Spotify launches in the US | Hacker News Reader

Spotify launches in the US

spotify.com

187 pointsmattgreenrocks262 comments

Where oh where is the table of account types and what you get with each of those?

Why do so many companies make this infuriating mistake? They either don't have this page or it's completely in a completely obscure location. From the front page I click on "Spotify Premium" link (or "Unlimited") and it takes me to a sign up page.

Fail.

Here's a tip: NEVER, EVER ask for registration information until you're sure the customer actually wants to sign up. I want to see what I will be getting so I can make a decision.

The video is well-produced but it doesn't actually tell me anything. How does the service work? What do I need? Is it an app or Flash? Take this iconic iPod video [1]. It uses only FOUR words but manages to tell me everything I need to know (those words are "iPod" and "Mac or PC").

This might be a great service but I hazard to think how many customers they're going to scare away (well, more annoy actually) with this bad UX.

[1]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaVFCdwT0hk

http://www.spotify.com/us/get-spotify/overview/

Weird that it isn't linked anywhere on the splash page.

I (and I guess any other EU subscribers) have a number of invitations if anyone here wants to try the Free version before committing to Unlimited. Anyone interested in one?

Edit: can only send if your email address is on your HN profile, of course.

Edit edit: http://www.spotify.com/us/amanda/ will be less hassle for all whilst it lasts.

edit: Thanks.

I'd love an invite if you have one.

Yes, please! Email's in profile.

Edit: Thank you so very much!

edit: thanks

I'd love one too. Thanks!

Can you send me one ?

Thanks

can i get one? email in profile

Thanks, would really like to try it out

Edit 1736: removed all the used ones

Edit 1740: all gone.

Thanks estel! I used awyqHSnBbAAkRh58.

To be used here by the way: https://www.spotify.com/us/invitation/

Grabbed ca8ThDaEsrYfZYH2

a9f6JVzTXAr5Kb2c was already used.

My invite codes:

    All of my 32 invitation codes are now used.

Edit: removed the used ones.

Thanks! Used cVSY9gFdxWhdEz7Z .

Thanks from me as well...I used dfZx4U2xCTqe9Vsh.

I'm starting to think it would be nice to have a service where people could share invite codes and keep track of which ones have been used.

Thanks, used bB5dPAekaCJw3f8f

Thanks! I got in.

Thanks, I snagged one earlier. I've been listening to Spotify all day, this is great!

Here's some more invites: ftmp68XgaXYwmBS7 bbbqsYPhWZ9Zrk4s fCnwmdMS9NRWDLHA aVJqbgCMMxR4LUgs cMusg9KWkeqzV7Fq

In case invites are still of use, I created a few at http://eonwe.luno.fi/spotify_invites

Here are some invites:

  czkDabFHu7D2F75Z
  e9urZw7CX6hq788t
  cef8MEp9YmUq5YdB
  epq4ATHmW4LMDRH7
  dfxBMdYsnLXeYtVk
  fDLkq2PU6qwFaZSR
  bNF5Ryq7xBddVr7a
  axpxx3axYK3D4M2R
  eMxWZYLNFfMsDTWT
  bFzczHM7bLe2xE7e
  c3DFEP6uL6n5Z4zA
  bZrG7LcUnbGeuFgy
  cMe2tK5ycNnSDqJx
  ehR9LrHPVV4HTwPH
  e4Zar8gffdVKwegE
  bMBz5nNRr5BZW8h4
  aug8Faukh7VVRmEM
  bZkqpWZ8hgFkfVXZ
  e56H5X8bDD7dEWME
  awURKwJDCPLDkncd
  fC3KV4npMre6Thwq
  daCc2AfVzaXxp9V4
  fmN6XSRSByu26n96
  bMmcxU2sW27MaEGB
  fzLXB4yM4gEm4aNK
  dWgYdbMRkw6XJBGb
  bZsYepMNTByHgrzU
  chPwyJHwMuD78P6r
  eyEwweJ72dMff6gE
  dZRU6TkaMK8Y3S6z
  aVRC52a3DR3b3G2z
  bmDdpBWAy4pJRRU2

Says they should work in the US as well.

Edit: Wow, that was quick. 24 invites used already! :)

used this one: cCes6dAxcXAgnnSV major thanks, chap!

Awesome - thanks! Used this one: faFWVKqrpxenRBdJ

Thanks! Used axpxx3axYK3D4M2R

Hey, looks like I found one that got skipped. I just used cMe2tK5ycNnSDqJx

Thanks for the invite.

As I haven't contributed anything for the HN community, take these invite codes as a token of my appreciation:

		fBtbsnyhR7Sw3k3B
		a9LXkhTx4YdTkP4a
		czSVXhFkLgwRx6zS
		e7wuTAMVtVck8BMC
		cYAAdNPCpBgCtyyu
		fG7GsqbFsBaE2knG
		eCECZNnkaRy4VJ8q
		duJy7W9EAR2KyYBd
		exmWgPwsfsVbgBKy
		eScdc6ctgdNsRSGF
		e5K5nXfmswZfV8Mk
		fBBnJNgd4Ur49XZZ
		aUTDk63STysENRhM
		dHgs5mwfTpwFuHzE
		dyrJCYY74WKd3fnS
		fkqWs4B2A4rV6bpu
		dHuPEYSSLCHNgGS6
		bkUkZy5bsw9c4u3U
		fdVPkN4Fd65r33De
		aKEwzC3yTBRNbLE9
		eEp6Lq23VwW98wTu
		cP2LJhfd7sbNXYMY
		dDJzy2qmHCHKVRsW
		ddDzbdD2d6MhA9Ur
		edtLcZqrnZY2bXWm
		eeENV5uFfnfUVayA

fBtbsnyhR7Sw3k3B used. Thanks!

a9LXkhTx4YdTkP4a used. Thanks!

eEp6Lq23VwW98wTu used. Thanks!

Since I didn't see an obvious way from the front page, the place to sign up for a free account if you have an invite code is: https://www.spotify.com/us/get-spotify/overview/

That helped me a lot. I kept trying to sign up on the wrong page and kept saying every code I was using was invalid. I was getting incredibly irritated!

dHuPEYSSLCHNgGS6 used. Thanks so much!

Thanks, I used fG7GsqbFsBaE2knG

Spotify Premium pricing UK £9.99 US £6.19 ($9.99, converted using google)

The UK price is over 50% more than the US price. As someone who's been subscribing to Spotify Premium in the UK for over a year, this feels like quite a slap in the face.

