Spotify

[LalehForWD]

I really like Spotify, I've been using it for a little more than a year now. Their catalog has been growing. What I don't like is that some of the songs that I want to listen to are not available in my country like some of the Swedish and Dutch artists that I like listening to (probably because I'm a free user). Surprisingly, they do have a very decent Ex-Yugoslav catalog that Spotify allows me to listen to.

American accounts seems to be limited (I have no proof though). Have you tried to create a British account? If you do, I guess Spotify will assume you're on holiday in the US and you will have 2 weeks to use it unless upgrading. It would be interesting to see what restrictions you have as British vs American.

 

[apasionata]

I'm using spotify behind a UK proxy and I can say it's G R E A T! But I has shi*ty tags for last.fm.

 

[LalehForWD]

I'm using spotify behind a UK proxy and I can say it's G R E A T! But I has shi*ty tags for last.fm.

You do? Great! Your account is British then, right? What happens if you leave the proxy and run from Macedonia (is it)?
Is Epica - Design Your Universe (2009 album) available for you?

 

[apasionata]

You do? Great! Your account is British then, right? What happens if you leave the proxy and run from Macedonia (is it)?
Is Epica - Design Your Universe (2009 album) available for you?

I can still use it without proxy 'coz I started to use it about one week ago. And yes that album is available for me.

 

[LalehForWD]

Anyone tested Rdio?
Rdio availability (countries).

I find the Collection feature good and it's missing in Spotify. Otherwise I find the services very alike with slight perference for Spotify.

Epica - Design Your Universe (2009 album) is missing in both services for me.
Some Loreen - Euphoria remixes are unavailable in Sweden in Rdio (!!).

 

[LalehForWD]

Anathema's albums is missing from Spotify in Sweden.

 

[LalehForWD]

Grooveshark is easy to use without paying. It seems to be less serious though. All albums missing due to license issues on my Spotify account is present here. :roll: It makes me somewhat reluctant to support it since services like Spotify and Rdio are trying so hard to be legitimate. It's good when you need a public demo music link.

 

[LalehForWD]

I've really become a devoted Spotify user since spring. However, it seems there's increased pressure on the service from what I assume are the big record companies, to remove tracks without a proper release. Random songs disappear suddenly. Both Apple and Microsoft are planning to release similar services and could via contracts with the big record companies shut the smaller services out (Spotify, Rdio etc). Meanwhile the metal music continue to distribute itself in various other ways. Still, Spotify is a really great thing!

edit:
Maybe it doesn't matter with the lack of much of the metal music scene, since this music often need full dynamics (lossless) to reach full potential. Many even goes to the extreme and require analogue sound on vinyl. In this perspective it is pity that the Spotify player is missing the ability to play local FLAC files.

 

[LalehForWD]

Haha, after all harsh words and internet hating, reality catches up.
Metallica releases their entire album catalogue on Spotify.

 

[LalehForWD]

Being used to listen to Tarja in FLAC, Traja on Spotify really sucks. Don't know why though, Ogg Vorbis may not be suitable for music with big dynamic differences?

 

[LalehForWD]

crap

 

[LalehForWD]

crap

 

[LalehForWD]

Skipify

If you have a "free" Spotify subscription (with advertisements that is), there's Chrome/Firefox addin/extension that can seamlessly skip the ads - Skipify. It is an open-source browser extension written in javascript so you need to run the webplayer version of Spotify http://play.spotify.com. The author says repeatedly the extension is broken: das ist kapoet ja.

Well ... no, it works perfect for me in Chrome (Windows 2012 R2). Haven't tested mobile or Firefox.

I think the addon doesn't change the revenue for the artists or the payments to Spotify, it just skip the inserted ads in the Spotify playlist.

 

[LalehForWD]

^^ Update

Google inactivates all Chrome extensions that are not going through Chrome web store.

Superuser solution: Re-enable extensions not coming from Chrome Web Store on Chrome v35+ (with enhanced security)

Developer mode route

1. Download the crx file and unpack the extension using your favorite decompresser. Take note of the directory where you placed it.
2. Open the extension page, activate "Developer Mode"
3. Click "Load unpacked extension..."
4. Search trough your directory tree for the directory where you unpacked your extension and click OK. If your extension is called "my extension" then select "my extension" directory.

Advantages: You don't have to install anything else. Disadvantages: Chrome nags you to disable the extension each start up.

Worked for me in chrome. Just download the source files from Skipify Github and browse to it via developer mode on Chrome extension page.

