Written by: Victoria Farina
Spotify: any music you want, anytime. In my opinion, Spotify if the best thing that has happened in the music industry for a very long time. I used to be an avid downloader of music, but felt bad that the artists were not getting any benefits, it was illegal, and I was tired putting myself at risk for receiving computer viruses.
With a Spotify account I can access a huge library of songs for free, from any computer. The free account grants you access to a certain number of listening hours, with short advertizing breaks. I pay for a premium account which costs only $9.99 a month granting me unlimited access, with no advertisements, and the ability to access my Spotify account from my Smartphone using the Spotify app. After years of illegally downloading music for free, I have to admit it is the best money I have spent on music in a long time.
I also love how you can organize your music into playlists and share your playlists with friends or on Facebook. There are other streaming music services such as Pandora, but with Pandora the music service creates playlists for you. As an avid music listener, I like to have control over my own playlists. Grooveshark is a similar streaming music service, but I greatly prefer the interface of Spotify. It looks good and I love having it open on my computer during parties so that my friends and I can be spontaneous party DJ’s.
With Spotify you do not physically own the music files and I know that some people have large mp3 collections. However, you can use Spotify to play the mp3 files which are on your own computer and integrate them into your playlists. You also have the option of purchasing the mp3 file of any song you find on Spotify. One great benefit is that you never run the risk of losing your music collection in the event of a computer crash or other such unfortunate incident. I tragically lost my entire mp3 collection once and thought it would take me years to build up such a collection again. However, once I began using Spotify I never looked back.
If you consume a lot of music, love to spend time browsing through the world of music and discovering great new artists without paying tons of money for the privilege, then Spotify is definitely for you. If you are a musician, you can even upload your music to Spotify which is a great way for independent artists to get their music heard by millions of listeners.
Spotify has revolutionized my music listening experience. I now have a huge amount of music at my fingertips, at any time, from anywhere. As an avid music fan, there is no way I would want to be without my Spotify for even one day!
Pros:
- Huge music library, even rare artists, tracks and remixes
- Low cost
- No risk of losing music collection
- Artists get paid per play, no more illegal downloading
Cons:
- You do not own the music files
- Does not have all artists and tracks
- If you have a free account, you will have to listen to advertisements