[Closed] Spotify - What is it and how does it work?

Not a download as such to put on whatever device you want, but you can create "offline" playlists which are downloaded and can be played without net connection. I put them on my phone for use in the car

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify

Spotify - What is it and how does it work?

It's Witchcraft and works using magic?

Consider Deezer, Google music and Apple Music too. Apple do a family subscription which might work out cheaper.

You can try it out for free but that won't allow you to download stuff, there are occasional adverts & you can only play stuff on shuffle.

I used it for about 4 months or so without paying, but they did an offer around Christmas that was something like 3 months for £3. I've been using the paid service ever since, but probably don't get the most out of it in terms of offline downloads and stuff.

Basically, it's a massive online music library. There are pre-configured playlists, or you can make your own.
Like I say, the free version only lets you stream music, so you either need an unlimited data allowance or use it only over Wi-Fi.

Once you pay for it, you can download what you want and it is available on your device for however long you pay for it. Once you stop paying for your spotify subscription, you lose access to that downloaded music.

Simply, it's a streaming service with access to massive amounts of music but only when you are connected to the internet*.

Think of it like renting all the music you can imagine. When the contract stops, you loose access.

They do a 3 month trial so give it a go for free.

* you can manually manage downloads to store some stuff locally, but that cannot be copied across devices and expires when your subscription stops.

Basically they fire random music up into the air. If you pay them, they supply you with a special magic hoover to suck the music back out of the air and into your mobile device

It's the best damn £5 that I currently spend a month. I have a mini-laptop connected up to my home hi-fi and it means I can play pretty much any music I can think of, at any time of the day, however many times I want, and with no adverts. Apart from Tool 🙁

Shame the don't have Taylor Swift any more.....

Sounds like it could be worth a go..I like the sound of a magic hoover 😀

It's like .. radio for the 21st century... with no DJs..!

(Hang on, did I say I didn't like it?!)

It's great if you like a lot of music, just think of the £10/month as what you'd spend on CD's anyway, with the added advantage of being able to listen to anything you like. And it's far more convenient than carting wallets of CD's around or curating a playlist on a USB stick for the car.

I'm not fussed about the lack of permanence to the downloads, the more listnend to CD's in my collection are 20 years old and scratched, and the hard drive I spent hours/days ripping them onto long ago died, and 2nd hand CD's are near worthless and take up huge amounts of space so I'm not missing them.

Downside, the recommendations are nowhere near as good as Pandora was. It seems biased towards niche/unsigned bands (or maybe that's just my taste) so it'll throw random stuff in when all you want is a greenday/nofx/offspring/blink/Jimmy eat world sing-allong in the car.

wilko1999 - Member

It's the best damn £5 that I currently spend a month.

How so £5? Are they over-charging me...?

[i]or curating a playlist on a USB stick for the car.[/i]

minus points for gratuitous use of the word curating...no pudding

How so 5? Are they over-charging me.How so £5? Are they over-charging me.

Used to be £5 for PCs, £10 for mobiles with offline playlists IIRC

Its also £5 for additional family memebers, so if anyone you know has it already club together and make some savings. Note, if you/family cancel in future im pretty sure you would lose any playlists created in the family package, but thats the only downside i can see.

My mate manages Foxes & Powell & some new act that everybody is fighting over called girli, he swears by it & it has radio stations very very frightened.
The music industry is putting everything on spotify the minute it's played on air so in effect you can then go to any radio station playlist then find all the tracks on spotify & create your own upfront playlist but without the dj.

It's when you decorate your mirror with your two fingered zit pinched offerings

Are they all compressed files?

I've still got an ancient NAD hi-fi and play CD's 😳

I've never tried any of the streaming services

Premium is ace, i get shed loads of use out of it, in my car via iphone

Once you stop paying for your spotify subscription, you lose access to that downloaded music.

So, £120 a year (at today's prices) forever more or you lose your record collection? Sounds like the more playlists and downloads you make, the tighter the clasp gets around your hazelnuts.

yes they are compressed. Spotify premium is 320Kbps OGG Vorbis I think.

Downside, the recommendations are nowhere near as good as Pandora was. It seems biased towards niche/unsigned bands (or maybe that's just my taste) so it'll throw random stuff in when all you want is a greenday/nofx/offspring/blink/Jimmy eat world sing-allong in the car.

on the flipside, this is EXACTLY why I love the spotify recommendations and think it's the best thing since sliced bread. I've discovered loads of great stuff from the Discover playlist - just today it through up a Mahavishnu Orchestra track, in which i spotted a bit that had been sampled by Massive Attack on Blue Lines - being a nerd i love shit like that 🙂

jools182 - Member

Are they all compressed files?

