) and as long as somebody has uploaded it on a playlist somewhere there you go. I'm not saying it's perfect, I'll critique the only semi annoying thing I noticed later on, but if all you can do is remember the song or the group and you want to see what other songs they may have that you missed there you have it. And while the occasional ad here and there on the free version may bother some, dude my first day using it I was in 80's and 90's hip hop heaven, a 30 second ad here and there while I'm playing every number 1 from high school pfft radio doesn't give it to you that good. Now yes some of the groups didn't have every song I wanted, but I can always go buy those cd's myself and ADD it to the collective(I need to add my desktop to spotify since that's where the majority of my music is) I mean how is a global music database supposed to work if we all don't contribute to it?
There is also a playlist feature where you can add songs to either windows media player(I'm on the Toshiba so I have yet to download anything else "news at 11" to if it will add to more than just WMP playlists) or create a spotify playlist within the application. You can also star songs to help rate them up, the "What's New" page also lets you see any new artists or album releases. If you use the ad version you will get a chance to browse albums(I checked out a few tracks on Pittbull's Planet Pittbull earlier and now I grooving to Jill Scott's new album) that pop up either on the bottom or the right side. Now I'm sure since there is some tracking going on they will know that so far I am a big Hip hop, reggae, funk and Neo Soul fan so what if you can push more of those songs my way I have no problem with it. I just started my first playlist today(I have WAAAAY more funk songs to look up than the ones I have added so far, ahem what Child of the Funk get over it) and whew can I say putting in Parliament or Funkadelic was like my Dad's old record collection all over again. I think I reached the end of the list but then again I was only skimming for my absolute favorites, unfortunately some of them were live versions and while lives are nice you don't always hear the lyrics clearly. Then I looked up Dazz, then grabbed songs from the Dazz band, and the Gap band. I'll share that playlist on FB later, Jill Scott's new one has me making a neo soul playlist so yeah gotta pick up that album sometime this week.
The annoying thing(and it's only mildly annoying) is that sometimes if it's a really popular group, like Parliament/Funkadelic/Parliament-Funkadelic, their music touched a lot of people crossing generations so there are a lot of parliment/funkadelic tributes and in the vein of songs. Like I said it's only mildly annoying because it was kinda fun hearing the "Glee" Parliament tribute so if you have some spare time and want to hear a tribute band or song hey plop in your favorite group and enjoy. Like I said not perfect yet, since spotify is currently in limited US release(and I don't know if we have access to every server for spotify out there) some less well known groups may not have as many songs as you would like(House of Pain was a little lite on tracks as were Lost Boyz and I haven't figured out how to find the remixes to songs yet) or some older songs in particular veins may not be added in yet, but hey as more people get on I'm sure more songs will pop up.
I got my Spotify invite by signing up for klout, but if you wish to be patient you can just go straight to spotify's site and request an invite(ahem not to be a pusher but if you have twitter sign up for klout your ears will thank you for it). Klout monitors your twitter usage and shows you how much of a big wig you are with different titles for various amounts of reach, the current klout perk is a spotify invite sooo yeah as far as I'm concerned letting somebody watch my tweetstream for awesome access to free music WORTH IT. At the moment it's only free to your PC device, if you wish to share your Spotify playlist with your phone they have two other price points with which you can maneuver the first one is Unlimited at 4.99 a month and the second one is Premium at 9.99. You can go to the website and get the full breakdown on various features, if you want full cell phone access you have to go with the premium version, you also get offline access to the music(I don't know if that means it automatically downloads your playlist to your PC/laptop or device if I decide to pay the 9.99 a month I'll let you know later) unlimited removes the ads, time limits(I guess between how long your song(s) play before you get an ad, if you have spotify unlimited I would greatly appreciate some input on that).
This is Audiophile heaven though, this much music just a few keystrokes away and the ability to share your playlist with your friends(granted if your taste in music sucks they may laugh at you but screw them air guitar away) so you can all enjoy it together. Well this is my 24 hour take on Spotify I just downloaded it last night but I'm already in love.
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