In the UK, for a lot of things we pay the same numerical amount in pounds as Americans pay in dollars.

Yeah I have noticed that quite a lot, its almost becoming a 1 to 1 transfer rate. I'm going to give up Spotify now for this very reason. Its rather disappointing.

FWIW, I've generally noticed Americans assign about the same value on USD prices < $100. $10 here is worth the same to an American as £10 is to a Brit. $10 isn't worth £6 to them.

This is hard to understand until you've lived in both places.

There isn't much excuse for the very large discrepancy between electronics pricing, however.

Come join us at grooveshark.com. Unlimited for free!

I've subscribed to MOG, and I currently subscribe to Rdio, but I've been itching to try Spotify for what seems like a year now.

My early thoughts:

1) The software is snappier than, but not as well designed as Rdio.

2) Their catalogue is missing a lot of work from some of my favorite main stream artists (Bob Dylan is the biggest hitter I've encountered so far with a woefully incomplete discography).

3) No web interface like Rdio or MOG, so you're out of luck on a work computer where you don't have full rights to download and install software.

4) Being able to add in your own music files is nice plus since neither service has 100% of what I want.

5) Having an ad supported free version is great for sharing playlists. I've made Rdio playlists I'd love to share with their embeddable web widget, but only people with a paid Rdio account can hear the songs. With Spotify you don't get a web widget, but you can share playlist links which anyone can listen to with a free account.

Spotify will change your life from one appreciating ownership to one preferring access.

At least it did with me.

Same thing here. I don't have any MP3s any longer.

Kindle is doing something similar to my book reading. We ditched all paper books sometime last winter (they're now in the office library), and I'm actually reading a lot more because all my books are with me all the time.

But don't you own those books on your kindle? (Ignoring the arguments about whether you truly own something they can delete remotely, etc.) If you bought them, access didn't replace ownership - it supplemented it.

I think of anything DRMd more as rental. I think the term "Buy" there is quite deceptive

As long as they have all the weird music I listen to, sure. Is there a way to check their selection without signing up? I don't see any way to check if they have Soul Coughing, Zyklon Boom, Любэ, the original Grand Theft Auto soundtrack, Tub Ring, etc? (These are the first few songs I see in my playlist on my iPhone.)

I'd be pretty pissed if I signed up and got a Top 40's equivalent for my money.

Sadly, there is no way to preview the catalog. I have an account and checked your list, though, because I've not heard of the majority of those and was curious:

Soul Coughing - Y Zyklon Boom - N Любэ - N GTA - Only GTA IV and Vice City Tub Ring - Y (these guys have a great sound, thanks for the heads up!)

Sure there is. "just" use the Metadata API :) https://developer.spotify.com/en/metadata-api/overview/ There should be services built using it, but I don't know any offhand.

Edit: Sorry, I am out, didn't think my ~60 invites would go through that quickly, hopefully those who got some are enjoying the service.

Thanks!

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Interesting that the price is 4,99 USD, while in Eurozone it's 4,99 EUR. So it's actually cheaper for Americans.

I know it's common for products originating in the USA (games, electronics, etc.) to make the USD -> EUR conversion 1:1 but it's interesting to see it's also done the other way around.

I am not complaining though, Spotify is an awesome service and well worth the money!

edit: Seems there's more people who noticed the same, it's even the same with GBP, which has an even bigger difference than the Euro.

Some invites:

cNqeAdBR4rnb4T9A , fE2ZrCLVNGfAJXKW , du4YaCBM337ZHnPL , e3NxdL5CnspC42ut , anFKrCMpD9X8ZJEL , dAXGZ8VTPE9Rk7Rx , bTE59B9TCWfHKBSR , cd4nHezZ9SafkmFh , cY4u7E7R2RrWMfca , fMHTqKLC6Z45nEn8 , dFKksMek8xhL2NS8 , eW8HBT75Ab5pDbSc , ca4AtNNmp9Cg77WE , c7BhhM9Z82rccnsd , dDrc38Ungxa9CxP3 , dfSV9B8MdwbAndmf , eW6gJwRrzc38TwEM , aB7UDYuM7cPzWB8Z , aXzrkNaULmeUzKnn , eT4Vy4cbA6DZSHPS , cpSAhfyD6fSZrUKu

Thanks a bunch.

Thanks for sharing the invites!

used e3NxdL5CnspC42ut

Thanks!

Looks like all these are dead :/

Does anyone have a guess as to why they are doing an "invite only" style opening here in the US? I would think with their success abroad, the infrastructure is strong enough to support the added subscribers...

Is this just to increase artificial demand?

It certainly is a marketing tactic but it can also be more. Spotify is based on P2P-tech and maybe they want to slowly ramp up the network.

Most of the servers are also located in the UK AFAIK and the first 30 seconds are always streamed from their servers. Managing demand could be a reason.

I'd be extremely suprised if Spotify didn't have servers in the US for this release.

They've got servers in the US too.

Considering the amount of invites available (almost every premium subscriber has 50+ invites) I doubt it is more than a marketing strategy.

> Does anyone have a guess as to why they are doing an "invite only" style opening here in the US?

They're not - you can pay for a premium or unlimited subscription right now. I've just purchased one for my brother in NY, so I can share playlists with him from London.

IIRC free accounts remained invite-only for a long time after they first introduced premium subscriptions in Europe.

It's not just to create scarcity, but for people who want to try it and aren't creative enough to go find an invite, it probably means higher conversion into paid subscriptions.

Get exclusive invites from here http://www.spotify.com/us/amanda/

Is this pretty much the same thing as Rhapsody, or am I missing the significant difference?

I have been wondering the same thing. Learning about Spotify (and finding out it wasn't available in the US) led me to a paid Rhapsody account. However if the UI is better and selection about the same I'd probably jump in a hearbeat.

Rhapsody used to be quite similar to spotify. Their desktop app let you play free music. But lately they've fallen behind and their player UI hasn't changed much for like 5 years. They don't have a Mac app. But if you use windows, Rhapsody comes close to Spotify in terms of features.

I've been using Spotify since the UK closed beta (a few years ago, now). At first it seemed like the most amazing thing ever, but slowly I fell out of love with it, and now I barely use it.

Why?

1) The ads. At first they were reasonably infrequent and unobtrusive. But gradually they became more frequent and more and more obtrusive. Eventually some companies were deliberately producing jarring ads to grab your attention.

Many of the ads were for music. Other music: music that I would never listen to and (more importantly) music that was totally incongruous and jarring to the music it was interrupting.

