As Spotify continues to move from the fringes to the mainstream market, it’s worth reflecting on how the online music service has changed how many of us listen to music...

It's definitely become my go-to place for trying out new albums. If I hear about a new release that sounds interesting, I immediatley search for it on Spotify first.

Spotify has replaced Pandora as my primary music discovery app. It has also become my default music sharing method. Instead of just sharing the name of a song or artist, or even sending a link to the YouTube video, I now send a direct Spotify link to the song.

Where Spotify has still failed to capitalize on my usage is that I still use Amazon MP3 as my primary music purchasing method. (and not even through Spotify. I will listen to a song on Spotify, then open the Amazon app or website separately and find the song. I know there's a way to purchase music through Spotify, but they haven't figured out the triggers that will make me use it just yet.)

I used to download albums/singles daily. I now use Spotify almost exclusively. This has changed my music sicovery and consumption habits in two big ways.

1. I'm discovering fewer emerging/underground artists. There just aren't many new artists with smaller followings on Spotify. I used to take a chance on new artists simply by trusting the blog that posted their music, but that doesn't happen as often anymore.

2. I'm discovering more artists that are similar to the artists that I already listen to. If I'm feeling a particular vibe or artist, it's so easy to rapidly comb through other music until something clicks. These are generally more established artists with relatively big discographies.

I like using the KCRW Music Mine app in Spotify to discover music. open.spotify.com
Their playlist doesn't change enough day to day, but there is a good mix of new and older music. When I find a song I like, it's easy to listen to the band's other music.

I'm not going back to Pandora or Rhapsody for sure.

- On the whole, I am listening to more music now, which I didn't think was possible.
- I've never been much on creating playlists, but my Spotify usage hinges on them. Genre playlists, mood playlists, collaborate playlists.
- On a related note, I primary browse through playlists rather than using the search feature on my mobile device. However, on the desktop version, I use the search feature much more. Chalk it up to ease of scanning a playlist vs. typing it in a search field with the iPhone's keyboard. (Praying for good Siri integration one day)
- On the negative side, I'm not listening to as many mash-up artists, mixtapes, and other non-Spotify tracks.
- Mobile data limits are now factored into my listening experiences.

Also, I visit sites that have Spotify apps less. The point of going to sites like Pitchfork and We Are Hunted is to listen to music. I get to the music quicker by going through their Spotify apps. There's less friction.

Another significant change is the way to discover music through the radio, I have greatly expanded my list of songs and artists. I think it's a change that needs the music industry.

Spotify is pretty much my exclusive platform for music these days. When I began using it, it was mostly to listen to old favourites, but I'm very impressed with the apps for music discovery - as Wes mentioned above, I can read a guardian or pitchfork review and dive right in! Speaking of apps, anybody using This Is My Jam on there? It's not flawlessly integrated, but it's a start

I've given up iTunes and listen to most of my music on Spotify. I use it to discover, but also listened to old stuff I already own. The music that floats to top isn't really my jam but Spotify keeps me in the know and helps me avoid popular music.

Exactly - Spotify is more than just a music listening service, it's a service that gives you a chance to discover and hear new music and new artists that you normally won't even bother listening to. I even have a playlist of music that I know will be popular in clubs. It's not my favourite type of music, and I'd certainly never buy an album or individual track off another service, but because I have the opportunity to listen to it I do - that in turn enhances my experiences of other music in new surroundings.

I love that record labels have jumped on board with the app development. Similar to sites like Pitchfork, labels such as Domino and Matador keep you up to speed on new releases, stream them in their entirety, listen to playlists created by label artists, and read the latest news too.

The next step should be for Spotify to allow labels to host their ecommerce through their apps for the hardcopy merchandise.

Think something like this is likely since you can already purchase songs digitally?

Another nice feature: I found different versions of the same theme, duets etc ... I love Spotify.

Spotify is very helpful for finding new bands. Its radios (both genre and artist radios) are introducing you to a new world because the archive is very wide and precise.

Does anyone feel that Spotify is missing elements that would take it to larger audiences if they were included?

Spotify might be one of the largest deciders in what happens to my cell phone plan in the next year. I've replaced iTunes with Spotify, to the point of taking the money from the albums I might buy every month and putting it into a Spotify subscription to have it available on my phone. I don't need to worry about how long I'm going to like this music I just added to a playlist - I'm only "renting" it.

But! Having replaced iTunes with Spotify, I now use a lot of data in my car and while I'm running. A $10/mo service is now going to influence how long I keep my current phone and Verizon plan.

Pandora is still my go-to for discovery. If I don't know what I want to listen to, I open Pandora. If I know exactly what I want to listen to, I go for Spotify. Their algorithm fits my taste for different music better.

