Spotify - all's fair in love and war

Have I told you how much i am coming to love "Spotify"? Well I am and for those of you yet to discover the delights of almost unlimited music (for free and legally) I'll tell you more.

Spotify is a music streaming service. You download a small application and when run, you can access the Spotify Library, searching by artist, by track, by album.

When you are presented with the search results, there are 3 columns,

• Track Title
• Artist
• Album

Click on any result and you'll be taken to more so click on a Track Title in your search results and Spotify will show you all the tracks of that title that are in the library.

Click on Artist and you'll be accessing all of the tracks from that artist that Spotify has in the library - including their appearances on compilation albums

Click on an Album Title and you'll be taken to the Spotify listing for the complete album.

You can then build your own playlists. Drag an Album Title to the "New Playlist" tag on the LH side et voila - that Album is now one of your playlists. Make your own "Mix Tape" - click on "New Paylist" - give it a title and then simply drag and drop results from your searches.

I've found that Compilation Albums are a great way to find music long forgotten, pop, rock, classical, jazz - - - and so on.

Every time you log on, Spotify give some suggestions relating to new music but also make suggestions relating to music you've listened to, so tonight I was recommended to listed to "The AuPairs", a band that I was listening to in 1979 and had totally forgotten about.

There has to be a downside of course. Well, about every 20 minutes or so your listening is interrupted by a brief advert - unless you sign up for a "Premium" account at £9.99 per month. Gee, I can live with an occasional ad.

What don't I like

• That you can't [officially and legally] store the downloads for MP3 plays
• That certain bands who really control the use of their music are not on Spotify - hands up Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Led Zep - to name but 3
  

And that's about it really - Spotify, great for music.