2) Disappearing Music. I created loads of playlists filled with interesting (often independent) new music. Gradually whole playlists disappeared and stopped working. It felt like my music was being stolen. To replace ownership with streaming (at least for the generation that owned CDs) the catalogue needs stability.

3) Missing Music. As usual it's the big, classic stuff. I bought a license for a christmas party at my parents house. The lack of Beatles, Stones, Queen etc caused a near riot. Spotify was booed off.

4) Skype. I don't know why (but I suspect its probably Adobe's fault ;-)) but Skype and Spotify on the PC seem to have a problem with each other. Maybe I'm seeing ghosts here but I frequently have problems with these two apps (and the Chrome Flash plugin). Eventually I had to stop using one or other.

5) The artist payments are miniscule-to-the-point-of-broken. See this:

  http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/

I realise that the first problem would have been easily fixed by buying Spotify Premium and I was going to do this until my favourite music started to disappear.

Hopefully, the US launch will be enough to persuade the small labels to return to Spotify (maybe they already have?) and with a larger advertising base better ads could be produced and more appropriate targeting of ads could make the advert-laden experience more palatable. Similarly, a US launch may convince the big rock dinosaurs to join. That, at least, would improve next xmas.

Don't get me wrong: Spotify is an amazing thing and has a ton of potential. The US (especially teen US and low-income US) is going to love it. The App is fantastic (kind'a magical when you first see how quickly and easily it plays music).

If you have mainstream, modern taste and can stomach the loud ads you'll get great service for free.

If you're a fussy indie-kid like me who mostly listens to whispering soft audio as you work, you may want to check how many of your favourite obscure artists are onboard before you buy premium.

As for artists - while Spotify is a great innovation and a valuable way to move young people from illegally torrenting to legally streaming music it needs to generate more money for the musicians for it to be truly sustainable.

Edit: To make clear this is a UK account (not a US beta) so the falling-out-of-love took a few years.

I have been using Spotify in the US in closed beta as well for over a month, so just wanted to give my two cents on these points. I will respond in order:

1.The ads on the free plan are obtrusive, but it's free. I didn't find them any more obtrusive than Pandora's ads. That said, I love the service and wanted to take it mobile, so I upgraded to premium, so I'm no longer hearing ads.

2.I didn't experience disappearing playlists. I'm sure this happened to you, just pointing out that it's not a super common occurrence b/c I'm on Spotify hours per day with plenty of playlists and haven't seen the issue.

3. Agreed. I miss my Beatles and Pink Floyd. However, the Stones' library is on there.

4. Again, I'm sure you're seeing this issue, but I use both Skype and Spotify on my PC fairly often and haven't had any issues.

5. In fairness, I'm just interested in a streaming music platform - not starting a movement. There are plenty of inefficiencies in the record label industry, but I'm. Just a startup guy, not an artist so it's not my fight ;-)

One issue I will add is that Spotify stopped streaming on my Droid about two weeks into my premium subscription. However, customer service couldn't have been more responsive and helped me fix the issue pronto.

Sorry, I wasn't clear that that I have a UK account so the disappearances happened over a long period over a year ago.

My bad about The Stones. Maybe they were there that xmas.

I suspect that the issue the small independents have with Spotify is exactly linked to Artists' fees. Selling small amounts of CDs is actually worthwhile for a small artist - being on Spotify isn't.

Queen is also there.

The "disappearing playlist" the parent refers to is a licensing issue, not a technical one, as far as I could tell. When I was in the UK (now in the US), whole artists catalogs would go missing all at once. I eventually stopped paying for the service because of this (it wiped out about 10% of the content from my playlists).

Agreed. As I recall small labels started removing themselves as they weren't making any money from it.

Hmm. I wonder if they were making money from it indirectly, though. I use Spotify mainly as a try-before-you-buy service, and I wouldn't be suprised if others did too.

True. I have on a number of occasions tried on Spotify and bought on iTunes.

From their POV it's only marginally more profitable than piracy. Thus I expect the attitudes to be similar (and varying between artists).

This is great insight: something I haven't experienced and therefore didn't address in my original response to the parent. Thanks.

Correct, this was probably the biggest "disappearing playlist" event: http://www.spotify.com/us/blog/archives/2009/01/28/some-impo...

2. Probably a month may not be enough to experience the disappearing playlists (actually, that should be called disappearing tracks, as playlists are still there, just tracks are greyed out and you cannot play them anymore). I've got whole disks greyed out from my playlists and created a ticket on getsatisfaction about a year ago. Their answer was that this is not their fault, but the industry's… copyright, etc.

I don't blame them, we know what the industry is like.

3. Beatles not so much for me (I've got their discography on cassette, cd, mp3… so I sync it with spotify), but Metallica… sad but true.

4. Never had a problem with Spotify + Skype, but I would suspect it's Spotify's fault. Why? Because on OSX I use BetterTouchTool and I get this message everytime I resume from sleep: http://cl.ly/1Z1u2n0R3H3o0w27243d ← I believe it could be related.

If you have the paid version you'll never hear the ads. I find it hard to see why anybody would use the ad-ridden version.

I don't know why a company hasn't bought up all the ad spots with a short whispered message every ten slots that says "Ad free Spotify... brought to you by AwesomeCorp".

As I said: I wanted to pay for it but baulked when my playlists started to disappear.

I've thought about bailing out because of this… but they've "promised" that it won't happen again. Still, some things are not available and I'm tired of paying premium for a limited catalog. La Roux suddenly disappeared for no reason even after they promised to behave.

As I think you have realised some of your issues (ads and artist payments) could be solved by paying for premium. Premium customers also get access to some music that isn't available for free (and early access to lots of new albums).

I think the problem for you though is the music you listen to. I have never seen music start to disappear (and I listen to a wide variety of music). It's also not reasonable to expect artists such as the Beatles to be on Spotify. They've only arrived on iTunes after years of Apple trying to get them. There is no way they will ever let you stream their music for free on Spotify.

EDIT: And as jsherry said the Stones are on Spotify. I have a lot of their stuff in playlists and listen to them regularly.

I think the best way to use Spotify is in addition to iTunes. I use Spotify premium to listen to music that I would never buy. And then I buy music from iTunes that I regularly listen to or isn't available on Spotify (like the Beatles). For the price of one album a month I don't think that is a bad way to use the service and probably how the record labels hope it would be used.

My bad about The Stones. To be clear this is my parents' taste in music rather than my own but lack of their favourite artists was enough for them to dismiss Spotify out-of-hand.

