Hugely popular music-streaming site Spotify opens up to all in the UK

by Sean Adams [Edit this content] ▾ 38 comments 16:10 February 10th, 2009

We know there's been a lot of fuss on the boards about Spotify, so we thought we'd share their news and link you to some playlists...

We just received an email from Spotify which reads:

Hello from Spotify!

As of today we're taking our first baby steps in opening up our music streaming service to the whole of the UK.

We've been bowled over by the interest that Spotify has received in the UK in the short time since our launch, and as a result we feel now is a good time to open up the free service to everyone in the Kingdom, without the need of a Spotify invite. This will be the first country that Spotify will give users' unrestricted access.

Up until now we've kept a close eye on controlling user growth, while adding on average 10,000 new tracks per day, so that we can maintain our technical stability and ensure that absolutely everyone gets the best music experience we can offer. That will always be the case, but we're now at a stage where we're ready to grow further.

As of today, people will no longer need an invitation to join Spotify and can register for free directly on our website at spotify.com. The premium subscription will continue to be available to users who wish to sign up to our ad-free service, which will see further shiny new features added in the coming months.

So why begin unrestricted access in the UK? Our user base has grown very quickly in the UK, which is a priority market for us. We feel now's the right time to spread our wings while still remaining in beta for the immediate future as we carefully track our growth.

We'll be releasing a statement later today on our blog http://www.spotify.com/blog/ so please keep checking the site for news on this and other exciting projects we've got coming up.

Happy listening and please continue to let us know what you think about the service.

Jim Butcher
Communications Manager

Not played around with it yet? Basically you can stream pretty much anything (although they have huge holes in independent labels' catalogues - there's virtually no Domino, Sub Pop or Wichita to name but three of our favourites).

Here's links to some playlists to leave on in the background, or to use to browse more by the acts in question and similar acts - and acts similar to the similar acts, etc, etc...

DiScuss: All that make sense? Wut is a Spotify? Share your playlist links below...

Comments

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interesting.

just as blogs started to pick it up. it really is immense.

justanothersheeldz | 10 Feb '09, 16:23 | X | Reply

This is interesting

and a thing that I can hugely mention for my dissertation, good stuff.

TheShapeOfPunkToCome | 10 Feb '09, 16:29 | X | Reply

What puzzles me...

is how Spotify can provide all this music for free (which is GREAT!!) and pay the labels the money for track licensing, which presumably comes from the revenue generated by the 30 second ads which occur quite infrequently is has to be said. Any ideas? Either way I think it is a great piece of software and I'm enjoying it immensely!

_souljacker | 10 Feb '09, 16:47 | X | Reply

is there any chance this will open up for ireland?

i mean,if the licensing is a similar price to the UK,but with a much smaller population...its never gonna happen,is it?
:(

doodthatkicksarse | 10 Feb '09, 16:59 | X | Reply

This is literally

Unbelievable

RussWarf | 10 Feb '09, 17:08 | X | Reply

change in music?

This seems like a great invention but is this gonna be the final nail in the coffin for the hard copy, sure some will still pay out the money i know i will but surely this will change the way the majority of music listeners enjoy music?

SeanC | 10 Feb '09, 17:25 | X | Reply

another completely useless music site.

kissinginkansas | 10 Feb '09, 17:27 | X | Reply

Define "completely useless" and "music site", please.

JoeDiddly @kissinginkansas | 10 Feb '09, 17:28 | X | Reply

I like spotify but...

how long will it be before someone in a suit thinks of a way to get rid of it?
Enjoy it while you can I say.

stormcrow | 10 Feb '09, 18:01 | X | Reply

Just discovered

this a couple of days ago and it has changed my life.

bob_saull | 10 Feb '09, 19:09 | X | Reply

It feels odd listening to all this.

Yet not owning or even *possessing* any of it.

I must be more materialist than I thought.

Prufrock | 10 Feb '09, 19:11 | X | Reply

next, the world?

plz

alley | 10 Feb '09, 19:38 | X | Reply

Spotify is amazing

...i've spent hours on here compiling playlists and can't get enough...

Here's a playlist for you.....

http://open.spotify.com/user/cockadoodee/playlist/68jMqnefZwPDPsrNLoMhhs

bleustraggler | 10 Feb '09, 20:13 | X | Reply

It's weird how it's the opposite situation compared to emusic in terms of labels

the indies are willing to sell their music more cheaply digitally at a decent quality yet the majors won't but they are willing to stream it all at a lower (Yet perfectly listenable) quality for free.

Anyone know the specifics of why this is the case? I would take a guess it'll be something along the lines the majors will be able to gaurantee a lot of traffic through their biggest releases and therefore garner a large advertising revenue where as the indie releases which already have a smaller market will have not only less people listening but then possibly these same people won't go out and buy a record. Or something like that

captain_self_healer | 10 Feb '09, 20:45 | X | Reply

My grasp of English seems to be failing me today

captain_self_healer @captain_self_healer | 10 Feb '09, 20:46 | X | Reply

It's hardly useless.

cowcow @kissinginkansas | 10 Feb '09, 21:38 | X | Reply

Although

I don't think Sub Pop or Domino are on emusic either though are they? (two of the three Independent labels that DiS listed)

I had a few days of listening to spotify when I first downloaded it, but have barely gone back to it.