 

[LalehForWD]

^^ Update 2

Well, I stopped using Chrome Adblock plus since its IE version is so amateurish and bad (I'm frequently using both browsers). A single global AdFender is now replacing everything and is way better. An unfortunate and surprising side effect is that Skipify stopped working in Chrome. The way Skipify is designed sending all ads to a fake container and NOT blocking them is perfect IMO. I guess there's no way to check if the ads actually have been played or not. Anyway. I'll try hard to find a solution, but it's a pity there's no active work done on Skipify.

edit:
I get the same results in both Firefox and Chrome - that is, no ads but the rather inoffensive Spotify upgrade offer (~5 s voice) regularly. I guess I can live with that. No idea if it is AdFender or Skipify which is removing the ads though.

edit2:
Well, I can confirm re-enable Adblock plus in Chrome makes Skipify work again. So it's not some lucky moment or temporary glitch, the addin work if you have Adblock plus active.

 

[LalehForWD]

I thought I could update this with some more experience of Spotify. When I quit my premium Spotify account, I've been exploring methods to avoid the ads in the free Spotify version. Skipify was terrific and also non-intrusive as it didn't block the ads, just jumped over them in the playlist, thus allowing Spotify to earn money. This will of course only work in the Spotify web-app and not in the desktop app. As far as I know there's no way to avoid ads in the desktop app. Now when I made a fresh install of Windows, I discovered that the Spotify web-app works without ads with just Adblock plus in Google Chrome. This is new as far as I know and pretty awesome (for how long it lasts). I had plans of making a kind of Spotify player as a Windows Universal app around the Skipify javascript, but now I don't have to.

 

[ShoeFlo]

Since the year is almost over Spotify created a wrap-up of your personal music highlights of t2017

check out the link: https://2017wrapped.com/

These are my statistics:

I dont trust it though... how is Occidentalis Karma in my Top 5 when it's 48th in my last.fm ranking and I mostly scrobble via Spotfiy

"Random Haiku Generator" on the first place is correct, though.

"Vegir liggja till allra átta" shouldnt be there either. Instead of that there should be Low Roar's "Gosia"

Favorite genre "Icelandic POP" made me laugh.. the other genres in my top 5 were Chamber Pop, Compositional Ambient ( ), Dream Pop ( ) and Post-Rock ( )

The Top 5 artists look absolutely accurate. It's more or less the same every year. I am very boring

 

[RainyWoods]

[MENTION=11993]whiteshoes[/MENTION], gosh I don't trust this thing either. It made me take a test and tried to make me look dumb. It asked me what my most played song of 2017 was which is by quite a gap Sorority Noise's "No Halo" (368 plays all from Spotify baaaby!) and then it tells me i'm wrong and that it's Phantogram's Fall In Love which is actually 13th on my lastfm page with 149 plays. And my favourite genre is apparently Modern Rock when Garage Rock was an option.... please. It got my soul age wrong as well which everyone knows is 87 years old. It tried to tell me that my age is 27, and yeah, there were 27 candles on my last birthday cake BUT THE CAKE WAS A LIE. And how Ariel Pink even got on there I don't even know, as I listen to all his music through itunes as I own all his cds.

I do though admit that the picture in the spoiler below accidentally turned me on..

can't breathe because Aaron Lee Tasjan. Help me... someone...


This was to be honest totally the year of Aaron for me. I hooked myself in a new icon for my collection.

 

[DaFlo]

Thx for the share Flo, but lel @spotify xwhat

Genre is wrong. I scrobble like 60/40 on Spotify/my phone, so lemme compare the lists with last.fm:

Artists: M.I.A. (2nd), Jhené (3rd), Karol G (5th), WWE (8th), Triana Park (19th).
Songs: Sky's The Limit (2nd), Mi Gente (13th), Line (14th), Bed Peace (33rd), Papercuts (45th) lel

Spotify completely missed my Ukranian icons Время и стекло who are 4th place in last.fm and have two songs in the top 5 songs.
Otherwise missing from top 5: Tinashe (1st with a huuuuge gap xd) + songs Despacito & Ahora Lloras Tú.

They got my age right tho. And Jhené won 2017 for me personally so the pic fits as well. Can't wait to see her live
[MENTION=15013]Ringdalen[/MENTION] I wanna know if your minutes of music is over 100.000?

 

[lavieenrose]

Spotify completely missed my Ukranian icons Время и стекло who are 4th place in last.fm and have two songs in the top 5 songs.
Otherwise missing from top 5: Tinashe (1st with a huuuuge gap xd) + songs Despacito & Ahora Lloras Tú.

I did one of these (my parents and I share an account, and they use Spotify more frequently, so I won't share b/c no one here cares about their tastes), and it taught me that the listed songs might be your #1 + then a sample of your top 100. The same could go for the artists, hence the lack of Время и стекло on your chart.