8 Keywords: Spotify, Music Playing, Music, Concentration, Planning, Organisation, Projects, Distracted

"Spotify is a music streaming service that has a huge library of music tracks available for legal instant listening over the Internet. There is a free version, which inserts occasional adverts between tracks, and a subscription "Premium" version which is £9.99 per month, and contains no adverts and has a few other perks. You can upgrade to the Premium version for 24 hours during which you will receive no adverts, for £0.99.

The interface is similar to the iTunes library, and is very simple. You can search for music based on Artist, Album, Song Title, and Label. The results can then be filtered down, and ordered by the different fields. You can create Playlists of songs, without having to download them to your computer, although you always need an Internet connection to listen.

If you have Spotify installed on multiple computers (both Mac and PC versions are available), you can log in and access your saved playlists for quick playback. It is possible to purchase tracks via a partner service, 7digital, if you decide that you want a permanent copy of the track.

A Spotify app for both Android and iPhone is now available, although the premium account is required to use this. Along with the streaming service, the app allows playlists to be temporarily downloaded to your phone and can therefore be played when you do not have an Internet or 3G connection. Because the music is freely available to the user, it is very easy to explore new music without having to buy it.

One huge use, however, is being able to access large amounts of relaxing music that some users may find useful to listen to whilst working, or simply when you are trying to relax. I have several playlists of different classical and soothing music which I play when trying to focus on a task, rather than playing louder music or listening to the radio which causes distractions. These playlists contain music that I probably wouldn't have bought, so being able to access it for free is a big advantage.

I have Spotify installed on a netbook with limited storage, most of which is already taken up, so it is a huge advantage that I don't have to store the music on there. Due to a recent surge in free subscriptions to the service, registration at this time (September 2009) has been temporarily closed and is currently invite-only for which you have to sign up to a waiting list. It is still possible to register for the premium service without an invite."