Does anyone know how good they are on getting new albums on Spotify- that'd be what would interest me most, being able to hear new releases that I'm curious about.

paulo13 @captain_self_healer | 10 Feb '09, 21:47 | X | Reply

They recently got

Franz Ferdinand, Antony and the Johnsons and Andrew Bird on not long after they came out, about a week I think

Schadenfreude @paulo13 | 10 Feb '09, 22:08 | X | Reply

I can't see it changing everything

because unless I'm being totally stupid then surely the big flaw is that it's only going to benefit those who only listen to music solely on their computer. There may be a lot of people on here that listen to the majority of their music this way but it represents a minority in terms of the wider music listening public. What about if you want to listen to something on your mp3 player on the way to work, surely Spotify doesn't cater for this - stop me if I'm wrong, I've only used it fleetingly for this reason. Also in terms of the majors/indies situation it seems like Spotify got most of major content first and the indie stuff that is disappearing is on the whole disappearing because Spotify didn't have permission to use it in the first place but do so now and as such the indies are in the process of re-submitting masters and meta data.

grill199 | 10 Feb '09, 22:10 | X | Reply

This is good news

But how long before the 30 second add between every 6 songs or so becomes a 100 second add after every other song?

ugufudus | 10 Feb '09, 22:31 | X | Reply

ok I have just downloaded it and immediatly noticed 2 reasons I will not use this yet

1. ONE SMITHS SONG! what?

2. It wont load the songs in real time for me and my internet is pretty acceptably fast.

Amodestmousearrives | 10 Feb '09, 22:32 | X | Reply

eventually this could be mega-huge

as wi-fi and such becomes available in more and more public spaces. all those frequencies taken up by terrestrial signals will be free soon too which i think could be used for this. potentially a portable spotify player (or already established player with spotify compatabilty) could be made and be the best thing to possible have for music by default.

also the musicians win out with this versus downloading for free right? no quality issues or guilt for listening for free = winner.

or am i overly optimistic?

untill recently i was sceptical but after using it for a short while now i'm very much impressed.

of course physical music is important to me for stuff i really really like.

FutureKyoto | 10 Feb '09, 22:33 | X | Reply

Fever Ray

is on there already, paulo13

samf17 @paulo13 | 10 Feb '09, 22:39 | X | Reply

I used Spotfy a lot when I first got it

Now it just seems a bit novelty, the idea of having a big library of music readily available for you to listen to whenever you want. In hindsight it's not as great as I initially thought, it lacks the social interaction of last.fm (apart from the collaborative playlists which I REALLY like), you can't see what other users are listening to and unlike last.fm and myspace it's not really a gateway for checking out new bands.

theetersecrimp | 10 Feb '09, 22:50 | X | Reply

I can't get enough of it

I've found so much that I've been meaning to listen to for ages, and anything I really like I just buy. I've really got into all three Slowdive albums, Air France, and M83 digital shades (which I couldn't find anywhere). I honestly can't get enough of spotify.

samf17 @theetersecrimp | 10 Feb '09, 23:11 | X | Reply

I'm suddenly getting more ads than usual

I've been listening to Mogwai, and have been getting one after each of the last three tracks.

Admittedly, the songs have all been at least 12 mins long, but still!

Schadenfreude | 10 Feb '09, 23:15 | X | Reply

I feel the same

it is still great fun though

jmcv @Prufrock | 10 Feb '09, 23:24 | X | Reply

I'm not saying Spotify is shit

But it's just not something I feel the need to use as much now. Still listen to the John Fahey stuff though.

theetersecrimp @samf17 | 10 Feb '09, 23:27 | X | Reply

My Uni

blocks it. Boo-urns

samganners | 11 Feb '09, 01:23 | X | Reply

Just downloaded spotify on the back of this article

Looks pretty ace to me.

Just working my way through the DIS top 50 albums.

Nice.

Siberguy | 11 Feb '09, 10:05 | X | Reply

I was a bit sceptical

When everyone started going on about it. I don't think it's life-changing stuff by any means and so far I've found more stuff that I wanted to hear to be missing than actually there - I'm too indie I guess.

I've enjoyed checking out albums from my youth that died with my tape player - Saturation by Urge Overkill, dust by Screaming Trees, Jar of Flies by Alice in Chains and a few classics that I've never got round to hearing like Murmur. Unless the ads become way more frequent then I'm happy.

If they add Warp and Domino, however, I'll gladly sell them my soul.

remittanceman | 11 Feb '09, 10:49 | X | Reply

Oh - Impulse! is on there

Coltrane - Interstellar Space and Olatunji.

Go on people, blow your minds.

remittanceman @remittanceman | 11 Feb '09, 10:52 | X | Reply

There are better alternatives, though.

grooveshark.com has been around for a while, and has virtually everything identical to Spotify, except it isn't an application.

davidrochman | 11 Feb '09, 20:19 | X | Reply

Materialism

Yes, this is one thing I can't quite figure out - about myself and also about the digital generation - I don't in any way consider myself to be materialistic, and am loathe to accept that I am a 'consumer', but really to me, if I like some music, I'll buy it, on CD or on vinyl - what use is a 2009 download to me in 10 years time? To me Spotify is a desktop listening post, and today I'm listening to Red House Painters, inspired after last week's DIS Slowcore Week, and then I'll go and buy their album(s) I most feel a connection to.

The flipside of this is though, that many of today's youth, who are so well targetting by marketting and advertising campaigns telling them what they need to own (clothes, gadgets etc) aren't really bothered about 'owning' any music.

Very strange.

DJAlbertFreeman @Prufrock | 25 Feb '09, 10:25 | X | Reply