Wow, streaming Spotify of WiFi is... not something I'd considered! ;) I find it easier to save a bunch of stuff to listen to offline, doesn't take long to change at home if I get bored!

*away from Wifi

I love being able to jump straight from a review to listening to the full album on Spotify. I keep a running playlist of new music I have found so I can listen to it while driving, at the gym, etc. I'm fairly certain I have bought several records just because I've had time to really "feel" them out.

The other big plus I've found is road-trips/parties. I was at a wedding recently and the bride really wanted to hear a song that wasn't on her playlist. I pop a cable into my phone, crisis is averted and the dance party keeps happening.

Between music discovery and immediate availability of songs that I wouldn't normally have access to, I am happy to fork over my $10 each month.

I can't comment on Spotify, because I'm in Canada and it's not.

But I use the similar Rdio, and the way it's transformed the way I listen *probably* would have occurred on Spotify?

Anyways, for a few years I was mostly listening to music on the Hype Machine, Soundcloud and CBC Radio 3. These are organized around individual songs, and as a result, that's what I was listening to: songs, but not albums.

Rdio's organization around and emphasis on full albums (and the ease with which I could access those albums) meant that once I subscribed, I immediately started listening to full albums again-- both old favourites and new discoveries.

I guess I didn't really answer the question, though. I'd say that Spotify has simply made it easier to try out new music without piracy.

I've also bought a bunch of music that I've discovered on Spotify. I enjoy owning music, though Spotify allowing me to listen to albums/songs multiple times has definitely made me a more discriminating consumer. I'm not as likely to download songs or albums (or purchase the LPs if I REALLY like the album) if I haven't given it at least a couple of listens on Spotify.

It has at least influenced carrier and plan decisions (though far from solely). It has also usurped my MP3 collection.

Despite these it has not caused me to buy any songs, albums, tickets or merchandise.

Truth told, it has primarily carved out a home for itself formerly held by the humble radio.

Using Spotify premium, I feel like I have to actively discover 2 new albums to add to my playlists to justify the monthly costs. I see it as the equivalent of buying 2 CD's a month.

This means I don't buy music anymore but spend a lot of time discovering new artists using the radio or last.fm.

I think Christopher brings up a great point, the amount I pirate music (via torrents, ripping off Youtube, etc.) has decreased tremendously and is near zero. There is no reason for me to pirate a song or album, when I can go to Spotify and listen to it with much less effort, both on my phone and on my computer.

I have gotten into music I would never have actively pursued before using Spotify. Resultantly, I have been to at least two concerts in the past year I never would have gone to. I think iTunes gave artists (especially small, unsigned ones) the opportunity to connect to people without signing to a label. Spotify reduces the customers risk in buying an album and smaller artists are going to benefit tremendously.

I think that we are just now seeing the true potential of Spotify apps emerging. Swarm.fm just released recently and lets you see what music all your Facebook friends are listening to and talking about. It puts all of that music in one place and helps you to discover music you would have never stumbled upon otherwise. It does so in a much better when than either Spotify and Facebook do on their own, and the app is truly a synergistic result. Similarly exciting and useful apps are bound to emerge soon.

In the mean time, I would definitely go try out Swarm.fm for yourselves.

I still buy music, but I use Spotify frequently to check out things (or just play single songs). I think my downloading of music stopped before it came about, but then I've always used the net to check out music rather than simply "steal."

I personal feel an obligation to buy the album if I listen to it frequently and its on an independent, but through the band/record label/independent shop, rather than any major outlet. The affect of consciousness of what's on a major and independent labels would be interesting to discuss for those who don't generally partake in the chart music - is it still an important aspect of the underground scene?

Spotify is heading up the streaming revolution, rearing its head across the whole of the music industry. As frustrating as it is, it's happening.

Unfortunately, it's easier to stream for the user, but it's a much more harsh deal for the artist. I worked with someone who helped set up Spotify's relationships with record labels, and the artist receives 0.01 cents every time a song is streamed. The song has to be streamed thousands of times for it to be worthwhile, but if a user has an unlimited number of streams, why would they buy it?

Streaming music will eventually kill the music industry as we know it - it will. It will continue to revolutionise the way we consume music and entertainment, but until then, the artists will get a bad deal.

Spotify is a ferocious hydra, substituting most of music channels distribution under the visceral force of Progress.

Music could be discovered by (i) listening to the radio, (ii) sharing albums between friends, (iii) buying albums at the store, (iv) downloading music tracks on peer-to-peer platforms, or (v) going to concerts.

