While I’m not overwhelmed with happiness at the idea of Spotify putting more limits on its free service I’m not totally distraught either.  If anything I’m a bit surprised they have survived so long while offering so much for nothing.  At the end of the day, if you want to provide music legally a lot depends on the record companies letting you and what they decide to charge as a condition for that.

What they are doing now is limiting the free service to 10 hours a month.  I could almost live with that, spending more time listening to my own CDs and save Spotify for trying out new stuff, but I’ve kind of got used to using it to listen to things I actually have as well.  Maybe it is time to move onto the Unlimited option which is a fiver a month.  It seems strange to be sort of paying for radio, but since you control what is played it is more like paying for on-demand radio.  As a society we have got used to paying for TV now, which would have sounded unthinkable 30 years ago, so why not music as well?

Thinking about it, I spend more than £5 a month on having TV and yet I must spend more time listening ot Spotify most days than I spend watching TV in an average week, so it would be better value for money for me.Having said that, it will be interesting to see if I do hit those limits first.  They reckon there is already a limit of 20 hours a month, but despite listening a lot more than that I have never encountered any limit.  Maybe there is some sort of loophole or something overlooked about my account because of the time it was setup.

I know I have heard the ads for Spotify Unlimited which keep stressing how you can have unlimited music and I have always wondered why they made such a big deal, given that I was already getting unlimited music.  Now I know.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed.  If the deadline comes and I find myself still able to listen as I do now I’ll be quietly pleased, but if I get messages about reaching the limit I’ll fork out.

In the last month I have listened to the brand new albums by Paul Simon, Foo Fighters, Glasvegas, TV on the Radio, The Strokes, John Foxx, Bob Geldof, Green Day, Human League, Wire, Penguin Cafe, Peter, Bjorn & John and a few others.  Even at my peak of profligacy I would never have bought a dozen new albums in a month.  If I do wantto buy anything I’ll know which to avoid (Glasvegas) and which I like best (Human League, Paul Simon).