Spotify

Never download music again!.. or at least that's what I'm going to do. It's not often I come across an application that changes the way I live as dramatically as Spotify does.

Spotify is basically a streaming application, but different to any I've ever seen before. Their database contains a massive selection of songs, all of which are available to you at the click of a mouse. The quality of the service is so extraordinary you won't even notice a delay, the bitrate of the music streamed is around 160kbps and I challenge anyone to notice any difference to playing music from your hard drive.

The service is funded by non-intrusive advertising in the form of audio ads that play every 20 or so songs and a banner that appears in the application every now and again. If these are annoying you, you can also opt to pay a quid for a day pass, or a monthly membership.

As long as record labels continue their support of the application (and don't get their artists removed from the service... Metallica) I think Spotify could be revolutionary to the way we listen to music.

At the moment Spotify is only available on PC/Mac but they are planning for expansion onto the Symbian platform as well as other systems, presumably including the iPhone. With it's built-in Last.fm and WLM integration and the ability to share your playlists with your friends via simple HTTP links; Spotify is the perfect little music app and I definitely recommend you to have a go with it.

I only have one playlist at the moment, click here to add it.

Presently Spotify is invite-only unless you pay for a premium account. I have 5 invites left so feel free to drop me a message if you want to grab one.