Why It's Worth Getting Excited For Spotify's US Launch

You've probably not heard of Spotify yet. That's ok—it's still relatively new over here in Europe, where I live. But I can say in the year I've used it, I've never touched iTunes or used BitTorrent once.

It's a music-streaming service, free to download—though they've tried making it a bit “exclusive” so you have to be invited by a user, but as they've already got 7 million users that's not too difficult. It's worth noting that the users who opt to pay nothing for it will encounter the odd commercial, roughly every five songs. But that's ok, as they're targeted to what you listen to—so I've discovered some great music because of the ads, which is one of the reasons I wouldn't want to pay for it.

Paying for it costs £9.99 here in the UK each month (roughly $14), and for your dosh you get to listen to your music uninterrupted, and also on your iPhone or Android. It can cache your playlists, so you don't need internet access to play them.

But as I said, that's not the beauty of Spotify—though I know a fair few people who pay for it for mobile use. (It's said Spotify has around 300,000 paying subscribers).

So what does it do, and why have I not touched iTunes once (ok, once in a blue moon) since downloading it?

Simply put, the music streaming service lets you choose from the millions of tracks in the database (all legal, since the Swedish company has gone to great lengths to get permission from all the major record labels), so you can create playlists galore. When you get the urge to listen to a particular song, it's there—and you don't need to jump through any hoops to get it. You can listen to complete albums (usually Spotify has them the day of release), individual songs—whatever you want.

I love creating playlists, it's become an absolute addiction. My favorite—and rather infamous—is my “dadrock” playlist, which contains all the sort of cheesy songs my Dad used to play when I was a kid. Dire Straits, Phil Collins, Fine Young Cannibals, and so on.

I've shared the playlist with dozens of people by sending the URL to them, which then opens their desktop program and loads it there for their listening pleasure. They can contribute to it, if you've created a collaborative playlist, or if you'd prefer people not tinker with your choons you can set them as so too.

There are hardly any bands I've searched for which I haven't been able to find on Spotify. The Beatles and Pink Floyd are the only bands I've not been able to find on there, but both bands have well-publicized issues with digital downloads/streaming.

I use Spotify on average about eight hours a day. True, when you're streaming, especially using the free service, it's not the highest bitrate—but when the music is being pumped from laptop speakers it's not that important. If I want to listen to something in a higher bitrate I'll just put on an SACD, vinyl or CD. Or open iTunes and play from my library, though that's a very rare occurrence nowadays.

Get excited for the US launch. It's going to be big news when it's made available over there, just like it's soared in popularity over here. Not a day goes past when I don't see people linking to their playlists on Twitter or Facebook, or hear someone on the street using Spotify as a verb, the same way we say “just YouTube it” or “I'll Google it” now.

I know there's a dozen different music streaming and download services available already in the US (far more than I've got access to here in the UK), but all the US people I've spoken to who've used Spotify while on holiday in Europe or via sneaky means absolutely rave about it.

Details are still hazy about the US launch, but Bloomberg is reporting it'll be available States-side in the third quarter of 2010 after originally being slated for an early 2010 debut. The delay is due to licensing discussions apparently—but that's a good thing. You'll feel so virtuous giving up BitTorrent and streaming music legally, and for free. Sounds crazy, I know.

Send an email to Kat Hannaford, the author of this post, at khannaford@gizmodo.com.

Before indie rock radio station Woxy.com suddenly went silent Tuesday morning, Matt Lamkin sang the last words delivered on air in The Soft Pack song “Answer to Yourself.”

But I think I'm gonna die/before I see my time/But I think I'm gonna die/try it anyway

Angsty words spun by disc jockeys who never met an inside joke they didn't like; throughout Woxy's troubled past it has become tradition to tell the station's history through clever playlists and March 23 was no exception. The question now is whether a gloating return track will ever hit the airwaves or if Woxy is destined to continue on in silence.

