I use Spotify all the time, I think it’s cool that for a monthly fee ($10) I can have a huge catalog of music at my fingertips, and artists get paid for every listen. The interfaces is a bit klunky, but the convenience of having so much music in hand makes up for it. AND because it’s a streaming service, I don’t have to keep backing up hard drives of MP3s and trying to figure out what to fit on my iPod.
One of my other favourite things about Spotify is that artists (and therefore engineers, producers, designers, etc etc) get paid for the music that other people are enjoying, and even though right now they get paid very very little, there is promise that as more people sign on then the pay will scale more toward the artist’s favour.
This article from the Independent (thanks Phil!) has a little more info:
I remain skeptical of whether the artists will ever get their fair share, but at least it is better than people listening to music without giving a little bit of support back to the folks who put a lot of time and effort into making that music. Every little bit helps.
The moral of the story, keep listening to lots of music, and thank you for supporting independent artists!
SJ
PS. I’m on Spotify too, and you can listen to my music here, and I might even get a few pennies for it!: http://open.spotify.com/artist/5hwEiNPiEfXbGH1YQSClFt