Can Spotify help launch Windows 8 tablets into stardom?
In anticipation of the launch of Windows 8, I purchased a couple licenses of Windows 7 Ultimate to throw on my MacBook Pro and an upcoming PC build that I'm currently working on. I've used Windows since the '95 days, but I switched because of Vista.
Now that Windows 7 is a huge improvement over the latter, I can feel even better about what's to come with 8. However, one of my worries on the hardware side of things for the upcoming operating system was storage; that is, SSD or HDD?
Storage is a pretty monumental part of any operating system, especially one with a focus on media, as Windows 8 promises to be. That's mainly due to the emphasis Microsoft is putting on tablet computing, which is why I'm writing this article.
I've been using Spotify for the past couple of days, and I can tell you that it's really good. Think Pandora, but instead of the computer picking the music that you're going to listen to, you do the picking. In my mind, that makes it a much better alternative to Pandora or even storing music on your hard drive. All you have to do is download the app, sign in, and search for what you want to listen to. That's it.
Now, you're probably thinking, "The iPad has a Spotify app so why would anyone care about the same thing on a Windows 8 tablet?" Well, I will tell you. To get the most out of the iOS app, you need to pay $10 every month to be able to use it. With the Windows variant, you can download the app for free and listen to music for free. The only downside is ads, but Pandora gives you ads, too, unless you pay.
And the music quality is spectacular. Absolutely stunning, I might even have to say. I don't even notice that it's not on my local drives, and my home internet tops off at 150Kb/s.
So far, I haven't noticed any limitations of the free service, but if I do, I am definitely going to shell out the $10 per month. It's so much cheaper than buying all the songs that you normally would during a month, and it sounds just as good. It also doesn't take up precious space on your hard drive like normal files do, so cheaper Windows 8 tablets can definitely be viable in the future.
What do you think of Spotify, if you've tried it? Could this replace your local music library?