First, Spotify made most of the music available on every device. Subsequently, it has greatly obliterated the value of buying albums and downloading music on peer-to-peer platforms (iii and iv). Then, Spotify crafted an elaborate social design which makes it into a platform of choice to share songs between friends (ii). Finally, with social playlists and apps, Spotify has decreased by far the value of radio (i).

I've noticed I'm listening to music more often now. I think it's partly because of the unlimited music that i don't have to pay anything for, and I think that's played a part in my more frequent music listening

Spotify is a good tool for listening to a new album or a new group found on sites like Pitchfork though the variety of music is still poor. That is the main reason why I rather prefer to use Grooveshark.

As a music venue owner, Spotify has really changed the way I listen to music and discover new artists.

In the past, it was time consuming and sometimes difficult to quickly listen to a band and get an idea of who they are. Now, I can easily listen to a handful of bands in just a few minutes time to see if they are right fit for the demographics that I try and attract.

Spotify, and their apps, also let me see what people in the area or my Facebook friends are listening to so I can see what may be the next big thing. The We Are Hunted app is awesome.

It's opened me up to a lot more new music I wouldn't have usually. Before I was wary of trying new things because of the cost. By paying per month, I can enjoy more music I didn't listen to before at no extra cost to the price I pay to listen to music I enjoyed before Spotify.

I love Spotify but I can't understand how the music industry allows it to exist. I use it almost exclusively to listen to music that I otherwise wouldn't pay for. $12/month is a pittance for the amount of music (read: all) I listen to it through now, and I've been buying music on iTunes for years.

It's also great because Triple J (Aussie radio station) publishes their current tracks playlist so you can listen to all their music without ever, EVER having to listen to their (almost all awful) hosts.

i think spotify is excellent. 4 to 5 hours a day, its my background music. I love the discovery of new music either thru the third party apps that plug into the desktop app our companion iphone apps like Share my Playlists allows for discovery of music

I also like the fact that journalists/bloggers can complement their take on things by adding a spotify playlist. Example: es.pn

This makes the integration with other media much more interesting...

Imagine having a playlist be the soundtrack to making dinner?

Imagine having a soundtrack to reading a great novel...read 1 ppm? click this

I'd pay >$30month no problem

Spotify is slowly pulling me away from iTunes and eMusic, the only roadblock being that I don't think there's a way I can get music from Spotify onto the iPod (4th or 5th gen) that I use in my car. If I could bridge that gap, I would drop iTunes and eMusic in a New York second.

I don't know what their business model is - subscription fees couldn't possibly be enough to allow them to license all the music - and I haven't explored the copyright issues yet. Presumably, the RIAA is exploring those issues, and we may well hear from them.

Hopefully, Spotify will avoid all the mines. It's an awesome music discovery tool and I've found its selection process for artist-based stations is superior to Pandora's.

It's an awesome discovery tool and an industry shifting innovation. I haven't used iTunes for a long time. I've been using Rdio recently too and i'd say it's better than Spotify - the social aspects are more seamless and conversational. Not sure if it's just the way i've used Rdio, but the music i've discovered there seems to be a lot less mainstream than on Spotify too.

In all streaming services though, the murky water is at the artist end of the spectrum. The royalties are very unclear at the moment, but it seems to be shifting as the services business models settle in. It would be great to hear any comments on the payment to artists structure if anyone has insight?

Spotify represents how society is changing, it's not about ownership, but access. I don't have to own 1,000's of albums, cd's Mp-3's or any other music device when I can access an unlimited playlist and listen to what I want, when I want and where I want. it's a great discovery tool as well. I discovered Beach House and Lana Del Rey, What bands have your discovered on Spotify?

I personally use it everyday. It's the best way to discover new music, new or old.
I'm thinking of paying for the Premium version to listen to whatever I want on my iPhone too.

Long live the media "feed". — The sooner all forms of entertainment, information and communication are collected under a single pay model for "unlimited access and use" — the sooner the inevitable future will be here now.

I want everything and I want it now. The future promised this to me through science fiction, piracy and the internet showed me a taste of it as reality, and streaming services like Rdio (or spotiify") have made it happen properly. Wake up worlds, of TV and Film. This is how we want to (and will) watch and enjoy things.

I use i very often on my harley when I leave Switzerland, because of the offline usage. Outside Switzerland I have no GSM, or just very expensive.

Everything mentioned here is great -- I'm a big fan of many aspects of Spotify, and it's truly changing the way the average listener gets to hear new music.

But there seems to be a serious lack of criticism in this thread, and I think it has to be acknowledged that a serious drawback of the service is that you don't actually own the music.