They are compressed, but if you pay for premium you can choose the 'quality' of the streamed files & also the downloaded files. I am not sure what the compression rates are, but it will probably be on the FAQ's for Spotify website I would think.

jools182 - Member

I've still got an ancient NAD hi-fi and play CD's

Snap. But, you can do that and use Spotify too. I've got a 3020i in the living room with a Luxman CD player and some RTL floorstanders that I refuse to get rid of, despite my Wife's protestations.
I should probably get some kind of wireless connector to use spotify from, but I just have a headphone socket to line-in cable permanently connected & plug my phone or tablet into it.

It's basically an incidouus means of copting users into a contrived sense of infinite choice - incrementally eroding their capacity for critical appreciation ... Just another facet of what's known in some circles as The Scientific Dictatorship ..

So, £120 a year (at today's prices) forever more or you lose your record collection? Sounds like the more playlists and downloads you make, the tighter the clasp gets around your hazelnuts.

15 years ago i was spending £120 every couple of months on CDs. I reckon it's a bargain

It's basically an incidouus means of copting users into a contrived sense of infinite choice - incrementally eroding their capacity for critical appreciation

riiiiiiight...

I play Spotify our of the iMac's headphone socket into the stereo and the sound quality is excellent - as good as a CD.

15 years ago i was spending £120 every couple of months on CDs. I reckon it's a bargain

It's a brilliant business model.

couple of questions please. ive tried spotify before and always stop using it, but every now and then i think of a way i might use it more and try again. at the mo im 'borrowing' my brothers acc to see if i can get this idea working.....

1. ive got bbc playlister with around 200 tracks ticked. it lets me open that playlist through spotify. this is good. at the mo im on my chromebook, playing my 6music playlist through spotify, cast to my tv/hifi through a chromecast.
ive looked at cutting out the middle man (spotify) and just playing my playlist through the playlister site/app but it doesnt seem possible. i have to export and play the songs through [i]something else[/i] such as spotify/deezer/youtube. is that right?

2. could i play this playlister through my phone in the car? phone connected to aux, open playlister and export to spotify again and do same thing? and if so do you know how much data i would use for say one hours spotify streaming? i spose id always need a signal too wouldnt i.

3. theres no way of saving this playlist to spotify is there and playing it offline?

thanks

noltae - Member

It's basically an incidouus means of copting users into a contrived sense of infinite choice - incrementally eroding their capacity for critical appreciation ... Just another facet of what's known in some circles as The Scientific Dictatorship ..

I don't even understand what this means....

theres no way of saving this playlist to spotify is there and playing it offline?

Not sure about migrating playlists to Spotify, but you can save playlists to an iPhone etc and play offline when you have no signal etc.

Trailrider Jim - Member

So, £120 a year (at today's prices) forever more or you lose your record collection? Sounds like the more playlists and downloads you make, the tighter the clasp gets around your hazelnuts.

Your current record collection doesn't explode. Well, mine hasn't.
You can subscribe to Spotify & still buy music in whatever format you like, if you wish to.

It's £10/month to listen to as much music as you could possibly imagine from as wide varied a source as you are likely to find anywhere.
I know people who pay around £40/month for a phone contract so they can get an iPhone & pay £70/month for a Sky subscription but think I am crazy for spending £10/month on a readily available catalogue of music, the likes of which I would never otherwise have access to.

 

So, £120 a year (at today's prices) forever more or you lose your record collection? Sounds like the more playlists and downloads you make, the tighter the clasp gets around your hazelnuts.

Only if you treat Spotify as your record collection. Personally I use it as a way of finding new stuff and a way of listening to cheesy poop that I don't want to buy.

When I find stuff I actually want, I generally find that by then it's cheap as a CD plus Autorip on Amazon.

I wish they were all better at finding new stuff, though. None of them even seem to have come up with the hideously obvious and trivial to implement idea of a "just play everything at random" button.

It's a brilliant business model.

it's actually a fairly poor business model; spotify has, apparently, never made a profit so far

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/11/spotify-financial-results-streaming-music-profitable

Some thoughts from my recent experiences....

