Spotify & Invites
 

Heya!

Most of you probably know Spotify. For those of you who don't, it's a media player-ish program resembling the typical MP3 player that streams 160 kbps music over the internet. Lots of full albums have been made available there and playing it is just as fast as playing local files on my computer.

http://static.digitalmusicfuture.com...1--spotify.png

It's perfect when I have guests over who wants to listen to or show me some music I don't already have. That's when I use it the most. However, you can also get URLs to different songs and albums on Spotify and paste the links on a forum. People who click them will open the album or the song in the program. That makes it perfect for stuff like forum album reviews, just add links and people can have a quick listen to what you're writing about.

Link examples :

This links to the compilation album "Solen over Nannestad - Sanger om Dæhlie"
This links to a song on that album

However, although Spotify already works quite well, it's still in beta. Using it is free, but you need an invitation. Because it's handy and likely a big piece of the future of music, I thought we could collect some links here to sites that hand out invitations to Spotify for those who don't have it yet.

So if you know a site which gives away invites, paste them here and I'll add it to this post!


How to get Spotify tip #1

The norwegian site I was going to post has stopped handing out invites (I think). Instead, it says you can get an invite by following these steps (translated by yours truly) :

• Click this link
• Click "continue anyway" on the page that opens
• You should now see the Spotify registration page. If there's annoying advertisement there, you can click "fermer" to close it.
• Fill in your information. Where it says postal code, use the number : 90112
• Make sure "France" is your country (you can edit this later)
• Complete registration and create account!
• You can now download spotify and log in ..

Of course, now Spotify thinks you're french. Try logging in on the site with your new login/pass and then click the "edit profile" link up to the left. In there, you can should be able to change country to the right one.

I have my Spotify, but could someone else perhaps try this and see if it works?

And post more ways to get invites please :)


How to get Spotify tip #2

Appearantly, some guy is handing out invitations to people over Skype. Try calling user "spotify.invite" and hope he picks up!


How to get Spotify tip #3

If you have an IRC client, head to the channel #spotify on QuakeNet. Appearantly, you can get invites there. If you need help getting on the IRC (Internet Relay Chat), just check out our own thread "http://www.musicbanter.com/lounge/39...-chatroom.html".


How to get Spotify tip #4

Surf to this UK proxy service. You can enter URLs there, but first click "option" and uncheck the "Remove Scripts" option. Then write spotify.com in the URL field.

Make your account! Choose England as your country and "SW1A 2AB" as your postal code.

Haha, no replies yet .. I guess those who want Spotify already have it then!

I tried it last week but it said it's still unavailable in America, so I think a large portion of the forum won't be able to use it.

Oh crap! I didn't know it wasn't available in the US. Darn, that blows quite a bit.

Perhaps you could try one of the methods where you claim to be french or english, although spotify may still figure out where you're from.

I think they're like Amiestreet.com where they scan your IP address and determine where you're from that way.

Maybe I can Pirate Bay this?

EDIT: I found a few torrents but they are no good :(

It's not something you can "crack" I think, it's just you have to be able to register (which you need an invitation for). The program itself is only a bit more than a megabyte, I think.


I think that's why some of the methods I posted use these proxy services, to fool spotify.com into "thinking" that you're from somewhere else.

The problem is as well that since it's not a browser based thing it's hard to trick the actual console.

I'm just glad I live in the UK :D

Don't like to bring up and old thread, but does anyone use this? Although it has a lot of holes in the database where artists haven't allowed things to be put on, there is an awful lot of music on here. The adverts can be annoying (although they're short and usually once/twice an album).

I think the huge plus is the playlist function. You can create a playlist using the vast database and then share this as a link on a forum (MB for example!), whereby if another Spotify user clicks on this, the playlist will be generated in their Spotify. I think this could be a great function to share music between members as opposed to YouTube videos and downloads. It's good to listen to things before you download sometimes.

I was just wondering if anyone had this? It'd be great to start maybe a weekly or biweekly playlist sharing (similar to the music trading), as it would be easy to create the playlist and share rather than finding download links for albums, or even more difficult with individual songs!

:)

^It really is a great program/service. I've included spotify links with every album review I've written when the album in question was available on there. I did the same for me, Boo, Anteater and Comus' prog introduction thread.

The sad thing is at the moment, I don't think it's available in America.

Yeah I did notice you were one of the few who used it, but I thought more people would utilise the service (what with it being a music recommendation website, essentially). Your last point would explain this though!

Does anyone want a spotify account?
 

I know subscriptions are back to invite only, but UK people can just go to https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/

and non UK people can PM me a username, an email address and a password and I'll make one for you, then you can just download and install, I think you need a UK person to sign into it once a fortnight, but I'll happily do it, and im sure some of the other brits with spotify would do it too.

.... and I'm the proof that it works :thumb:

Ah, I didn't see this thread, sorry.

But yeah, PM me if you want one, It's probably a good idea to send me an alt username as well in case the one you want is unavailable.

Based on what I've read, this sounds an awful lot like lala.com (which is available in the US).

