“Imagine the iTunes store, except all the music is free.” That is the pitch for the Spotify music service. And now, it’s finally 
available in the United States to those lucky enough to find an invitation.
Spotify is a music streaming service started in 2008 in Sweden and has become quite popular in Europe. After months of speculation and rumors, it finally launched in America on July 14. Spotify is now in an invite-only beta with some exclusive launch partners such as Coca-Cola to help spread the word. They even published a celebratory playlist for users to listen to once they’ve signed up.
The pitch comparing Spotify to the iTunes store isn’t literal, of course, but it is pretty similar and very impressive. There is a free version with a 20-hour listening limit and occasional ads, as well as two paid options. Spotify has 15 million songs available to listen to on demand. You can use the search bar to find any song in the library or browse the top songs and albums and drag and drop it directly into a playlist. You can even integrate your local library so that music files saved on your computer can be played in Spotify.
But the most unique part of the service is Spotify Social, Spotify’s way to share music with others. On their website, they say “As soon as you discover new music, you want to share it with people.” This is not only because of how popular social media is today; music has been an important shared experience for centuries. With Spotify Social, you can share songs and playlists with your social networks. Besides publishing and subscribing to playlists, you can also collaborate on playlists and send songs or playlists directly to specific friends’ Spotify inboxes. There are also websites devoted to sharing playlists, such as Spotifylists.com.
Even though Spotify is still in beta, there have been many ways to snag an invite. Klout, a site that rates your social media influence, reported that they gave away 15,000-20,000 invites through their Klout Perks program, which rewards top influencers with special deals. Chevrolet gave away Premium account trials on their Facebook page and Coca-Cola was also giving out invites.
Have you been able to snag an invite? How did you do it and what do you think?
Tags: invite-only betas, music, playlists, social, spotify
[...] Spotify Finally Crosses the Pond! - “Imagine the iTunes store, except all the music is free.” That is the pitch for the Spotify music service. And now, it’s finally available in the United States to those lucky enough to find an invitation. [...]
[...] Spotify Finally Crosses the Pond! - “Imagine the iTunes store, except all the music is free.” That is the pitch for the Spotify music service. And now, it’s finally available in the United States to those lucky enough to find an invitation. [...]