On 18/09/13 15:46, Nigel Verity wrote:
I've been a Spotify user for the last 2 or 3 years; ever since its library
overtook Napster's in terms of depth and coverage. Officially the only
desktop clients are for Windows and Mac. However, there is also a preview
version of a Linux client which has never been formally released. It's
available on a no warranty or official support basis for use on
Debian-based distros.
Over the last year or so, this Linux client has improved dramatically. It
used to freeze or crash so often that I had to rely upon the Windows client
running in a Virtualbox VM. I've had no problems of that nature in the last 6
months or more and, despite its unsupported status, the Linux client it is
now my standard means of using Spotify.
The ability to download tracks for local off-line playback is a real boon
when you have a poor or slow connection. It avoids the buffering that you
might otherwise encounter with the web-based stream.
The only problem I occasionally encounter is with the indexing. The list of
albums and tracks for a given artist may lack a particular item of interest
to you. An explicit search for that item by title will often find it. I
suspect that this problem could well be at the server end, in which case it
will not be unique to the Linux client.
I know that FLOSS purists will not want to run proprietary software such as
this, but I am one of those people willing to turn a blind-eye when it
provides superior functionality.
The Clementine media player for Linux now provides an add-on to give access
to Spotify for Premium Service members. This is a significant improvement on
browser-based streaming, as each track is copied to a local cache before
playing, thereby avoiding buffering with slow connections. It doesn't,
however, offer the off-line playback facility, which can be so useful if you
are on the move, away from an internet connection.
For any Linux users who may have tried the Spotify client in the past, and
given up in frustration, I would highly recommend giving it another go.
Regards
Nige
Interesting and for us, timely.
On a PC that we have, we have a free account on Spotify (linux
preview). We just started to make use of it after a long period of non
use. Unfortunately, after a minimal use, it timed out saying we had
reached the time limit. This seems to be 2.5 hours per week, which I
am sure we have not used. So, this is a second chance for Spotify, and
it is rather unlikely we will continue. Internet searches suggest
Grooveshark, which seems to offer a free use, and so far Grooveshark
works via the browser, ok. Probably goodbye to spotify.
--
alan cocks
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