I never noticed the loss of the Beatles, Queen, Pink Floyd because I already had the albums and they were pulled into Spotify via Local Files.

In the UK albums and tracks on Spotify often have a "Buy" button (links to 7digital) so you can guarantee access and high quality. But I think they are missing a trick by not showing music that is not streamable but can be bought. This doesn't help the Pink Floyds of this world but this would work for plenty of indie acts.

> I think the best way to use Spotify is in addition to iTunes.

I agree. I previously used Grooveshark for this purpose, but the number of times I found mislabeled or corrupted tracks sparked me to switch to Spotify a while back.

A win for iTunes over Spotify, for me, is AirPlay. I know I could use AirFoil with Spotify and achieve much the same thing, but then I lose the (fabulous) remote control from iPad/iPhone capabilities.

About 5): In Scandinavia, Spotify is the largest single source of revenue for labels. Three times the size of iTunes. If the artists don't get money, they should take it up with their labels.

The ads are obtrusive because streaming the better part of the earth's digital music collection to your doorstep at speeds that make iTunes seem like a turtle costs money. That bit may have evaded you.

Refuting your (IMO somewhat unfounded) statement on who in the US are going to love it, I'm a heavy music consumer (both in breadth and depth), and Spotify works especially well for me. In a purchase-song model, I'd be out many, many times as much per month than I am now (which also forms the disclaimer for this reply: I've been a premium subscriber for ages).

I had a similar experience; falling-out-of-love gradually. They have a good selection of music, I think, although of course there are things missing. But, its all big-label music and when I was using Spotify all the time, I felt that my music tastes were gradually becoming less interesting. There is very little indy music and while you can look at your friends music/listen to radio/look for similar artists its not really suited for music discovery. It was when I realised that youtube would let you create playlists that I knew it wasnt for me (I don't need mobile and the restrictions on the free spotify service are quite severe now).

Your point number 5 is interesting because it's been backed up with that link. It shows that Spotify is at the bottom of the list but really you're comparing apples and oranges. iTunes sales are a one off amount but Spotify is a revenue stream.

I imagine that I would listen to some of my favourite tracks 1000 times over the next 10 years. That adds up to pretty much the same amount of money going to the Artist. That seems reasonable.

Anyhoo here are some invite codes: e32yEp9pMNkVxUhy cnYq9kG9uPmhwHEM dBFVbcKeDcm9qw25 bdJTRS492mXnyzSY a94W7mdcVTnGNugk bGrMgcbLVL8LtZdM e7RXhPe3yVWGHHDd e7DUsN99VJP94YKT bACewd924c2KLA4X

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Here's some invites, register with them at https://www.spotify.com/us/invitation/

Updated list of the ones that are left, be quick:

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(all of mine are gone, hope you all enjoy spotify!)

Maybe it's just me, but I think their ad is fantastic. I hope they become successful in the US!

not just you :-)

Yeah, it would probably become a smash hit if it were aired on TV!

I don't understand why they don't have a web app, especially when competitors like Last.fm, Grooveshark, Turntable.fm and others do.

They probably don't have infrastructure for that yet and it also might be conscious decision. I've understood that the whole point of Spotify is that it is based on P2P-technology which eases their server load and allows good sound quality for users with fairly low connection speeds.

> and allows good sound quality for users with fairly low connection speeds.

P2P is all about lowering their costs, not about making better sound quality for low connection speeds. It doesn't matter if you're streaming from Spotify's data center or across the street, slow is as slow does. You're not squeezing more bits through a slow connection because of P2P.

I have been using this since early alpha and I have never had any slow issues. In fact it plays faster than iTunes

Great, but that's not because of any P2P elements but because your bandwidth is sufficient for a stream.

You are right, I didn't express myself quite clearly. But if you are in, say, Australia and you're streaming from a server that is in Sweden there is probably some bottleneck along the way that doesn't allow you to get full speed of your connection. But if you're streaming from across the street you probably get more use of your connection. Your connection speed is obviously the upper limit.

I don't know if I expressed myself any more clearly :)

Guess there could be some uses for a web app, but the desktop app is just so much better than any flash/html5 app. Haven't touched itunes after spotify.

The Windows version seems to wish it was iTunes.

Other than that, its quite responsive.

I use thesixtyone, earbits, grooveshark, last.fm in the browser and I have no trouble at all. The thing with music apps is that I just choose a playlist/station, hit play and forget. The UI doesn't even matter beyond that.

For a lot of people with that use-case the UI might not matter, but it is not the only use case for a streaming service. From http://www.csc.kth.se/~gkreitz/spotify-p2p10/ one can see that almost 40% of tracks played are chosen actively as opposed to just continuing on to the next track.

You can't get the same level of service in a webapp. From technical papers on Spotify, one can see that they get an average of about 250ms to start playing a song, but still their own servers only need to stream about 20% or so IIRC of the total music played.

So the spotify client is doing P2P stuff completely skipping the servers? Why can't it be done in Javascript?

The client does P2P and local caching for offloading the servers. Apart from the technical issues in doing it browser side (for example, opening TCP connections), I seriously doubt that it could be done with the same level of efficiency.

Am I the only one who signed up for a premium account with the expectation that I would be able to share it with my wife? I'm not quite sure why there's the artificial restriction on being in 'online' mode on more than one computer. It's really a deal-breaker for me. Our only option (I guess) is to have two accounts, which means managing two playlists, etc. (we like to curate them together, our music tastes are very similar). Ah well, I'm not sure if I will continue my subscription past this month...

Having done a bit more looking, it seems like Rdio, MOG, and Spotify all have this restriction, and according to help articles on the MOG site, this is due to the contract the recording industry puts forth. I guess I see where they think this should be included, but I really don't think they should expect one family to purchase 2 or 3 subscriptions.

Like with Rdio, you can do collaborative playlists!

For those interested: The Linux version is getting better and better. I'm using it daily.

I think Spotify is absolutely worth the money. It's also great for playing your own music collection.

4.99 USD a month for unlimited? It's 4.99 GBP a month in the UK, which is more like 8.00 USD. That's not fair!

1:1 pricing aside, it's very good news that they're launching in the US.

Remember we don't have VAT here, so that's what, a 25%, 30% difference right there?

currently 20%

They also probably have completely different licensing deals, there's a bigger market, etc.

well its been 49 sek in sweden all the time which is at time of writing this 4.67 gbp and 7.5 usd. I guess they just want pretty numbers.

I'm interested to see how the US consumer reacts to Spotify. Streaming music isn't new, and its had very little uptick as consumer behavior is mostly given toward a 5 record a year purchase (average music spend per US 18-65 is 50 bucks there a bouts).