Tidal allows you to download as many tracks as you like onto your device while Spotify restricts you to 3333.

Microsoft's Groove Music has the largest collection at 40 million.

The Spotify app has been around for ages. It will even work on old devices by using an older version. I've used it recently on a 2nd generation iPod touch where few other apps work.

Google Play Music and Tidal give you access to music videos.

Qubox has the best collection of jazz but is less great for other stuff.

Use soundiiz.com to transfer playlists across services so you can use all the free trail periods.

^^^ cheers. Some good info there!

Shame the don't have Taylor Swift any more.....

Lets keep it that way eh.

Reading this with interest. We have a decent 3 yr old Denon DAB system with an Onkyo iPod dock, wharfedale speakers and all our music on an old iPod classic 150mb thing. The Denon isn't Bluetooth or WiFi. What's the simplest way to get and play Spotify stuff through the system ? We have iPhone 5's

So what are the benefits over youtube?

No idea but never used you tube for music, is it any good? Why is it good?
Spotify for play lists
Pandora for random for me
Don't pay for either happy with ads and no offline and the quality doesn't seem to be an issue for me

I use Spotify by plugged my phone into my old Hifi and using the Wife's tablet as a Spotify remote from what ever room I'm in.

However, I've seen some Google stuff on Chromecast Audio (or similar) being released, a £30 doodaa that plugs into your ancient Hifi and Wifi's it, so now I can just keep my phone with me without using a second device to control the tunes.

What's the simplest way to get and play Spotify stuff through the system ?

However, I've seen some Google stuff on Chromecast Audio (or similar) being released, a £30 doodaa that plugs into your ancient Hifi and Wifi's it, so now I can just keep my phone with me without using a second device to control the tunes.

^^^ that looks just the job, cheers.

Other question, if I get a Spotify account, can I access it from different devices ? (yes, luddite Q I'm sure ...)

Other question, if I get a Spotify account, can I access it from different devices ? (yes, luddite Q I'm sure ...)

Other question, if I get a Spotify account, can I access it from different devices ? (yes, luddite Q I'm sure ...)

You can access your account from any device that has Spotify installed.

BUT you must remember to log out if a public device or mates computer. By clicking on your user name in the app it takes you to your account admin page without the need to enter your password again. Bit of a flaw in my opinion.

You can download playlists to 3 devices, but you can only play music on one device at a time.

"You can download playlists to 3 devices, but you can only play music on one device at a time."

Not necessarily true.

My partner and I both use the same account and had a nightly battle when we both tried to use Spotify in each of our cars at the same time each evening. It would keep switching to her choice of music on both devices when she changed tracks, then mine when I wanted to skip.

We found a way around this by enabling the "private " session mode on the App on one or both of the devices. The private mode only lasts for six hours at a time, but means that the device on which you are selecting music to play doesn't notify all other on line devices using the same account.

You can access your account from any device that has Spotify installed.

you can also control it from other devices. i plug the hudl into my hifi, and then control spotify with my phone from across the room - no third party apps needed.

One thing i was mulling over last night.

The 'value' thing - Spotify premium is £120 a year. Which many people think is a rip off, considering you don't 'own' the tunes. The average Sky subscription is apparently around £600 a year (plus license fee) and you don't 'own' that either, but there seems to be less of a perception that this is unreasonable.

Seems like an odd double-standard to me - personally i place more value on music rather than TV anyway. Do most people feel that TV content is more valuable than music?

The 'value' thing - Spotify premium is £120 a year. Which many people think is a rip off, considering you don't 'own' the tunes. The average Sky subscription is apparently around £600 a year (plus license fee) and you don't 'own' that either, but there seems to be less of a perception that this is unreasonable.

Seems like an odd double-standard to me - personally i place more value on music rather than TV anyway. Do most people feel that TV content is more valuable than music?

musics far more important to me than tv (i could do without the telly but wife couldnt) and i spose it just takes a bit of getting used to that its not your music any more, you havent got that 'shelf of vinyl or cd's on display' that define you 🙂

personally i think ill go for the tenner option in the end, ive tried spotify 2 or 3 times and always let it lapse as i didnt get the use, but now im getting the hang of it, if i can get it set up with my phone playing stuff in the car thatll be the deal-breaker 😀

EDIT: question on playlists....
i sat here happily playing my 300 track BBC Playlister on shuffle through my hifi courtesy spotify and adding tracks daily. i cant imagine needing anything more, but i hear playlists are a big part of spotify.
ive looked through my brothers many playlists and ok, i can see why hes got a lot of different ones (shared from other people), but are they only available to him as long as the creator of the playlists is a member?
or if he likes say bob smiths playlist and adds it to his own, does that then become a separate playlist for him to keep no matter what bob smith decides to do with his life? 🙂

"You can download playlists to 3 devices, but you can only play music on one device at a time."

