Spotify is coming to the US in a couple of weeks

[PC_load_letter]

According to WIRED:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/spotify-will-launch-in-u-s-in-mid-july-report/

I heard nothing but good stuff about Spotify, there even is a (unsupported) native Linux version available to current unlimited subscribers.

So, current Spotify subscribers, would you tell us what to expect, and how do you like the service?

[johnnybelfast]

Imagine being to listen to almost any song any time. You build your own playlists and can share them with your friends. Want to listen to the latest cd by insert-random-artist-here? No problemo. They have most of the big names there and also alot of more obscure stuff. Just click into the artists page and it will show ALL their albums or you can search for individual songs and add drag them to your playlists. With spotify the musical world is your oyster and the player is very well designed and organised. Stay away from the Linux version though, the Windows version is better and runs great under wine. It's good for listening at home, at work and at parties, barbeques etc. People can suggest songs and you can be playing them within seconds.



http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/221414/quiteuseful/spotify/spotify.jpg

[PC_load_letter]

This is AWESOME!

[Paqman]

The free version is pretty crippled though, and getting moreso all the time. You need to pay a monthly subscription to get the real thing.

[Swagman]

If you have to pay to listen (subscribe) then I'd rather buy the music and it be mine till the end of time !!

[aeiah]

the standard windows client works under wine (or did when i checked it out a couple of years ago). its similar to pandora, but with more playlist functionality. you get annoying audio adverts, and the quality isnt that high, but i guess if you subscribe its pretty good. especially with the smart phone apps available - which i think allow you to cache music for playing when you havent got a consistent connection.

they really need to open it up though and allow different apps to interact with the service - for use at home its pretty useless if you've already got a large collection.

[FreeTheBee]

The free stuff comes in 160kbs ogg, in the paid version you can get 320kbs. As mentioned already the free version is not very good anymore, it's too limited nowadays. The windows client still runs fine in wine, I only have some problems with icon in the notification panel. It tends not to show sometimes. Since a few months I have been using the linux client as well, which runs like a charm.

If you want to use other clients, I only know the mopidy (http://www.mopidy.com/) project. They make a spotify compatible mpd. I've only tried it briefly in Ubuntu with gmpc and it worked ok, be it with some minor glitches. Later I had some problems with high cpu load, but this was not on Ubuntu.

[tgalati4]

The beta linux client only works with the premium (paid) service because "there is no way to reliably stream ads in linux."