120 is a big jump for the average person.

Also Spotify US will not be allowing you to "live" as a free user for long.

I have other issues with Spotify, both good and bad, but that is its own blog post and nothing I submit to HN gets up voted anyhow :)

If anyone is interested, here is the blog post to which I refer: http://www.blackrimglasses.com/2011/07/06/on-spotify/

Spotify made me throw away CD-s, delete all mp3s and other audio files and stop being less-than-legal. It'll be interesting to see how big a foothold they get in USA, to me its a truly awesome service and currently on par with vim as the most essential tool on my computer.

The pricing is a lot cheaper than in Norway, but even here I think its cheap ($18 / month for premium) and would gladly have paid four-fold if that was the cost.

Really interested in how apple will react. Will they kick the app out of the app store once it's becoming a real threat to itunes?

I have a whole bunch of invitations - however, I will be leaving town for the weekend and will probably be without internet connection. So if anyone is late on the train but still interested, leave a comment with an email here and I will try to get them to you on monday as I will check the thread as soon as I get back!

Is there a site that compares (up to date) catalog sizes of the different services? Rhapsody used to have the largest, but I couldn't abide their website. Rdio has a great site, but their selection wasn't so great. Mog has been a decent compromise, but I'm interested if Spotify has a larger library.

I've been pretty happy with MOG's library. Nobody but Apple has the Beatles, but MOG has all the major label stuff and better coverage of my obscure tastes than I expected.

I've also been impressed with their response when I've contacted them to request catalog adds. Both times a non-customer-support human responded and both times they managed to add it within a few weeks. I didn't even expect a respond, to be honest.

When did you last try rdio? We've filled in a lot of missing chunks in the past few months and more will be coming with time.

It's been awhile, probably 5 or 6 months. I will check it out again. Rdio has the best player I've used so far.

So, do I want to give Rdio up for this?

I can tell you why I might give up Rdio for Spotify, depending on how this trial goes.

I have been a Rdio subscriber for about 3 months now, and I really only have two complaints. The first is that when I'm listening to Rdio at work (which is where I use the service most often) the stream tends to hang up and/or "stutter", to the point that I eventually get frustrated and turn it off. Now, we have pretty decent bandwidth at work, and other similar services (e.g. Pandora) don't seem to suffer from this problem, so I'm not sure what Rdio's problem is.

The other problem I've observed with Rdio is that a noticeable amount of time passes between the time I press "play" and the music actually starts. This one's not such a big problem, but it is a problem.

So, I've just signed up for a Spotify Unlimited plan and I'm going to see how it stacks up, especially with regards to the aforementioned problems. If it seems to perform more consistently than Rdio has, I'll probably switch.

I'm an Rdio user and I've been trying Spotify today. I'm not thrilled with their music library. There are a bunch of bands that I love that Rdio doesn't have (Arcade Fire, Shins, Ramones, Pink Floyd, older Flogging Molly, newer Eisley, etc.). There are only a few albums that I really want that Rdio doesn't have, by contrast.

I feel like Spotify's UI is just a gray iTunes, whereas Rdio's UI is more in line with how I think about music. The search function in Spotify is really poor compared to Rdio.

Rdio blows away Spotify in terms of the discovery and social aspects. I really like the ability to follow people that have the same tastes as I do. I've found a bunch of new bands that way. With Spotify, you have to find friends on Facebook and Twitter. And no offense to my friends, but I think their taste in music sucks.

I'm sticking with Rdio.

It's true that most of the bands you listed were not available a while back, but I believe all of them are available now. We are missing some Pink Floyd though.

If there's something missing that you really want to see, make a request here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/rd.io/viewform?formkey=dHd...

And thanks for sticking with rdio!

I just cancelled my Rdio subscription because of missing artists. There's one really really easy way for you to fix this issue though. Let me manage music that's not in your catalogue so I don't have to pull out iTunes, and so I can mix and match those songs into Rdio playlists.

I'm pretty sure that dstone meant to write that Spotify was missing those bands (e.g. Arcade Fire et al), not Rdio. I've been listening to a good bit of Arcade Fire on Rdio lately, and just confirmed that they aren't available on Spotify.

Oops! I totally meant that Spotify doesn't have those bands. Rdio definitely does.

You guys have a fantastic product. It's easy to stick with it.

Still not in all parts of Europe. I'm in Ireland, a fellow eurozone country, and I still can't get it.

I'm interested in seeing if their better than piracy strategy will actually work.

Rhapsody had tried the same thing in the mid 2000s, letting people play songs for free.

They seem to think that people who aren't willing to pay for music will use Spotify because it lets you play free music, and then magically decide to start paying for mobile access. But the reality will probably be these users sticking to their less than legal ways and keeping their mobile access via iTunes. So without the compelling free component, it ends up being just an improvement over other music subscription services, and music subscription isn't really a groundbreaking new model.

...or Perhaps subscription is the model of the future and there hasn't been a large enough marketing push educating people yet...

  pros:
      * good mobile apps
      * offline support
      * as good a selection as anyone here in Scandinavia
      * great shared playlist support
      * you can create a link to songs/albums etc..
      * facebook connect
  
  cons:
      * music can be missing / disappear (guess we should blame the labels..)
      * some music can be available in some countries but not others (guess we should blame the labels..)
      * you rent and don't own, so if they tank or you quit you will loose "your" music
      * "related artist" feature sucks, but there are some last.fm integration web-apps
      * a lot of the artist info are missing
      * album dates are sometimes off (click on the album and look at the copyright)

Some invites here…

    eCHNmfHZuqF9TmD3

    afszECXK8CW5tCJs

    cEnYXD7WVKWpDKB3

    ctecqyA3qAGB5UAs

    aYZ8B7PdrmGHN68w

    c2hPAbDfttNkYULz

    dmMwezXMt95tr4ud

    byaEuB7qBq8e9sd7

Got some more left if they run out…

Thanks!