This might not be a huge issue for some people -- but I grew up buying CDs, and the thought of not actually owning a copy of the music is odd. Maybe that's obsessive; as long as you have Spotify you can always pull it up. But it's just the nature of the service, as if it's the Netflix of music. And that's great -- but perhaps what's likely is we'll see people mix services like iTunes, Hypem and Spotify.

Offline Playlists solves the 'I don't own the music' issue for me. It's a huge part of the reason I'm signed up to Spotify. It's not perfect but it works 100x more effectively than iTunes Cloud/Match.

Firstly Spotify is wonderful - it allows me to sample stuff easily that I would probably never have listened to in the past or would have somehow "borrowed" online to check out before I bought it (and I would have - always did, as a copyright owner myself).

I'm now able to listen to stuff, like the Neil Young archive set, which I considered buying but was turned off by the price.

The downside is I no longer buy albums (apart from some vinyl) so I don't have that attachment to a 'thing'. I think i'll regret that as time passes.

And it's completely replaced iTunes and radio.

The bigger issue for me is the vast gaps in the catalogue. So much non-major label stuff (and even their stuff) is simply not there, especially the old soul, reggae and electronica I love.

I've used Spotify for about two years now, the last 8 or 9 months as a Spotify Premium paying customer.
However I cancelled my subscription the other day. Why? I just wasn't using it enough.
The whole concept of everything in your music collection being a playlist just bored me eventually, with it becoming almost more of a chore to keep playlists sorted
Also I don't believe posting everything to Facebook for your friends counts as music discovery, never once have I clicked to button to listen along or really cared that much what my friends are listening to
I realised I prefer iTunes and having a form of collection I can say "yeah I own all this music" instead of "I just press a button and it plays music from a server somewhere"

I used to pay for every song I wanted, but now for just ten bucks I can listen to as much as I want. This new app finally made the premium price worth it. I get the feeling that Karl is talking about. That sense of actually owning your music. I like going through all of the songs I bought and saying "Oh yea I remember when I would play this all the time" or "I remember listening to this that one time."

I've been a Spotify subscriber forever, and for the first year or so I used it quite sparingly, and simply as a supplement to my existing large music library. The big change for me came due to the device I was listening on, namely a Sonos wireless music system. Suddenly Spotify made lots more sense, and is now much more suited to how I actually listen to music.

Since getting the Sonos box about 18 months ago I have not used Spotify through it's own application.

Spotify is my main music source at the moment and just got a lot better with this app: swarm.fm

Spotify premium user now for about two years in and it is my main music source for everything, literally everything. Some say it is damaging artist because they don't get as much money as before from streaming but if I look back at the past 2 years I discovered and started to like A LOT more artist then before. And all these artist have a fair chance i'll be visiting one of their gigs here in town. Now is that a bad development?

I'm a free Spotify user so I do not use the mobile app (although I have in past). For me, Spotify is mostly about music discovery. My primary source for getting music in my car and at home is still iTunes. I like to own my music, not rent it.

I've been a paid user for 3+ years, it's indispensable to me and makes sharing music between friends easy & legal.

That said I do miss it (a lot) when the service goes down (not often). I'd happily pay more if it meant a larger slice of profits get to the musicians.

It also works well in regards to allowing you to have a clean life without physical excess clutter (remember cd cases? those damn things that would break the second you opened them?)

And furthermore, is part of the cloud model and advantages, meaning it is impossible to loose your media to a faulty drive or stolen iPod or something.

Question for the free users of these services, to me, Ads are just the worse, and the monthly rate is soooooo low. Why would anyone not invest the small amount of change for these services?

James touched on something I meant to address this morning but hadn't gotten around to - the change in physical consumption. As a commuter, I am in my car for about an hour per day and what music I have on hand is sometimes very critical for not showing up to work (or home) in a terrible mood. For ages I wanted to switch from cds to vinyl but held off simply because cds were more portable. The advent of Spotify (along with Google Play) has allowed me to make that stylistic change without compromising the portability or mobile access.

I do my work at a cafe because it requires concentration and I use Spotify to listen to music that I enjoy while I work. It's really invaluable to my productivity. And I can listen to a very wide variety of music without having to buy it all individually. When I really enjoy something, I buy it through iTunes.

There's some fascinating stuff in here, and I've only read about half-way so far, but will catch up soon!

I don't actually use Spotify very much at all - my interest in this is from the point of view of an artist: my band are considering putting our album on there.

On a personal level I don't know very many people who use Spotify, and even fewer who use it to discover music, so I'd dismissed it a bit. But reading what you're all saying, I think I've been too hasty.

