PORTLAND, OR, United States – If there’s one thing I love about the Internet, it’s ubiquitous access to music. I don’t love just music in general, but my music, and the music that my friends love and like to send my way too. Building over the last few years and recently brought to the US, Spotify has re-defined how online citizens consume, share and subscribe to music.
Spotify lets you listen to millions of tracks, create and share playlists and get your music wherever you happen to be. If you subscribe to Spotify Unlimited, which is $9.99 here in the U.S., you can get the music you want without ads and also enable offline mode, which lets you download music for those times your phone won’t have a good Wi-Fi or 3G connection to stream from.
Nokia fans should rejoice too because Spotify has an app for the suite of Nokia products currently on the market. In this walkthrough, we’ll look at Spotify on the Nokia N9, the Symbian client and Windows Phone application as well.
Spotify on the Nokia N9
The Nokia N9 runs MeeGo and Spotify was just recently made available for this phone. After subscribing to the Premium membership of Spotify, simply head to the Nokia Store and search for the application.
In the N9 Spotify application, you have full access to your playlists including your Starred, Inbox, Radio and other playlists you’ve subscribed too. The application allows for streaming over Wi-Fi, EDGE and 3G and supports offline access as well
One facet to the N9 application I’ve really enjoyed is the ability to utilize the N9’s fantastic bottom speaker to play music on the go. Also, for showing off Spotify, the speaker and its audio quality goes a long way.
Spotify on Windows Phone
Back in November, Spotify gave Nokia Lumia users an early Christmas present. That is, a very beautiful and functional client for Windows Phone devices. The client is visually stunning and utilizes the Windows Phone user interface to the fullest extent.
Aside from the typical playlists and queues, you can see What’s New – which highlights new artists and tracks available on the music service. Digging in to “People” lets you pull up your friends and the most listened-to music and published playlists.
The Windows Phone version of Spotify also syncs across mobile and desktop, meaning songs you add to a playlist appears on your mobile and on your computer.
Spotify on the Nokia Lumia is an amazing user experience. The application is responsive, beautiful and takes you straight to your music, whether it’s your own playlist or one that’s been shared to you by your friends and family.
Spotify on the Nokia N8
Spotify has long been a friend of the Symbian platform, supporting many devices across the Nokia spectrum. The Symbian client on the Nokia N8 delivers the basics, including playlists, offline playlists and shared playlists you may have access to.
Social features such as friends’ playlists and top tracks are missing, but you have the ability to search for tracks, albums and artists across Spotify’s vast music library. In the Symbian application you can sync and stream over 3G, Wi-Fi and 2G connections.
Photo credit: Stig Nygaard