I took ctecqyA3qAGB5UAs

Some more invites:

D6Mtj4MyMg6hzJ8t ETWbfUwiBMFcU2Ph WPAS74wtHu9tMmyN HJmJz2FP3UJDhswi fzdnV35pk2yHdL3c gGM7nUmHp5RMEyqt iSjWhLn2K9uYgX82 wsSYtfZFCAdAsh2f D7FnpxmUe5d8DKD6 69aTCaa3g4bH6Pgg qC5F8Duiqk9Uim9Y Fcgdb2JauHUDt5Aj qDsZz8Fh6DRAeHks Fsn3UgS4EqVNX9iH ePKFqMGw63N52CJw aEADiTuH7MuXq2yW ysE4ALgXL9JNz3ZG iR4YAdyzFPiiy5Ta GUhTyEwWFZ6fA4LX eATtWNb6znwWFKA3 aMCqCWZEtzHdnCew aE57pUkzVreGpSeW dpyDJS3xqcC5REMC aHWdX4f2YDDmGVgu akfcypkYsCGqzG4P bVM55CNq7KHrLgEy efCYNacLAS9NqMDz fFkuEeNR4G5gkdFp dKyzfb6TgVbGmax8 afuPf5Yn5K42ktkV a3cDmTKGmf97ZHG3

User akfcypkYsCGqzG4P, thanks!

Used aE57pUkzVreGpSeW. Thanks!

Used aHWdX4f2YDDmGVgu, thanks!

used efCYNacLAS9NqMDz

These are still left:

WPAS74wtHu9tMmyN

HJmJz2FP3UJDhswi

fzdnV35pk2yHdL3c

wsSYtfZFCAdAsh2f

69aTCaa3g4bH6Pgg

qC5F8Duiqk9Uim9Y

Fcgdb2JauHUDt5Aj

qDsZz8Fh6DRAeHks

I used "qDsZz8Fh6DRAeHks" for myself and "Fcgdb2JauHUDt5Aj" for my mom. Thanks a ton mate!

As someone completely unconnected to the company, I don't understand how MOG has totally failed to get any mindshare. Same product, same price, but has been available in the US (including on the iPhone) for >1 year. I assume it must be a profound marketing failure, because the product itself is stellar. (I really, really like it.)

If I worked there I'd be driven absolutely insane by the media buzz for all-you-can-eat streaming music that almost always fails to mention them.

I had little knowledge on either, but after reading this thread and a quick browsing of both I have to agree that MOG is extremely well done. I hope they are able to put up a fight as the market is being established.

Yes, I agree. MOG has been ahead of the competition for almost a year and yet you never hear anything about it.

Total, epic marketing fail.

I disagree that Mog is ahead of the competition.

For me, while Mog has more songs, they lose to Rdio in their UI, their iPhone app, and the social aspect of the service.

When I was comparing them, it was neck and neck between the two, but I couldn't stand Mog's crashy AIR player compared to Rdio's rock-solid AIR player. The Rdio website is much more intuitive and usable, IMO. Also, the new Rdio for Mac app is crazy awesome. The Mog iPhone app used to sign me out all the time, too, which was really irritating.

I've also found a lot more new music through Rdio than I ever did when I was using Mog. The social features are nice because I've been able to find people who like the same type of music and then listen to new music they discover.

It's all a lot of little things, but they added up to make Mog really quite unacceptable for me.

MOG was around way before Rdio. And for me, its all about the music. I could care less about social features and never ran into problems with the AIR client or the phone client.

Also, MOG just finished a HTML5 redesign anyway.

More invites:

    bfhyfNgA5GwMpXAp
    fp5KtpFcSkmD6b2s
    ed6AgEph6BZhL8ug
    cmV4LDWzgS6GhcZd
    eBAXdEBKCUyuSBEh*
    cKZpbrGFchyA2BYE*
    dxY2cZMJHzbNETX3*
    hhrJR85yGBXNrGw9*
    cBfHcKrzAuacakTW*
    c22XSWuz6EtWTsB6*
    dafFbnxVePubpuYD*
    cegrXnVfrD68Fkaw*
    ae8nNCwT2b7hDSGg*
    eq5XcPJk5TL5JPwA*
    aWRthApJb7SJRNsM*
    ayUhwq64t62gDTJm*

* = Used

For the record, inviters are disclosed with the user name the invite ends up as.

Just used cBfHcKrzAuacakTW - thanks!

aWRthApJb7SJRNsM used

used ayUhwq64t62gDTJm thanks!

Just used dxY2cZMJHzbNETX3. Thanks!

Used ed6AgEph6BZhL8ug - thanks!

Spotify seems less exciting than Grooveshark, which has been available in the US for a long time.

http://www.grooveshark.com

If "exciting" means "Actually paying artists and not fucking them over constantly and abusing the DMCA to get away with it" then yes, it certainly is less exciting.

Do you actually have a source concerning paying artists or are you just fabricating everything you say?

http://www.grooveshark.com/labellist

Let's play a game!

Step 1. Pick an artist! I'll go for "Britney Spears". Step 2. Pick an album! I'll go for her latest "Femme Fatale". Step 3. Find that album on Groove Shark! Easy enough, it's right there under "Britney Spears". Step 4. Check which label that album is distributed under, Wikipedia states it's under the label "Jive" (who are a division of Epic, part of Sony). Step 5. Search through that list for any label associated with the ones I just listed.

nothing

So here they are, making money of the latest Britney Spears album, yet they aren't licensed to! What a surprise! This is all Grooveshark do. They will only remove after they get a DMCA request because "oh our users upload it! We didn't know! Those naughty users!". That label list is 95% small labels nobody cares about that very few people listen to the music of, none of the larger labels are on there. I would love to see Grooveshark publish a breakdown of what % of their music (based on listens) is licensed vs. unlicensed. I'd bet $100 it's less than 50%.

"oh but it's too hard to get licenses! It's the big bad RIAA!!". Wait a second, we're posting in a thread about a company doing exactly what Grooveshark should be doing and doing it successfully!

EMI, one of the majors, has an agreement with Grooveshark. Merlin, which some say is the 5th largest label, also has an agreement with Grooveshark. Plus all of those other labels on that list that, to you, may be small but represents a LOT of artists.

Youtube also allows uploading of content and takedowns via DMCA, so that is a bit disingenuous of you to claim it's not standard practice. Labels have every right to be compensated and also do takedowns if they choose, but RIAA normally just blankets takedowns that may or may not be inaccurate.

Grooveshark is terrible. A selection of incomplete albums, badly tagged. I also cannot understand why it hasn't been shut down yet as it must be illegal. Spotify is vastly superior to Grooveshark in every way.

On the other hand, Grooveshark is the only real option in Canada.

More invites if needed.

  ebP963yNKtKhTBG5
  cDu6ytmRASJDgAgC
  fC3f3uVgBd2RV9pN
  bsh35de4nBwwFw2e
  bYsL8AdCK5fFV5qU
  ckJCHBBNUpETh9gz

Used ebP963yNKtKhTBG5, thanks!