Lala started out around 05 or 06 as a CD trading service. I loved it...traded some stuff in my collection that I no longer wanted, and got stuff I wanted to explore in exchange. Unfortunately complete artwork wasn't required, so I often sent out complete and immaculate CDs only to get decent condition CDs with only the front artwork in return. But whatever. They eventually started offering online streaming of songs, and cut down on the CD trading. Meaning, when new members signed up they didn't have access to the CD trading section unless they requested it. And they'd have to know about it to request it. So the CD trading pool dried up. Plus, they shut down the message board, completely eliminating communication between members. This really sucked because the forums were a good way to "pimp" the stuff you wanted to get rid of, facilitating trades. Lala started putting more and more effort into their online streaming, they wanted to revolutionize music or some ****. They wanted your whole library to be portable. They came up with an app that would "upload" your entire digital library to their site, so you could stream it from anywhere. Basically when you ran it, if something was already in their database it wouldn't need to upload it, it would just add it to your library automatically. Pretty cool, but most of us have portable MP3 players anyway. And what of the sound quality? If it's not actually uploading your files, you don't know what you're actually getting. With all this, they made deals with record labels to be able to offer online streaming of full albums. Obviously not everything is available, and I'm not sure how that differs from Spotify. But it sounds like a very similar concept. A good way to sample an album for free, without pirating. But yeah, the sound quality is probably not higher than 160kbps...which I don't like but is adequate considering it's free and doesn't involve piracy. You may have noticed their player on Pitchfork.com. I think it's great that many of their reviews, news, best-of lists, etc. use the player, so you can listen as you read what they have to say about it. I'm no Pitchfork fanboy by any means, I just like that they integrate this on their site.

Anyway, sound like Spotify at all? I'm still pissed about the whole CD trading thing getting shoved aside, but figured those in the US interested in something like Spotify might want to check it out.

I just a method similar to the OP #1, but it was a different site. Can't seem to find it now, though.

Spotify is kind of odd in the respect that I have managed to find albums that are really hard to find links to and it's been great to hear some stuff I haven't heard for years yet they seem woefully inadequate at times in regard to new releases which are not that obscure. I'm still glad I have it though.

On spotify you can share playlists can't you?

Yes. Pretty useful also.

So... still no word on if this will hit the U.S?

Well couldn't we start something where people swap playlists? Or send recommended playlists or something. I think that would be awesome!

Start it up Kayleigh. Ive thought about it before.

Either start it here or a new thread. A new thread wouldnt be inappropriate i dont think if it would be exclusively for posting or sharing playlists.

Could do it in here, see how it goes.. Just cause spotify is country limited at the moment.
If it goes good then I don't see why a thread for it would go wrong :)

Apparently in Q1 2010.

I gave it a whirl and it doesn't have that much good stuff on there. There are huge gaps in there library.

I would just like to see it expand and become as big as iTunes... i mean it totally makes sense - free music, companies get paid, advertisers get a market... win win win.

For me Spotify has been immense, I've not searched anything that hasn't been in the library. I guess it depends on what your into really.

yeah, must of the stuff i want aren't in the Library.

But I love the radio we can decide the genres and the age of songs. It can show some band that I never heard of .

Has anyone else got Spotify? How you liking, I've found the more I use it, that there has been loads of artists that haven't been uploaded, but that isn't so bad. I find it great for listening to stuff that members here recommend me. If it's on it that is, I'd have to download it ofcourse if it wasn't in the library. :) I still like it! :D

I think its great. The more diverse your music taste is, the more frequently you are gonna find empty results and there are some pretty high profile bands who arent on it for several reasons but for a free application i think it's fantastic.

precisely.

I couldn't understand criticising it beyond a certain point really, not when its currently free to use.

I'm sure I've noticed it before, but the feature I love is the ability to make Spotify album links.

This link opens "Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits" in your Spotify
And this one plays the song "Tunnel of Love" from that album

It's pure genius!

I've included such links with every album I've reviewed when they've been available :)

I use Spotify when I can't find an album on the net but it's hit rate is 50/50 for me. I am also frustrated that it doesn't have recommendations for similar bands. Last. FM does but I only use that in archival/stats sense.

However Spotify has thrown up a few bands that I have got into and is easy to use, plus you can make playlists to dip into anytime without actually owning the tracks.

Same about the part when you can't find an album. I also use it to listen to albums I get recommended, and if I like them I'll download them so I can listen to it on my iPod! It's a win win situation, unless the album isn't there... :(

Here's a screenshot for you, with a bonus red box and crudely drawn arrow.

http://i50.tinypic.com/ieles8.png

I don't actually use Spotify actively much myself. Usually, it's for visitors .. I keep the music I wanna listen to in my media library.

It really is excellent if you have people over and you don't have a particular song they wanna listen to or an album they'd like to show you.

And it's still only for the UK. I hate US Copyright prudes.

It works perfectly fine in Norway. ;)

Some time ago, I was hoping it would be possible to make a spotify tag which would work almost like the [URL] tags, only it would play that song in Spotify when you click the link. A bit like this :

[spotify=Artist,Album,Song]Text string[/URL]

ex.

[spotify=Prince,Parade,Kiss]Prince - Kiss[/spotify]

Unfortunately, Spotify is not as universal as I'd like and the current musicbanter policy regarding BBCodes is "no custom tags!".

A man can dream, though .. A man can dream!

I know this has already been mentioned but i was a little confused that you said that Spotify doesnt display similar bands. It does but however, alot of the time they arent exactly very accurate suggestions.

I can find very rare tracks on Spotify.