Spotify: first impressions
Today, the music service Spotify was launched in my country. The reason why it’s been so long should be obvious to, well, anyone who has ever heard of digital music and copyright. If not, then allow me a quick summary: Because record companies are greedy assholes. There.
Anyway, here’s my first impressions, in the order they popped into my head:
1. “Really? I have to download the software? This is making me frown. Why isn’t there a web interface, like Grooveshark?”
2. “Okay, this interface looks pretty self-explanatory.”
3. “Okay, this interface isn’t self-explanatory at all. Is the Library my iTunes library? Why, yes, it is! What the hell is that doing here?”
4. “Oh, cool, I can make my own playlists! I’ve heard about this! … Oh, wait. Synthetic Breed only has their first album up here. Gary Numan only has a couple of Greatest Hits-records and some live stuff up here. Okay, so most of the music I wanted to share isn’t available on here. Guess I’ll check out the radio instead.”
5. “Oh, cool, it’s divided into genres. I’ll just … er, why is there only one ‘electronic’ and three metal-genres? I mean, I like ‘black metal,’ ‘death metal’ and ‘heavy metal.’ But I also like ‘industrial,’ ‘ambient’ and ‘chiptunes.’ Bit odd.”
6. “Okay, the radio’s playing! Oh man, I fucking hate Crystal Castles. Hey, The Knife! This is sweet! And Daft Punk! And … wait, what? An audio commercial? Well, okay, if they’re not any longer than this one (about 6 seconds), I suppose I can live with that. Will get pretty annoying if I’ve got Spotify running as a party-DJ, though.”
7. “I think I liked Grooveshark better. But we’ll see.”
I remind you, this is an on-going exploration.
