Jon Landau said it best in 1974: "I have seen rock and roll's future and its name is Spotify." The enormously popular online music streaming service, which has been available in Europe for some time now, finally launched in the U.S. today. Everyone seems pretty pumped about the new service, which allows people to stream millions of songs at the click of a button for free. But is it worth all the hype? And will it be the final nail in the compact disc's coffin?
Initially, the free service will be invite-only and give users access to over 15 million songs. The program lets people listen to up to 20 hours per month for free, with each track listenable up to five times. For the first six months, people who enter during the invitation period are exempt from the monthly limit. You can also manage all your music through Spotify (like iTunes), there is cellphone/iPod sync capability, as well as "social features." This free option, which is paid for purely by advertisements, will eventually be available to all users (without invites) in the coming weeks.
There are also "Spotify Unlimited" and "Spotify Premium" plans which costs $5 and $10 a month (respectively) for more service and exclusive content with no advertisements. The company, which hails from Stockholm, has emphasized the importance of remaining free, and have been wary as to how they would launch the site in America, where competition from iTunes and Rhapsody will be intense: "They wanted to be careful. Spotify has always had a view that the free experience was core to what Spotify was all about and key to get users to invest in the service," Kenneth Parks, Spotify's content chief, told CNN. Below, you can watch an introductory video to the service:
So this seems great and all, but what are we supposed to do with our thousands of CDs collecting dust in the basement? At least we don't have to worry about our vinyl collection, and our side career as DJs. After all, it's not like there's some hot new social web site which allows anyone to start DJing online and invite their friends and strangers to listen to them for free...
