As innovative apps and business models go on a personal level Spotify is one of those innovations that in recent years not only provided a lot of value to me but also quite fundamentally changed an important aspect of my life: Listening to music.
I happen to be a music buff with a penchant for Progressive Rock, Power Metal alongside folk metal / medieval stuff, computer games themes and occasionally interesting, novel pop music.
Music streaming and discovery tool Spotify has allowed me to try out and discover all sorts of different bands and albums I’d likely not have tried if I had to had buy each of those albums first.
We’re nowhere near Kansas anymore. We’re not even over the rainbow.
With Spotify I can listen to all that awesome yet occasionally pretty weird stuff that falls under the label ‘progressive metal’ before actually purchasing an album while the artist still gets compensated.
Arjen Lucassen’s Ayreon and Star One albums for me have been a great source of singers and – by extension – their bands. Spotify allows me to listen to these bands and decide if they really fit my taste. Recently, I discovered Mostly Autumn and their wonderful album Heart Full Of Sky this way.
In a way Spotify has become what music journalism always promised to be but never could quite live up to: A recommendation engine for people who are enthusiastic about music.