For the longest time, we American’s have been only hearing about Spotify and how amazing it has been by our European counterparts. Well, now the wait is no longer. You can officially start using Spotify in the United States. All you have to do is go here and sign up and wait for your invite. So what is Spotify?
Well, the easiest analogy I can think of is to think of huge online music library. Now you can “borrow” any of the music that is in the library for free, just like you would books at your local library. You can also arrange it however you want. And you can also share it with the world, letting them know that you truly are listening to the Backstreet Boys. But, where Spotify makes their money, is when you want to do more than just “borrow” the music. Let’s say you want to actually listen to the music when you don’t have an internet connection or you want to play your music on your iPhone, that is something you need to pay for.
That is Spotify in a gist. There are three plans for Spotify. If you want the free plan, you can have access to the millions of songs that are on the Spotify network, create your own playlists, and share your music. But you are constrained by ads and time limits on music. The next step up is the Unlimited plan, where you pay $4.99/month, and you can now play your music offline with no ads.
For the Premium plan, which is the next and final step up, that is $9.99, and the main different here is that you can now use your iPhone to play your music.
So is Spotify really worth it? Well, it depends what your music taste is. For me, I would rather stick with PandoraUnlimited or Rdio. What do you all think? Will you jump on the Spotify bandwagon?