Spotify
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| File:Spotifyscreenshot.png Spotify 0.3.9 running on Windows Vista | |||||||||||||||
| Original author(s) | Spotify Ltd | ||||||||||||||
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| Stable release |
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| Preview release |
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| Operating system | Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X | ||||||||||||||
| Type | Music | ||||||||||||||
| License | Proprietary | ||||||||||||||
| Website | http://www.spotify.com/ | ||||||||||||||
Spotify (portmanteau of spot and identify[6]) is a Sweden-based proprietary music streaming program, which allows listening to specific music without delay via browsing artists, albums or created playlists.[7]
Mode of operation and system requirements
Spotify provides the transfer of soundfiles via internet through the combination of server-based streaming and Peer-to-Peer technology (P2P) involving the listeners themselves (see also: cloud computing). Even with slow internet connections, there are no great delays when playing music. An internet connection of at least 256 kbit/s is recommended, as the bitrate of the stream is up to approximately 160 kbit/s.[8] The sound files can be played on demand, as if they were installed on the hard disk of the user. Songs are cached on the client computer to prevent wasting bandwidth by streaming the same songs over and over. The audio codec used is Vorbis.[9]
The content of each client's cache is summarized in an index which is sent to the Spotify stream hub upon connecting to the service. This index is then used to inform other clients about additional peers they can connect to for fetching streamed data for individual tracks being played. This is accommodated by each client, upon startup, acting as a server listening for incoming connections from other Spotify users, as well as intuitively connecting to other users to exchange cached data as appropriate. There are currently no official details from the developers about how many connections and how much of a user's upstream bandwidth the Spotify client will use when streaming to other users; the Spotify client offers no way for the user to configure this.
The system requirements are at least Mac OS X 10.4, Windows XP or a newer operating system. It is also possible to run the program in Linux using Wine. The cache size can be limited by the user and the memory location of cache can be chosen. At least 1GB of free space is recommended for the cache.
The user must set up an account in order to use the software. This account can be used on several computers, but can only play music at one computer at a time.
History
Spotify has been developed since 2006 by a team at Spotify AB, Stockholm, Sweden. The company Spotify was founded by Daniel Ek, former CTO of Stardoll, and Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of TradeDoubler, in Stockholm, Sweden. The headquarter is located in Luxembourg, but they are located in Stockholm and Göteborg, Sweden.[10]
Cost and availability
Spotify is freeware and can be downloaded from the Spotify website in three ways. It is available free to use, funded by advertising played periodically by the Spotify player. However, unless the user pays a monthly cost of 9.99 € (approximately $12 USD, £10 GBP, 99 NOK or 100 SEK), there will be advertisements in the client window and/or in between songs. When a member pays the fee, the member will automatically have the status "Premium user"; this allows the member to listen to previews and news before non-premium users. A user may also purchase a "day pass" for 9 SEK (approximately $1.1 USD, £0.7 GBP, 9 NOK or 0.8 EUR) for 24 hours of ad-free music playback (essentially 24 hours of the premium service).[11]
Spotify Premium is available in Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and the UK. The Free version is only available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain.
As of Wednesday 28 January 2009, it seems like some bands and cds have been removed from spotify. This including Vengaboys, Blümchen, Tool and Dan Deacon.
Features
The user has access to tracks of all major labels and numerous smaller labels, with the repertoire being constantly extended through new labels. The tracks can be found via search for artists, titles, albums, genres or year of publication.
Users can set up playlists and share them, or edit them together with other users (see collaborative software). For this purpose the playlist link can directly be dragged into an email or an instant messaging window. If the recipient follows the link, the playlist will be downloaded into the Spotify-client of the recipient. Like normal links the playlist links can be used everywhere, such as on websites. The same principle also works for single tracks, which can be used via drag and drop on applications and websites at will. [12]
The application is integrated with Last.fm[13].
See also
References
- ^ "Spotify: Discover music, podcasts, and playlists - Apps on Google Play". play.google.com.
- ^ "Spotify New Music and Podcasts". App Store.
- ^ "Open Source - Spotify".
- ^ "Spotify Flathub page". Flathub.
- ^ a b "Announcing Alpha & Beta Programs". community.spotify.com. December 4, 2018.
- ^ http://www.spotify.com/en/about/press/background-info/#hard-facts Spotify website Faq
- ^ http://www.spotify.com/en/about/press/background-info/ Spotify website: background information
- ^ Spotify support site: Sound quality
- ^ http://www.spotify.com/blog/archives/2008/07/02/spotify-030/ Spotify blog: switched to the Ogg Vorbis codec
- ^ http://www.spotify.com/en/about/press/background-info/ Spotify website: background information
- ^ http://www.spotify.com/en/products/overview/ Spotify website: Products overview
- ^ http://www.spotify.com/en/help/faq/#share-music Spotify FAQ: Share music
- ^ http://www.spotify.com/blog/archives/2008/12/18/spotify-scrobbles/ Spotify blog: Spotify scrobbles