Thanks! I was able to use cDu6ytmRASJDgAgC.

I thought I spent them all when I got Spotify but apparently I have 10 invitations, codes:

  bsAdzYsqp64ngwLP
  bkhVaqTDPkcbMP94
  aHLNnUyw7zxAS5Rg
  bZBEuEEpynPUAYmH
  beHDAAHEes95D2Tm
  bxCUSJbGxWTsz5Pw
  e7PemkbC2sLykXwM
  dxa6t3M2Ncu9Ra52  
  aCxAbykNEyrJzWCs 
  deUWDgPchWycFhK3

Used bxCUSJbGxWTsz5Pw Thanks!

Just a tip if anyone can't get an invite code:

Google "uk proxy" or similar and use a web based proxy search like daveproxy to sign up for a UK spotify account. Once your account is created, you can change your country on your profile to the US :) Download the spotify app and you're good to go.

I was excited to try it, but the Linux desktop client apparently doesn't work for free subscribers. Tried it on iPhone, but that requires a paid subscription too.

Oh, well. I'll go back to Rdio, Rhapsody, MOG, and all the other established services that do the same thing for cheaper.

I signed up for Spotify on one of my trips to London a year ago and I'm happy to report that I'm able to log in to the desktop app from a US IP.

The website seems confused by my status, however, and I get stuck on a page trying to get me to register for one of the paid plans.

I'm happy they've finally launched the US version. I've been a subscriber since it launched and had a lot of love for it since. I'm curious to how it compares with the other services users get stateside and looking forward to reading some American reviews..

Could someone please tell me why people are excited about Spotify in the US?

We have established competitors and I've failed to find a single thing Spotify does better than the competitors.

Also the competitors do this amazing thing that Spotify doesn't: They work in a web browser.

If you're looking for a comparison of the Free and paid plans, you can find the UK version here:

    https://www.spotify.com/uk/get-spotify/overview/

It's a shocking omission on the US site, but the plan features are the same.

Here are some unused invite codes:

ePU6yTfM5FxuGKtA

cs7VEtf2546D62WD

aYJqb5yn29qDPKxn

c4Ha9NZETXg9VR8g

a48ukp52KL4h9cK8

Awesome! (used fDtzazT9U7SdXtny)

Sight Still not in Canada... seems like we're always late to the game.

Their website says,

   Language: United States

So apparently we won't even understand the text on the page, there's no "Language: Canada" option!

We've got Grooveshark and Slacker, and Grooveshark doesn't make you hear any ads even if you don't pay them. The other side of that is you can only use Grooveshark on your phone if you are a paying customer.

Apparently Pandora has good recommendations so I'll give them a try when they come to Canada. As for Spotify, meh. What's so great about them?

Rdio is also in Canada.

Yeah Rdio seems nice. I just wish the recommendation were better, but for the rest I like it a lot.

I use Spotify and wonder what America will think of the following two problems:

1. Crappy search (You don't get suggestions)

2. Not all artists are on there (Beatles for example) and they are somewhat slow on putting up new music

Didn't see an area for feedback on the site so if anyone's looking the signup form broke when I used the birth year of 1892. Didn't hightlight the form field or provide a message.

Here are some more invites, if anyone still needs one:

  euuJEPLLXbGeufwA
  dECXdYWDkcypmAub
  eC9sYrgR7f9ZLHDT
  eCxtnsyNweFcxupS
  dukMrGFCEsLbrVW2

Edit: All gone :)

Some more invite codes, be quick:

  as8ShFu5NPg7UptG
  aAZNzhbHU95dDuUb
  ayNwzzDuN63LPLyD
  acqSKLJNksP38993
  eYL7GdgGXkxUWbdL
  cyEtE42BYuBsgR6p
  ffk8ZusTNS53J6Eb
  dXfmzccnLsFpGSHu
  cLgNpWGdYz6Ud7aA
  cVhkcUDeWdmZHfms

thanks! used eYL7GdgGXkxUWbdL

Great. Now get back to making your service available in germany.

And Ireland. +1

I am using Simfy in Germany. Pretty much the same except for the crappy iPhone app.

and Switzerland. At least we have Simfy, but it'd be nice to see the difference.

Some more invites:

eTzVddU3UszVSJa6

fFr3EpxVE567dHUg

aCSgKaXVbGBBUbc8

dpcVDHEchXWENxNq

baaSWgK4UtB2RMhf

P.S. I love spotify, but I use the paid version, so no ads for me.

These all appear to be used.

you're right. And not a single upvote :( Here are some more:

cG9GD6USFgN2e47W

bbpkMb3zLgPpHpD7

a79LUuAkyuP93b8U

bRpH8ys433JNeX4P

aTdZ672NZYSnrpSx

aBb5as4bWdhrBzWd

That ad is spectacular.

Anyone still want invites?

  cqVtu76b25wyhfCH
  deqeg4bfhmfdgxeg
  fcZUwSaLyNkffzPf
  cUCnBWWcMg7cXDB9
  cHmUN7WPf6RDKG6y
  dxDptUhmh2y976xu
  aF6AN8NaquAVUWdP

Here are a few invite codes for those who'd like to try it:

    aqwPkzBeHqUe64YG
    c2D3YPErPJy29gPJ

(updated to remove used ones - last two!)

thanks! just used bwtKWAh29rz2NGak

Thanks, used ek6w8dNY4d6YGfWJ.

Thanks, used fmWTmGcxLF5tTbyN

Can't edit any more, but they're all gone! 34 in two hours :)

For once I've got invites to share -- instead of the other way around, which was the case for Google+ etc.

List your email and I'll send you one (I've got 10).

Edit: I'll just paste them:

dcCX5xfxB7szb2E9

eZwUPA3C8yBDJkyb

aNmdgpGRXxu7yk8f

cRDyA6twLGzXmsAG

d6q78ywcpeuUEyXK

cqfg9pq8483zUYtN

[removed]

Much appreciated!

sent!

Got it, thanks!

email is in my profile if you have any to spare. Thanks!

It only says: "I'm a computer engineering graduate from Kansas State University."

I thought it would have shown my email. I got an invite though already. Thanks for trying at least!

if you have any left, marksands07 at gmail :)

Industry troubles aside, the art/animation they're using is so refreshingly fun compared to most new companies it actually gave me a rush.

