Spotify is Godsend

I had been hearing incessantly about Spotify ever since it launched in Europe in October 2008. People kept raving about how awesome it was and how we in the US were missing such an awesome thing. I dismissed it as typical web hype. 

Spotify landed on US shores a month or so ago and I signed up for a beta invite just to see what the hype was all about. It was an invite only service, kind of like Google’s launches. That made it exclusive enough that people were scrounging for an invite. Once I got it, it was sitting on my downloads folder waiting to be installed. Install happened and then the magic kicked in.

Spotify, in my opinion is the real game changer in online music streaming. It is far cooler than iTunes which was itself a revolution when it launched. Spotify is just so darn easy to use, even a caveman can do it. And it picks up the iTunes library in the PC/Mac so you dont have to open iTunes to get to locally stored music. 

The best part of course is the vast library Spotify offers. In addition to help discover eclectic and popular tracks from the Western world, it is diverse in its collection of Indian music. I was thrilled to find everything from “Ulavum Thendral”, a tamil film piece from the movie Mandirikumari to the latest tamil movie soundtracks. There is a fantastic collection of Hindi music, old and new. I have spent hours listening to Rafi, Hemantda and Kishoreda. And the carnatic collection is their crown jewel. MDR is available and so is SSI. D.K.Jayaraman’s brilliant rendition of Papanasam Sivan’s “Nambi kettavar” is there as is Hari Tum Haro and Katrinile by M.S.

I could go on and on but I’ll stop here. Music like this needs to be experienced. And Spotify has gotten me close to some of the music I grew up with. Thank you Spotify. You just made my day, month and possibly year.