Spotify is live: an instant mixtape for everyone

Unlimited music streaming services aren’t anything new here, but Spotify’s unique way of helping you find music, connect with friends, and listen to music without the cost makes it one of most refreshing services available here to date.

Launching this week in Australia, the Spotify service actually made its first appearance four years ago, when the founders wanted to offer a legal music alternative to the The Pirate Bay torrent site, one of the leading places to find music the less than honourable way.

Spotify will be available on a multitude of devices, including the iPhone, Android handsets, Windows Phone 7, and BlackBerry, but only if you fork out for the Premium $11.99 plan.

Currently, Australians aren’t exactly starved for choice, with quite a few streaming music services to choose from including Samsung’s own Music Hub, Sony’s Music Unlimited (formerly Qriocity), Rdio, JB HiFi Now, BlackBerry Music, Microsoft’s Zune Pass, and HP’s RaRa.

Most of these services are likely to pull their track listing from the same place, and given the amount on offer from Spotify, the new service is probably no different, with over 16 million tracks on offer in this service.

To grab these tracks, you will need a Spotify account, something that itself requires a Facebook account. Once you’re connected, you gain access to the Spotify desktop app, offering you more than just a way of listening to music.

Rather than just be a music streaming service, Spotify offers you lots of ways to connect with other music fans like yourself through apps. With the launch of the Spotify service in Australia, subscribers can now find apps for Triple J, We Are Hunted, TuneWiki, and Rolling Stone magazine, to name but a few.

Apps. They're not just for your phone.

Each of these services gives you access to different ways of finding music, like checking out Triple J’s Hottest 100 discs or finding what’s new in the world of music at We Are Hunted. One app available on Spotify reportedly even allows you to flirt with people and possibly find the love of your life while listening to music.

While the idea of an all you can eat music selection is most of what drives Spotify, it’s also about the connections one can make with their music.