iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster, and Pandora have been industry leaders but now there is Spotify.
Spotify is an online music streaming service where you can search any song title, artist, or album, and it will appear and begin playing with just a click.
Most peer-to-peer mp3 file sharing is illegal, but Spotify is a new music application where file sharing is legal due to visible advertisements on the sidebars, and audible 30-second advertisements every 20 minutes in between songs.
Spotify has been available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the UK since 2008, but it has only been available in U.S. markets since July 2011.
Spotify had nearly 10 million users across the world by September 2010.
Spotify can be downloaded from Spotify’s official website and it goes right into personal computer applications.
Even though this application is relatively new, a growing number of students have already put it to use.
Senior Allie Lafitte started using Spotify this summer, a month after it was released.
“I’ve always used iTunes for all my music, but I like how on Spotify it connects to Facebook so you can see what other people are listening to,” Allie said.
Another student who uses Spotify is sophomore Chloe Richman.
“I first heard about Spotify through one of my friends in London who started using it when it first came out.”
I love how you can listen to any song without spending $1.99 which iTunes charges, and there are very few commercials. I would definitely recommend Spotify. I love it! It’s my favorite app,” Chloe said.