Spotify Love Continues
I have been writing this post of a number of days, which is a collection of a few extra thoughts about Spotify on Linux. My other posts about Spotify can be found here and here 
Since using Spotify, my music habits have altered. Now that I have access to all the music known to man, I am listening to things which I don't usually listen to or would not be willing to buy. Due to the cost of music, I would only buy a track I really liked. Now, with Spotify, I am listening to everything I may or may not buy. Friends are able to listen to what they want, rather than my collection. The artists page is an excellent part of the Spotify service. It pulls in all the music by a certain artists, into a nice organised list. It has allowed me to discover new music by my favourite artist. Each page also has a detailed biography about the artist and related artists, which is one of my favourite aspects. Similar artists to the artists page you were looking at will be listed here. I am able to find other artists I like and find music I have forgotten about and new music.
The Spotify client in Linux works great, possible the best experience of Spotify. However, there are still major issues. The critical bug is the dreadful CPU usage, playing a song or sitting idle, the client will bounce between 30 to 85%. If you use the Windows client, on the Windows OS or via Wine, it will stay at 1 & 2%. There are also plenty of feature requests. Support for Notify OSD (via libnotify), support for Indicator Applets, support for D-Bus, moving the buttons to the left hand side instead of right. Still alot more work to make Spotify even better. All these bugs and features have been identified in Spotify's feedback page, which has been populated with Linux users. What is great about Linux users, is their knowledge and helpfulness when coding. Spotify developers are asking/working with Linux users to improve the experience. On the D-Bus request page, I was delighted to see a Spotify Developer asking for help to implement this API, with Linux users responding. No other community will offer this much help!
On the social side, I have been continuing my need to create plenty of playlists to show off to my friends. As well as browse through my friend's playlists for new music. I have been sending and receiving music, still a feature under-used.
Hoped you enjoyed my update on my music life with Spotify. I may do a few more of these posts about Spotify, people seem to like them and it might get featured on OMGUbuntu's twitter feed again!
The Spotify Effect
I have been using Spotify on Linux for 24 hours now. It has reminded me how great the service is, in the past I have only used it on and off to try out. Since the release onto Ubuntu, it has made want to try it out again. The price of entry for me was £5, the basic subscription charge. Its nice to have no ads, which became annoying after every couple of songs. The subscription is still very low, as much music as you want for £5, with no limits! Though, I still had my doubts. Spotify is using DRM, your £5/10 is only paying for access, not ownership. If you stop using Spotify or Spotify go bust (reports suggest so), you have no music from your subscription. However, the ease of the service and the limitless amounts of music, in the long run it will save me alot of money, from buying individual songs at 69p or Albums at £6 on Amazon.
Fairly quickly after starting my subscription I knew Spotify was my new way to listen to music. Music removed from both of my computers, and archived onto external Hard Drives. I was going Spotify all the way!
Discovering the social feature to Spotify added another level to this service. Linking your Spotify account with your Facebook account, pulled in all your friends who use Spotify. Very quickly I was checking out songs my friends listened too, and adding the songs to my favourites. It has a nice feature to 'send' songs to each other. This started conversations with friends about music, which I have never done. I dont usually talk about music with friends, but since Spotify makes it so easy to share songs with each other, it just sort of happens.
I am loving Spotify every time I start listening and looking for music. Its nice to pay one flat fee and have as much as I want. Its likely that I will carry on paying for the unlimited service, don't like ads! I will be hunting, sharing and talking about the music on Spotify from now on!
First look at Spotify on Linux
Spotify is a music streaming service, which currently operates in Europe. Spotify has been around since 2008, and I was part of first wave of beta invites to try the service. The client, which is used to stream and listen to music has been Windows and Mac OS X only, though the client has worked very well in Wine and Spotify has even provided instructions to get the client working in Wine. In the past few months, Spotify has been available on the iPhone OS and other mobile devices. Finally, a few days ago, Spotify comes to Linux!
Currently, to use the preview of Spotify on Linux, you need a Premium or Unlimited account, because Ads don't work yet. I decided to upgrade my account to Unlimited, to try the client and support the efforts of Spotify!
Essitially, if you have tried Spotify on Windows or Mac, its the same. This was the aim of the developers, to get the same experience cross-platform. Spotify is very easy to navigate, find the songs you want to listen to, whole albums, create playlists, see the top played songs. It has great social features to share the music your listening to with your friends.
The general look of the client is very much the Mac-look, it is more suited on a Mac desktop. I wasn't expecting the theme to be changed on Linux, this is made harder by using QT instead of GTK, which means us Gnome users will have to install the QT library. Luckly, Spotify uses Alsa, no Pulse Audio here! This may sound really small, but stood out for me, the font. Its a nice look font, which is very easy to read, and gives the whole client a great look. The client is quick and songs stream instantly. My only compliant is that the client uses high number of cpu cycles, compared to other platforms. I am using a dual core Intel Atom, while songs are playing, it hits 52%, when idle hits as high as 78%. Some serious optimisations will need doing before this client comes out of beta.
The whole Linux community are pleased we finally get a native Spotify client. It works and looks exactly what we wanted. A few minor issues at the moment, which I am sure will be fixed before release. You will have to pay a monthly fee at the moment, which is the first time I have done with Spotify, one thing I will say, its nice not having Ads!
EDIT: Just realised, the buttons are on the right hand side 
, hopefully they will switch it to the left hand side, like they have on Mac OS.
Spotify on Linux....finally!
Me!
Ed Hewitt, 19, Studying @ Derby Uni, Blogger, Ubuntu user, Columnist & Podcaster for FCM, Gamer, Admin on Gfire.- Ubuntu was feeling slow. Problem. Spotify again. 20-30% sitting idle! Please fix this!
- Pressure, missed the deadline for FCM #41, having to quickly write up my review of Gish!
- Yet again, no need for drivers on Ubuntu, but you do on Windows :D
