"Four hundred dollars for a digital Walkman," I asked? "You're out of your mind!"
I can vividly remember telling the sales rep at Comp USA as much in what must've been late 2001 or early 2002 when they tried to up-sell me on an iPod. "I'll stick to my amazing collection of vinyl and CDs," I thought to myself with an air of snobbery.
That was probably the first, last and only time, I was a late adopter to the transition of digital music. When I finally did get an iPod I jumped in head first, ripping CDs with the fervor of a Southern Baptist preacher, telling Jessa that "this will be a weekend project." Three months and a very frustrated wife later and I just about had the CDs taken care of. Have never bothered trying to rip the vinyl to MP3.
My music buying habits soon changed too. Though I never whole-heartedly embraced the iTunes store, I loved Emusic. That is until Spotify came around.
If you talk with me regularly, chances are I've recommended Spotify to you. I love it. With few exceptions and some gentle quirks, it is an amazing platform for listening to what is ultimately the world's largest smorgasbord of music. And with its new integrated App Finder, the experience just keeps getting better.
Not afraid to have my guilty pleasure hits-of-the-90s broadcast to everyone, I like the idea of the public playlist. I like the snarky comments I sometimes get from my friend list on Facebook. I like seeing what my friends are listening to and using that as a source to find new music.
But no, that's not all. Spotify couldn't help itself. It went and raised the bar recently with trending playlists, Spotify radio (much like LastFm), Songkick Concerts (a handy app that scans your playlists for favorite artists and gives revelant tour information), Rolling Stone Recommends (quick links to their top 500 songs of all time, etc.), The Guardian (reviews from The Guardian music critics) and my favorite, Pitchfork (which allows me to skip the Pitchfork site altogether and get to the highly-rated releases and reviews), among many others.
To say the least, I am excited for what's to come in 2012 with Spotify and discovering a ton of new artists.
What is this Spotify I hear you speak of and how I can use it for my plans of world domination?
ReplyDeleteMy apologies, Hombre. Should've been a better journalist on this...Spotify is a cloud-based streaming music service. Much like LastFm, Pandoroa, etc.. However, Spotify allows you to direct what you listen to (it's not just random radio streams). You can enjoy the basic service for free, but I would highly recommend pony-ing up the 10 smack-o-las a month for the premium plan.
ReplyDeletedownloading spotify now, will give it go!
ReplyDelete