New in OS X: Get MacRumors Push Notifications on your Mac

Resubscribe Now Close

Spotify Accepting Signups for U.S. Launch

Wednesday July 6, 2011 10:24 am PDT by Jordan Golson

Spotify is officially coming to the United States. Domestic visitors to Spotify.com are now redirected to a signup page where users can enter an email address to "be one of the first to get Spotify."

Spotify is a Sweden-based streaming music service that offers music from a number of major and independent record labels. It has hitherto been available only in western Europe.

There are free subscriptions limited by hours of listening time, and then paid subscriptions that offer features such as offline mode, the ability to download songs to iPods and more. Subscription fees range from €5 to €10 per month. Spotify recently raised a $100 million venture round at a $1 billion valuation.

Spotify can be used as a replacement for iTunes, iTunes Match and the iTunes Store. Instead of letting users listen to music they have purchased or acquired from other sources, Spotify allows listeners to stream any songs Spotify has licensed.

It is quite a bit more expensive than iTunes Match will be, costing €60-€120/year in Europe, versus $25/year for iTunes Match. US pricing has not been announced yet.

Sign up on Spotify.com to get an invite when the site finally opens.

[ 138 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Avatar
Cander
102 months ago


What am I missing????


The fact that you get to CHOOSE what song you want to listen to and not just what is currently playing.
Rating: 9 Votes
Avatar
Consultant
102 months ago
Hope it doesn't go the way of the adware pandora. :mad:

Radio has fewer ads than Pandora now.
Rating: 8 Votes
Avatar
firestarter
102 months ago

Thanks to MR, I now know what hitherto means.

Seriously, wtf lol Why would you use that word how many people know what it means without looking it up?


Why would you write a post to complain how you're less ignorant than you were 5 minutes ago?
Rating: 8 Votes
Avatar
Aidoneus
102 months ago
Ok, if you guys are getting Spotify, please can we have Hulu?
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
Daveoc64
102 months ago

Can you go pick out 500 songs and have them local on your iPhone with this? Active as long as you pay your subscription?


That's exactly what you can do (any number of songs up to 3333)
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
nOw2
102 months ago
More foreigners should be welcomed to Spotify. It completely revolutionised my music listening habits; I even subscribed before the listening hours were cut..

Spotify: Instantaneous access to almost any music, at any time.
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
bpaluzzi
102 months ago

Someone better say: yes you need to own your music to listen to it offline! If you don't like that you can go and enjoy live music. Imagine that! A music fan actually and directly supporting music they enjoy.

Don't let Spotify or Rdio or any streaming service be "THE" way you access music. They are simply versions of a very large commercial Muzak (http://www.muzak.com/) like catalog which (for a significant investment) only lets you save a temporary playlist without ever getting into a relationship with any music. You are accessing a money stream set up by lawyers and extracted from the artists. Really, is that the way to support music?

Support the artists. Buy their music. Own it, proudly, and stream it to whatever device as many times as you wish, without any cost, because you own it.


You're a dinosaur. And this is coming from an artist.
Rating: 4 Votes
Avatar
rwilliams
102 months ago

I don't see how Spotify can correct that. Apps shouldn't change basic functionality of the device like that.


Rdio does this as well, and it's annoying while driving. The iPod app will dim the screen, but will not lock the phone if it's being charged while music is playing. Is that functionality a result of a private API call that other developers are not allowed to use?
Rating: 4 Votes
Avatar
Davidkoh
102 months ago

Enjoy the novelty while it lasts!

We've had it in the UK for a few years and it used to be great. Then they strangled the free service in an attempt to make everybody pay £100 a year.

A lot of people have ditched it now. It's a pale shadow of its former self.


No, it's still going strong. They just stopped cheap people leeching. They did not make enough money on the free service.

And honestly, £100 is less than a days wage. So it is really cheap for having music for a year.
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
Angelo95210
102 months ago

I'm glad you guys are getting Spotify but don't get too excited.

I'd say the success rate of finding actual popular music is about 85%.

E.g Red Hot Chili Peppers are not on there, nor are the Foo Fighters to name but a few. Most of it is random obscure music or Karaoke versions.

Don't get me wrong it is good and who knows, they may have stepped up their game now they are to be open in the US.


Actually these groups are both on Spotify. So let's raise this rate back to 99%.
Rating: 3 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]