Spotify Open Changes

Benihana · 15 Apr 2011 at 10:35

I'm sure most of us Spotify Open users have heard of the upcoming changes:

https://www.spotify.com/se/blog/archives/2011/04/14/upcoming-changes-to-spotify-free-open/

Just wondered what peoples thoughts are on this? I use Spotify at work as a kind of radio (except not using the terrible Artist Radio feature) and will probably now just use online radio/shout cast/bring in music from home on my android.

I think 10 hours is pretty unreasonable, I'd get through that in two days!

Fenris · 15 Apr 2011 at 10:38

I can live with that, I only use spotify to find new music and very rarely use to actually listen to music for any period of time.

To be honest if you are using spotify that much I would just get premium.

Benihana · 15 Apr 2011 at 10:48

I tend to use Last.fm to find new bands, as I have Winamp (home) and Spotify (work) and my HTC Desire (car) scrobbling.

Spotify Free was perfect for me, I doubt I would use any of the Premium features, I have crappy signal for my phone most of the time and the 320kbps would be wasted on the crappy speakers I have at work, the adverts don't bother me much either. There is also a growing list of bands that aren't available on Spotify that I started to listen to on Last.fm

sarge78 · 15 Apr 2011 at 10:55

Spotify said:
...will be able to play each track for free up to a total of 5 times.

That's the killer and basically the end of ad supported music service models

Strife212 · 15 Apr 2011 at 11:08

Benihana said:
Spotify Free was perfect for me, I doubt I would use any of the Premium features,

Well you would now

TheVoice · 15 Apr 2011 at 11:20

A lot of people seem to be forgetting that as well as Premium for £9.99, there's also the £4.99 package which is unlimited and has no ads. Not bad really, if you use Spotify a lot. I'll be considering it.

Doctor McNinja · 15 Apr 2011 at 20:08

It kind of sucks to have the service change in such a way but I've been a heavy user for over two years now so I guess £4.99 a month isn't too much to ask.

_Gizka_ · 15 Apr 2011 at 20:15

Doesn't come as a surprise really as it was never going to last.

I can't afford the tenner a month at the moment as I'm a financially crippled student but I will more than likely shell out for it when I *hopefully* land a job in the next few months, as it as a fantastic service for that price! Especially with the mobile content which I'm missing out on at the moment. But like the above I have been a heavy user for the past year so it might be a bit of a loss for a while

Hxc · 15 Apr 2011 at 20:19

Grooveshark.

flibbage0 · 16 Apr 2011 at 16:50

Hxc said:
Grooveshark.

+1

Don't see the hype about spotify apart from the no buffering.

Grooveshark has minimal buffering (mostly none at all) and has a wider selection of music.

NuclearWinter · 16 Apr 2011 at 17:22

flibbage0 said:
+1
Grooveshark has minimal buffering (mostly none at all) and has a wider selection of music.

Not for the music I listen to it doesn't. Quite a lot of the albums I listen to on Spotify are nowhere to be found on Grooveshark, or are incomplete.

For example Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come only has one track available on Grooveshark. It has four Dave Liebman albums compared to about 14 on Spotify.

And the ones that are there are of dubious legality (and quality) since they're uploaded by users.

Dave85 · 16 Apr 2011 at 17:48

So does this happen to those of us who where invited so not on the spotify open package.

Seft · 16 Apr 2011 at 18:36

I moved to premium about six months ago and I'm very happy with it. I make full use of mobile and offline - the 320k and no ads are also decent perks. £10 really is great value for the volume of content - I'd love to see something similar for movies*.

* I do have Cineworld Unlimited and I know Lovefilm exists

krooton · 17 Apr 2011 at 00:10

Can't blame them, haemorrhaging £16 million a year is poor business practice

loltim · 17 Apr 2011 at 00:20

"■Additionally, total listening time for free users will be limited to 10 hours per month after the first 6 months. That’s equivalent to around 200 tracks or 20 albums."

i'd use that within a week. ah well, grooveshark it is.

cymatty · 17 Apr 2011 at 00:26

DAvE18 said:
So does this happen to those of us who where invited so not on the spotify open package.

Sinny · 17 Apr 2011 at 00:39

Hxc said:
Grooveshark.

Thanks you, bye bye spotify. I did not mind the ad's at all, 10 hours would've been fine.

but 5 track limit?

I can just about say they are not going to last that long with this service.

Rroff · 17 Apr 2011 at 00:40

Don't mind paying a tenner a month for the premium, only downside for me is new content isn't added fast enough imo and quite a few artists becoming unavailable, which is a bit annoying when you build up a nice playlist and then half the tracks become unavailable.

The music industry and consumers need to get behind this with a bit of will to make it succeed imo or its gonna go back to the days of piracy.

SkeeterUK · 17 Apr 2011 at 01:43

I listen and keep spotify on overnight to help me sleep with slow songs. Grr now ill have to pirate the music again or use my old stuff.

10 hrs. That would last 2-3 days grr.

What was wrong with the ads paying for it as i didnt mind the ads.

snowdog · 17 Apr 2011 at 02:04

Ads are pretty useless if nobody uses/clicks on them...

Meh a tenner per month for premium is nothing, neither is a fiver for unlimited...

I'd rather have easy unlimited access to music always anywhere I am (and as a bonus: legal/supporting the artists), than say 1 extra KFC or McD meal per month.