As the use of technology is growing, so are the apps people use. Gaining love from students all over the world and slowly rising on the iTunes store charts, Spotify is one of those apps.
Spotify was founded in 2006 by a team at Spotify AB in Stockholm, Sweden. The founder of the company, Daniel Ek, was also the former CTO of Stardoll; a popular browser game based of paper-dolls. As of 2012, Ek is ranked 395th on the British rich list with a net worth of $400 million.
Spotify is currently ranked 12 on the iTunes appstore for Top Free Apps. It has an app rating of 5 stars, which is quite uncommon in the world of technology. In order to start streaming music you do have to create an account using your e-mail address or signing in with Facebook. After that you can start making playlists and streaming, you can even add your friends by their username to see what playlists they have/ what they are listening to. Your account is public unless you change your settings.
There are currently three different versions of Spotify, the free desktop/tablet version, the free mobile (iphone, android) version, and the premium version. You can shuffle any playlist or artist’s catalogue or create your own playlist on all versions. You can also access a radio personalized to your music taste, with the occasional advertisement or two. Options for mobile-free are limited, premium allows you to access everything with a fee of $9.99 a month on both mobile and desktop. With Premium you can actually download songs and save them to play them offline, which is very helpful if you do not want to waste data, also advertisements are not included. The app has been compared to Pandora and iTunes radio, but the main difference between those and Spotify is that Spotify allows you to physically make your own playlist.
Premium Spotify is the most realistic version of all three tiers; for only $9.99 you can listen to almost any artist which is great considering $9.99 is the cost of one album on iTunes. Before actually trying the premium version, Spotify offers you a 30-month-free-trial that gives you access to everything, the only downside might be the requirement to link your credit card. Once your free trial expires, they will begin to charge your card so remember to end the trial before-hand unless you enjoyed it. Spotify gives you a new perspective on music and allows you to enjoy your favorite music at a cheap cost.