Out of interest, how do you all discover music on Spotify? I know it works a bit like last.fm in that you can search by genre or play "similar to" artists, but how well does that work in finding things that you like? Are there other methods to discover music on there?

Also I thought Greg made a very interesting observation, near the top:

"1. I'm discovering fewer emerging/underground artists. There just aren't many new artists with smaller followings on Spotify. I used to take a chance on new artists simply by trusting the blog that posted their music, but that doesn't happen as often anymore. "

I've actually branched that off into a separate topic, if anyone is interested in wading in:

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As much as I like Spotify, I still have a challenge with how the software is used to manage lists of albums, such as new releases I want to investigate. I don't necessarily want to continually set up a playlist for each album. I know Rdio has the concept of Collections. I am curious what other Spotify users do to keep track of albums to which they want to listen.

I name my playlists with: Descriptor - Genre/Purpose (Relaxing - 70 songs to write to) if it's a mood or atmospheric playlist, if it's just a mix of music I enjoy I prefix it with Mixes (Mixes - 70's Music) and I save whole albums by Artist - AlbumTitle

@Fionchadd: Thanks to someone upthread (upbranch?) I've started using Swarm as an add-on app to discover music on Spotify. The "similar" function is pretty good. I also just use artist radio in the generic Spotify app - pick someone I like and let it go. The algorithm is pretty good.

spotify, last.fm, pandora they all try to guess and recommend music, but the best most effective "engine" for this is friends recommending stuff. That's where services like spotify work, the sharing of a playlist(or an single track) is so easy.

I think that's certainly the advantage spotify has over last.fm - last.fm wanted people to engage with each other within its site, so it didn't really do very much to make itself accessible to, or easily usable by, other social networks. It does now, but mainly it's third party apps not the service itself, and it's too little, too late.

Whereas Spotify went down the route of Piggybacking on existing social networks, rather than trying to form its own, which has made it grow far more quickly.

To help contain and expand this conversation, I have created three new Branch threads. If possible, please "Branch This" to expand the conversation and stick to the core question, which is, "How has Spotify changed the way you listen to music? Thank you to everyone who has commented so far. This is great stuff!

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For the first time, thanks to Spotify, I am listening to music at work because of the sheer size of the library, playlists and new music. That is a dramatic shift for me.

@Nation Hahn

Can you go into more detail? Dig deeper.

I am a music lover but my consumption is far lower than one would guess because I am not a radio lover. I would buy CD's from word of mouth or reviews but I am not crazy about plunking down money for something that was unproven.

Spotify has provided the following:
> Exposure to new music through friend playlists — one of the top features for me
> Beat Pandora with a better version of artist radio
> Allowed me to take the mobile library on the go with premium
> And, better yet, sample music and then dig deep into a catalogue without a substantial investment

I'll agree with Nation here. I love music but hate radio (for the same reason I hate television - commercials and having to be on someone else's schedule to consume media that I want to consume). So, Spotify puts me in control of music in the same way that iTunes does except that I don't have to concern myself with a filesystem or making sure that I sync stuff over (not as big of a problem with iTunes in the Cloud) and, more importantly, I don't have to dedicate space on my devices to music. That's a huge win for me.

@Zachary - is cost a consideration for you as it is for me?

@Nation - Sort of. I have 80 full albums in Spotify and have been using it for 3 months, so for $30 I have 80 albums (plus several mixed playlists) That's a pretty good deal to me :-)

Really it's about portability. I have all the music I could ever listen to on my phone but I don't have to devote any space (other than the space for the App itself) to that music.

I stopped listening radios which weren't tailored for the kind of music I listen to. Instead, I started to use Spotify to listen to the top charts, radios by genres and the recommendations my friends sent me and I use the "related artists" feature.

However, it did not revolutionize entirely the way I listen to music. The reason is that I don't enjoy big libraries, I have my favorites albums on my iTunes library that I take with me on my iPhone. The unlimited plan doesn't fit me because I want to have a limited library, otherwise I feel overwhelmed.

For this reason I only use Spotify's free plan. I don't buy a lot of albums a year, only 3-4 max. As a consequence, I'd lose money if I chose to pay for an unlimited or premium plan.

Since I've had a premium Spotify account, the number of albums I've acquired illegally has dropped to zero. Perhaps sadly for the artists, the number of records I've purchased on iTunes or from a bricks and mortar retailer has also dropped to a big fat zilch.

At least they receive some funding that way Daniel!

That's very true: if only it was more than $0.009 per stream! (thenextweb.com)

With that said, I figure it's down to individual agreements: I'm sure the major labels will have negotiated like billy-o to get as much as they possibly could.