You can run on mobile devices (phones, tablets) completely offline for up to 30 days before it needs to re-validate your account.

So we can both use my account on our phones at the same time (using saved playlists). Just disable internet access for the App in Settings on iOS.

I know about the work-arounds for off-line, but I was trying to keep it simple.

Plus you have to go online to download new tracks, then you forget to switch offline back on, then you start playing in the car and your wifes stream at home switches off - cue sweary text!

So yes you can, but it can be annoying.

You can run on mobile devices (phones, tablets) completely offline for up to 30 days before it needs to re-validate your account.

So we can both use my account on our phones at the same time (using saved playlists). Just disable internet access for the App in Settings on iOS.

I know about the work-arounds for off-line, but I was trying to keep it simple.

Plus you have to go online to download new tracks, then you forget to switch offline back on, then you start playing in the car and your wifes stream at home switches off - cue sweary text!

So yes you can, but it can be annoying.

, i can see why hes got a lot of different ones (shared from other people), but are they only available to him as long as the creator of the playlists is a member?
or if he likes say bob smiths playlist and adds it to his own, does that then become a separate playlist for him to keep no matter what bob smith decides to do with his life?

If Bob Smith cancelled his account, presumably in most cases he would just stop paying for and using his account, it would just sit there and the playlists wouldn't be affected.

But if you were worried that Bob Smith might delete his playlist, you can easily copy all the tracks into a playlist of your own - just CTRL+A and drag them across...

If Bob Smith cancelled his account, presumably in most cases he would just stop paying for and using his account, it would just sit there and the playlists wouldn't be affected.

But if you were worried that Bob Smith might delete his playlist, you can easily copy all the tracks into a playlist of your own - just CTRL+A and drag them across...

just been out to the car and yes indeedy, i can play spotify through the speakers ok, so looking promising. all a bit higgledypiggledy with wires everywhere and not long enough at present, so i need to look at getting some longer cables from ebay or somethings. looking good tho 🙂

EDIT: any idea what the cable that goes from cars aux to phone is called please?

Can you not use Bluetooth in the car?

Can you not use Bluetooth in the car?

It's ruining/ruined music for me. Back in the day, I used to spend hours on the internet, searching out the latest/coolest/most obscure new music.

The satisfaction I used to get when one of "my" songs cropped up on TV or on the Radio; "yeh, I saw these play at the Night and Day Cafe three years ago..."

But now; Spotify has made the obscure easily accessible to your average music bore (you know the type; those whose best ever gig was "The Foo's" at Glastonbury). I often find myself a target for these so called music fans; they'll start a conversation with me...."Hey, I found this well cool band on Spotify last night" - I stop them right there "Err, no you didn't; Spotify gave it to you on a plate!"

It's absolutely shit to be honest. I believe you can't listen to it unless you're connected to the internet either. I personally use Youtube/SoundCloud etc. They're run by the people, for the people. You/anyone else can upload whatever you like, and the comments feature is a great way of finding new music. Plus you can download it so you can listen to it whenever you like.

But now; Spotify has made the obscure easily accessible to your average music bore (you know the type; those whose best ever gig was "The Foo's" at Glastonbury). I often find myself a target for these so called music fans; they'll start a conversation with me...."Hey, I found this well cool band on Spotify last night" - I stop them right there "Err, no you didn't; Spotify gave it to you on a plate!"

don't you just hate it when the plebs start finding good music 😡

But now; Spotify has made the obscure easily accessible to your average music bore (you know the type; those whose best ever gig was "The Foo's" at Glastonbury). I often find myself a target for these so called music fans; they'll start a conversation with me...."Hey, I found this well cool band on Spotify last night" - I stop them right there "Err, no you didn't; Spotify gave it to you on a plate!"

How very dare they! Ooooooh normal people are so annoying!

Youtube...run by the people

You do know that downloading music from youtube and soundcloud is basically piracy?

