Spotify is an application for Windows and Mac which allows you to stream the back catalogues of some of the biggest music labels including Universal, Sony BMG and EMI. The application is free and music streams instantly, so what’s the catch? Well, if you’re not willing to pay £9.99 per month for the service you will hear a few adverts (I would say around one, 30sec ad per 6 to 10 tracks) but this is certainly no major inconvenience. You can also create and share playlists with other Spotify users which is great for keeping a track of the great stuff you will no-doubt hear along the way.
To sign up for a Spotify account without waiting for an invitation, check out this direct link https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started
[UPDATE] Sorry folks, Spotify have modified their sign-up URL to redirect to their invitation-only page. But, whilst the ‘Free’ profiles are still invitation only, you can now freely sign-up to their ‘Open’ package which is the same as Free – but limited to 20hrs usage per month. Check out this link for more information.
One you have signed up, download the desktop client (Windows or Mac) fill in your account details and you’re off! Spotify is partially P2P, meaning that some of the music you will be hearing is being played out of the cache of somebody else’s Spotify player. This also means that you will sharing the music you have played (and cached) with others. To limit this I would recommend setting the cache limit to ‘use at most’ 1GB, otherwise it defaults to 10% of your hard drive. Make sure you close the application fully as well, as it often lurks away in the notification area (in Windows) after you click the cross to close.