Spotify redefines streaming music

Listening to music online has proven to be pretty easy these days. Last.fm, Pandora, Rhapsody, Slacker, the list goes on. There are tons of services, but they only give you a taste. You can't really just search for artists, find the songs you want, and listen to them.

Last and Pandora discover music for you, but not every song is available. Rhapsody has the right idea, but I'm not a big fan of their interface.

Enter Spotify. It's not web-based, it's an app you download.

You download it, search for an artist, and voila. You're listening to your favorite songs before you know it. Spotify is fast, easy, fun. I think it's from the future.

In fact, if you are in US, you don't have access to Spotify yet. They still need to work out some licensing deals.

One of the features that separates Spotify from the other streaming music services is the ability to share assets with other users.

You can drag and drop any track, album, artist or playlist to your email or instant messenger which creates a link anyone with Spotify can click on. Each song has a unique URI in this format:

http://open.spotify.com/track/4675yUu8AUbE72T94BkLCD

Spotify also does collaborative playlists, so you and your friends can make the ultimate mix.

I love searching by genre. You can really narrow it down, even by era:

There really isn't that much more to say about it besides that it's awesome. I can't stop using it. I can't even remember the last time I opened iTunes.

I want to let you guys try Spotify, so I've contacted the guys over there and I'm trying to get some invites. If you want to get on the list, send me an email here: andrew.mager+spotifyinvite@gmail.com.