I’m a music geek; always have been. In this multimedia age, that’s beginning to seem like an anachronism, but there you go. I’m a vivid collector of albums - CD’s and even vinyls – and more or less useless trivia about the history of rock and popular music in general. I’ve participated in quizzes, and to this day, I’m still reviewing CD’s, both voluntarily and paid.

That’s why I wanted to say a few words about Spotify [link] a program that I discovered less than one week ago. Basically, it’s an enormous online resource of music. Search for any artist or album, and you have at least a 75 % chance of finding it on Spotify. A few artists – most notably The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin – seem to be deliberately kept away form Spotify, but the general selection is certainly enormous.

And the best part, it’s all for free! Well, I guess it’s not quite that simple. It’s only for free if you happen to live in Norway, Sweden, Finland, France, Spain or the UK. Others will have to pay a monthly fee of €9.99 (or US $14). And in the countries where you can get it for free, there are certain rules: You’re supposed to get an invitation from an existing member, and only paying members can send invitations (and only two per month), so someone will have to pay. I was introduced to Spotify by a friend who had received an invitation. And since he uses it for free, he can’t invite me. Fortunately, I found a loophole (look below for more on this).

Of course, in return for getting Spotify for free, you have to endure some commercial breaks, but that’s not so bad at all. First, the breaks only last about 30 seconds each. Second, they only come in between every fifth song or so. Third, they’re only advertisements for Spotify’s own services, which is fair enough. I don’t mind paying for online music, but Spotify need to make their commercial breaks much more obnoxious than this if they want me as a paying costumer!

If anyone’s interested in this, and they live in the “right” country, send me a personal note, and I’ll send you the link with instructions on how to get into Spotify without an invitation – the same link that I used to get in. Mind you, this link in Norwegian, and I’m not 100 % certain if the instructions will work in any other country. But I’d say it’s worth a try!

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