The James Kilgour BlogA Life Blog.

Spotify is a new music service, where you listen to as much music as you like for free! It all runs through it’s very well designed client, and the service has all the latest music.

Getting an invite to the service was the easiest! Luckily, I managed to win a competition to get an invite; the code arrived today in my inbox!

Downloading the software was very quick, and installing even more so! I only had to make one click inside the installer window!

Once installed I opened the program. I was shocked! It look almost identical to iTunes, except with no prices! The choice was good; ‘Funhouse’ by Pink and ‘Human’ by The Killers were just two of the available albums.

You would expect with such a service, (especially one in beta) would be very slow to load. Not at all. The songs start straight away, and actually, quicker than in Napster or  in iTunes. Neither have I had any problems with the streaming.

The service is also meant to have ads, but after 20 songs, I’ve only heard one of these, which lasted about 15 seconds or less. It was for Xbox Guitar Heroes, and I didn’t really bother me much.

The only thing that could improve the service would be the ability to download the songs free as MP3s! Here’s hoping. If it wasn’t for my Napster subscription, which allows me to download, than I’d probably switch to it.

So, if you want to give the service a go, I have some invites to give out. The first commenter’s on this post will be sent one each, (to as many as I get).

Update: 30.1.09 I have just recieved new invites. Please comment below. Due to the high number of requests, I will give priority to those who have commented elsewhere on the blog. Thanks.

JK

I thought I’d post about a really great site; winsupersite.com. It’s written by Paul Thurrott, some PC genius, and a really great author. There’s loads of content, all about different innovation from Microsoft, and there’s some for Mac fans too.

One of my favourite review is his review of Windows Vista. It’s the best I’ve found on the net, and covers every aspect of the major OS upgrade.

I agree with his conclusion of Vista. It is a triumph of Microsoft, to completely change the core of the system, and yet keep so much compatibility. I’ve been using the new software (Home Premium version) for about a year now. It’s been very stable, and things such as putting the PC onto standby, and then resuming the system later, does not result in a slow down. Of course, there have been a few hiccups, such as problems with the use of some programs. On the whole though, it is a great OS, and Paul Thurrott knows that.

JK