Got my Spotify invite in under an hour using the this link. My first impressions are a bit mixed. First of all I ran into problems playing certain tracks. I would say at least 20% of the songs I tried to play just refused to play. I guess there are still bugs that needs to be worked out. Secondly, Spotify Free service is not a viable service because after 6 months of unlimited playback, they will impose a 10 hour a month listening cap and 5 plays per unique track limitation. That means, once you’ve played a song 5 times, you cannot listen to it anymore ever, until you pay for the unlimited service or premium. Unlimited service at 5 bucks a month is decent if you only listen to music on your PC. You see the unlimited plan only allows for PC playback. But that is unrealistic for most users. So most people will need the premium service which allows for offline listening and playback on mobile devices. The premium service is a great service for audiophiles who love music and and love to consume large amounts of new music regularly. It’s practically an all-you-can-eat music buffet for 10 bucks a month. But if you’re like me who has a bunch of oldies you like to listen to and maybe consume a few new mp3s a month, this service isn’t for you.
For example. I think I have 500-1000 songs in my iTunes library. And that library does not grow much at all. In fact I think I’ve added 5 new American songs into my library in the last year. This may have something to do with the fact that I listen to Kpop . And for Kpop, nothing beats Soribada and paying 6 cents a song for DRM free music. But that’s another story. Anyways, so for someone like me, there comes a point where Spotify becomes financially unjustifiable. I currently am a subscriber to the eMusic Plus Annual plan. This allows me to buy DRM free music for on average 50 cents a track. So my library would cost me anywhere between 250-500 dollars. And I would actually own this music for life. Spotify on the other hand, after 2-4 years, I would start bleeding money and if I stopped my subscription, I am left with nothing and can no longer listen to the music. For me, to justify Spotify, I would need to consume more than 20 new or different tracks a month for the rest of my life for it to become justifiable. So while this service is great for people who frequently consume a large amount of new music or desire a limitless library, for someone like me who has a small library of music they listen to frequently and add only a few songs a year, It’s just not for me.