When Woxy.com kicked its terrestrial roots and went online-only in 2004 the first song played was “Opherus” by the Irish rock band Ash, a not-so-subtle reference to U2's “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” the first song ever played on Woxy's parent station, 97X, which had dubbed itself 'the future of rock and roll.' Ash's song also captured the sentiment and unknown freedom of the internet with the joyously repeated line “I need the sunshine in the morning, I'm heading for the open road.” But despite the station's optimism, the unproven online-only radio model couldn't support Woxy's operating costs and in 2006 the station shut down. The final song was MC5's “Kick Out the Jams.”

When Woxy went off the air in 2004 and again in 2006 people were asking the same questions then that they are now and the public outcry for Woxy was just as loud, but six years later it's difficult to justify supporting something that has failed before and seems destined to do so again. Nowadays Woxy's struggles and fateful signoff raises a bigger question: if Woxy.com, one of the first stations to move to an online-only broadcast, and arguably one of the most popular internet radio stations, isn't able to hack it even with commercial backing then what does the future of online radio hold?

Questions about the viability of online-only radio are nothing new, but the issue is much more pressing now than it was in 2004. Back then the music industry was still up in arms about listeners downloading music illegally and didn't know how it could survive, so it was okay for online radio to not be successful because online music didn't have a niche yet. But now that music companies have adjusted to the online marketplace and started making money it's suddenly necessary for online radio to do the same, lest an era of old school radio listeners be left behind.

Woxy got back online in 2006 with the help of silicon valley entrepreneur Bill Nguyen, who also owned the burgeoning online music store Lala.com. Nguyen linked Woxy and Lala together, but in an ironic twist it was sites like Lala, Pandora and Last.fm that became Woxy's competitors for listener's ears and advertising dollars. Given a choice to financially back Lala.com or Woxy.com, Nguyen chose Lala and sold Woxy to Future Sounds, a company that specializes in discovering new bands. After witnessing the success of Lala and the failure of Woxy it would appear as though Nguyen made the right choice.

Streaming music online isn't cheap, and in that sense Woxy's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness. While Pandora and Last.fm pay the same music royalties and bandwidth fees as Woxy, they don't have the additional cost of live disc jockeys. So instead of being on a one name basis with Brian, Mike, Shiv, Joe, Paige and Bryan Jay users make their own playlists or listen to computer generated lists, and as this practice becomes more cost efficient we risk losing disc jockeys and radio shows all together.

“The costs are higher, but that's why we deliver a better product,” John Mascarenhas, a partner with Future Sounds told the Austin-American Statesman.

Albeit, Woxy did suffer a fitting end; it is the tragically romantic tale of a popular indie radio station's untimely death at the hands of a corporate deal gone wrong, mere days after the station's coming out party at SXSW where dozens of live sets were recorded that will likely never see the light of day.

It had to be a bittersweet week for program director Matt Shiv, who has been at Woxy for 12 years and found out before SXSW that radio operations would have to cease unless a deal was made. Shiv and the rest of the station's employees continued to work throughout the week on good faith that a deal would be struck but when it fell through his spirits seemingly broke. In the past Shiv has been at the front of the Save Woxy campaign, but Tuesday in his Facebook posts he seemed resigned to giving up.

“It will take a pretty incredible company/plan coming around now to make me want to stick around at this point,” he said as he repeatedly declined efforts to begin fundraising efforts.

But if Shiv won't fight for Woxy, I will, and I believe a lot of the listeners will too. Stand up and let your voice be heard, Nguyen has taken to the Woxy message boards to solicit advice from fans much like he did in 2006 before saving the radio station so go speak your mind and let potential investors know that you listen to Woxy and you want your indie rock station back.

Can't you see the prophetic lines in Woxy's last song? The Soft Pack sings:

You got a rabbit in your hat/you got a few tricks up your sleeve/don't get stuck in a rut/or stuck in the same/you got exactly what you need

Woxy.com (1983-???)