Some invitations:

cFYRnaVgfcBYcHH4

fBMLspgTF7BHcRG2

apR5Pfyq8wPzpfTB

akeAbUJG2rLegCVR

bXsqWk2X8CdE3u8q

cJe98FeBPxbFKZq8

drp8Z28F9CRPppgb

eS246SkKmR7BkHmc

aaAwWd8wDpLtbyK8

dhumPYKa39FpheNt

eeZ7kDbS627tZWT3

fDrYCerDMxTwhcwR

aur28tHeccFFkwmd

dS4BNB6sRfkHXLdT

bWL8EA3gykcKJ297

ee4bT9x7hqnwYn6Y

bpm37X3WRJzbetYP

a5BC5M9Wc7DqHTBt

dZBuu2N822TsFnuV

ayXFyz2UpkTt8nxP

bxgLmUd9St9TDZyE

cT84HV9bNDKBTzFB

d2HP73bXDeFzXJ6m

c2DdHmFHTFPndmbz

cK7p6Bb2km9gs9ys

dEkcKKAbqgKrqDSg

fhEphBnfdVDMbFMg

fJLy43hTBdAry8rW

Enjoy!

Thanks frek, much appreciated! Used c2DdHmFHTFPndmbz.

Used dS4BNB6sRfkHXLdT

Thanks! used bxgLmUd9St9TDZyE

Thanks! Used: ayXFyz2UpkTt8nxP -- I started from the bottom up, and that was the first one that worked :) (for anybody else trying to get one)

Thank you! I used cJe98FeBPxbFKZq8 Now that I've created an account, do they give me any invites? I'd like to pay it forward. I don't see any invites in the app.

You only get invites is you have a premium account (2-3/month if I recall correctly).

Thanks! Used akeAbUJG2rLegCVR

Some invites:

WsGEf4DdjjxxEyte, pJVGUTD4Vjn2LwhJ, fCD4SMwEf7JnwU9r, cmaqdqNDAHxZqYRe, ar3PMDrRkE22YWbd, dAXVxr4kk5b9NDT8

Thanks, I used this code fCD4SMwEf7JnwU9r!

Thanks! I used dAXVxr4kk5b9NDT8.

How is this different from Mog.com or Rdio.com (a service that I have had very good experiences with)?

How is Spotify different from Rdio?

1. Spotify has a slightly larger selection (8.5mm tracks on Rdio, 13mm on Spotify)

2. Rdio has a killer web app so you can login to your account from any computer (great for parties and traveling). Both have desktop and mobile apps.

3. Spotify has higher bitrate (320) on pro accounts and uses p2p and other tech to do things like pre-cache songs it thinks you're going to listen to so they play instantly when you click on them

4. I haven't used spotify much, but Rdio's social features seem more fluid and their collaborative playlist feature is awesome

See more discussion at Quora: http://www.quora.com/How-do-Rdio-and-Spotify-compare?q=spoti...

Thanks!

Spotify is also a music management app like iTunes. So you can use Spotify to play your own music files along with their vast catalogue. With Rdio you can only play Rdio songs and if some song isn't on there you'll have to whip out iTunes or another media player.

Some more invites:

bzT2PnaZUAAs9xxC

aEtYHuB2rcwgwMbS

dP98kyRETzZE7Wzx

ddcqwqVcaUEkaB7b

eseskmGpLmP7kM2E

bWTbxCUWSmgBMDkf

dPACYNXp7tRZ8kFz

cnSP2HH4HrA7EMLR

bw4GwWWfu65ZasuE

bCtf4mVwsn3XHqXW

arkg5rSX4DYLkWxN

cWLrMKFNXr9NAecu

aM8DtNHMcmsCfH4R

aKcRg8U8k36Ug4LT

bPq8eCGwRPALLnhm

azKVcqXuha9uZz69

eBSf3JWH5rzy6HBg

Used azKVcqXuha9uZz69. Thanks!

Here's my free passalong for free invites, it should work: http://klout.com/perk/Spotify/SpotifyFreeAccounts?passalong=...

First thought: How is this any different from Grooveshark (from a user experience perspective - I know Grooveshark doesn't give a shit about artists rights etc).

Edit: So far, search on Spotify is much faster, but the music library is nowhere near as complete... and I like that in Grooveshark when I search for a song I can see other peoples playlists that it shows up in and play those.

Thanks.. Your klout link worked for me (Had never used klout before)

Is there a way to play a personalized station? I am a fan of having my music selected for me.

There's a Radio section. You can choose genres and decades, but nothing equivalent to an "Artist radio".

Where would that be? Certainly not highlighted in the UI

Second item in the left-hand navigation pane.

Possibly only for paid accounts?

On the Mac app, the 2nd item is "Play Queue". "What's new" is first and "Inbox" is third.

Ahh yes, that would explain it.

http://www.spotify.com/us/get-spotify/free/

This table shows that it's only available for paid accounts.

If you go to an artist, you can also select an artist radio. Select the artist, and it's in the top tabs to the right.

"For now, the Radio feature will not be available for U.S. users."

"The radio feature will eventually be available. However, I can't say exactly when that will be. Be reminded, that Spotify is not chiefly a radio service. The lack of a radio feature for the time being is a factor of licensing agreements with the rights holders but it will eventually be available.

So the lack of a radio feature in no way limits your ability to search for and play the song of your choice. Just to be clear, when the time comes, the absence of a radio feature will be available for free as well as Premium users, as it is not typically one of the main benefits of a Premium subscription. "

http://getsatisfaction.com/spotify/topics/radio_mode_missing...

There are some great websites dedicated to sharing playlists around, particularly http://sharemyplaylists.com/

I don't know much about Grooveshark (or Rdio) but one of the early selling points of Spotify is that it uses P2P - the first minute or so of a song is streamed from their servers but the rest is P2Ped from other users. Which means you very very rarely get buffering (apart from today :-/)

Don't think I've ever experienced buffering with a modern connection on any of the services I've reviewed (MOG, Rdio, Rhapsody, Grooveshark, etc). It's really just a cost saving mechanism for them more than an anti-buffering agent for us.

Grooveshark does care about artist's rights tremendously (just a few examples):

http://www.grooveshark.com/labellist

http://blog.grooveshark.com/post/7090813892/grooveshark-anno...

http://blog.grooveshark.com/post/7543767530/breakthroughradi...

http://artists.grooveshark.com/

They care about THEIR artists' rights, and by that I mean that they only care after an artist comes to them and agrees to their license. Until then, they'll play that artist and claim DMCA, even though it should be very straight forward to ensure this music doesn't end up on their platform.

From what I know, music rights are a lot more complicated than you may realize. That's not to say labels shouldn't get compensated, simply that things aren't ever as cut and dry as they may seem.

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