At least on spotify it's the artist's choice to have music on there, and they do get paid (a miniscule amount, I will admit, but still more than on the radio).

The best way to get Spotify into your stereo is

1/ Buy a Spotify connect amp/media streaming unit
2/ [url= https://gramofon.com/index.html ]This thing called Gramofon which seems to have expanded to a lot of streaming services[/url]

It's absolutely shit to be honest. I believe you can't listen to it unless you're connected to the internet either. I personally use Youtube/SoundCloud etc. They're run by the people, for the people.

Many posts above telling you how to listen offline.

Tried Youtube for music, found the constant adverts galling, and the money your making the poster is often not going to the artist.
Not worked out how to get a good playlist going on Soundcloud without spending hours searching and adding tracks, does have a bit more from the smaller label bands though which is better than Spotify.

Another Taylforth classic, keep biting guys...

1/ Buy a Spotify connect amp/media streaming unit
2/ This thing called Gramofon which seems to have expanded to a lot of streaming services

I love Spotify, am working through Toto's back catalogue today at work....

isnt that gramafon thing just a bigger more expensive version of that chromecast audio jobbie

Pretty much, but it's been around for a while now, isn't google, supports AllPlay network (not sure if Chromecast does this) looks nicer, has an ethernet port and according to their website act as a wifi hotspot. But yeah could easily use ChromeCast Audio.

dont have bluetooth on the cars sound system.

been reading around at that Chromecast audio and can't see any reason not to go for it with to adapt my Denon miniHiFi - any pitfalls ?

its this [url= http://www.whathifi.com/denon/d-m37dab/review ]Denon hifi[/url] but with Wharfedale speakers

I've got 'car mode' on my HTC One so can I play Spotify through the stereo, via Bluetooth, from my phone?

I've got 'car mode' on my HTC One so can I play Spotify through the stereo, via Bluetooth, from my phone?

Should work.

sadexpunk - Member

just been looking, would this bluetooth receiver work with my phone in the car?

I think that would be fine in your car, so long as you have an 'aux in' headphone socket on the sterero?

Only thing that would put me off would be that it looks to be rechargeable with a USB charging cable supplied. The specs show 12hrs battery life in use, so depending on how much time you spend in the car you might need to frequently charge it.
I average 10hrs commuting in my car per week, and I think I'd rather have a cable to plug in than have to remember to charge it frequently.

Although negating that somewhat, you could get a dual USB cigarette lighter insert thing and charge it from that but again you're back to cables.....

Bravo Mr Taylforth!. 😀

Next stupid question.....

How do I get a playlist on my phone? I've downloaded the app (phone and PC) so can I create a playlist on the PC then move it to my phone? I've gone premium..

How do I get a playlist on my phone? I've downloaded the app (phone and PC) so can I create a playlist on the PC then move it to my phone? I've gone premium..

Only thing that would put me off would be that it looks to be rechargeable with a USB charging cable supplied. The specs show 12hrs battery life in use, so depending on how much time you spend in the car you might need to frequently charge it.
I average 10hrs commuting in my car per week, and I think I'd rather have a cable to plug in than have to remember to charge it frequently.

Although negating that somewhat, you could get a dual USB cigarette lighter insert thing and charge it from that but again you're back to cables.....

Ah, yes they are. I'm guessing wi-fi is best to download to my phone?
This could get quite addictive.....

you could get a dual USB cigarette lighter insert thing

I carry one around in my school bag....

just laying in the bath thinking about this......

if my wifi goes down im pretty screwed for music then arent i? yes i could download some favourites for offline use, but realistically im not gonna be fitting that much on a phone am i.

ill still probz go ahead, but its something i hadnt really considered til just now.....

Depends on your phone. Mine will take a pretty big memory card.

And if my WiFi goes down, which is rare, I switch to phone data or just don't listen to music.

thanks. it may pay me to start looking for a bigger sd card, ive had my 8gb card for years now, swapping between phones.

you wouldnt know the max size card an HTC M8 will take would you?

EDIT: i knew i shouldnt have looked 🙂 just been googling and apparently itll take up to 128gb but now im reading all sorts of things about 'SDHC, SDXC, having to format cards to FAT32, no you dont if its an XC they need to be EXFAT'

ill probably just take a punt on a branded card from amazon and hope for the best 😀

I may be slightly addicted now...

I've got it on at work so any decent song I like I can just add it to the playlist.