Great news for Spotify users in the UK. Its long promised web based service has now gone live. So, on the odd occasion you find yourself using some else's PC or if you don't want to download the client based version, you can still listen to you favourite tunes via your web browser.

So how does it work?

Well you simply to go to the website, log in and away you go. As long as you have a recent-ish version of Flash an analog of the desk based client pops up. It is fairly similar to the client. The big cosmetic difference is that the mini player (the bit which shows which track is playing) is on the upper right rather than the bottom left. Other than that the two versions are pretty close.

You don't however get to access your apps - maybe they will follow when the site moves out of beta later in the year.

Also if you are using someone else's PC you also don't get access to any tracks that you may have stored on your home PC's hard drive.

Spotify isn't the first streaming service to offer a web -based option. Deezer and others have also used the web browser to access music.

The web streaming market is set to explode this year, The other day we ran a story about how Apple are mulling over an streaming version of iTunes possibly in partnership with Beats.

Microsoft, Nokia and others are also developing services in this space.

This story has been bubbling under for ages but now it appears it might just be about to happen. According to Reuters today Apple is in talks with Beats about the possibility of launching a streamed music service that would be available across all Apple devices - that ranks as a rival to Spotify.

Apparently Apple CEO Tim Cook and Beats CEO Jimmy Lovine have been chatting about Project Daisy which is the codename for Beats' music streaming service which was announced in January.

The movement to a streaming music service on Apple devices seems like an obvious one. By not offering a rival Apple has enabled Spotify to create a popular and competitive music service in Europe and the US.

The reason the company may have for moving slowly is that it has to weigh up how much impact the service would have on its iTunes downloads. Would the revenue from subscription services (assuming that you would pay £5-10 a month to access the service on your iDevice offline) compensate for the cash lots as people stream music rather than download it?

Reuters is coy about the leak saying that it came three people 'familiar with the situation.'

So would the streaming service be successful?

Unless it had something significant to differentiate it from Spotify I think it unlikely that anyone apart from hardcore Apple devotees would defect from the existing service to the new one.

Spotify though at the moment has over five million subscribers - which is a very small percentage of people who listen to digital music. Apple could massively expand the reach of streamed music services.

It also needs some high profile stories to accompany the launch of the Apple iPhone 5S which will probably be in the summer. If the new phone doesn't come with significant software upgrades then it might start to looks like a poorer relation to handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S IV and the Sony Xperia Z.

Last night team Shiny Shiny went along to an exclusive Spotify event here in London to learn about what the popular music streaming service has planned after its most successful year ever with a whole load of new customers and countries under its belt.

We watched a livestreamed keynote speech from Spotify's CEO and all round nice guy Daniel Ek, in which the Swede introduced a number of new updates that will be coming to the platform over the next few months.

The most exciting one comes in the form of a new "Discover" tab in the desktop version of Spotify, which will suggest new tracks based on all kinds of information about the user. You'll even be able to see the context at the side, explaining why certain artists and albums have been served up to you. Ek showed us some examples of tracks that were brought up for him to remind him of his youth or other artists that have similar influences to his favourites.

There will also be new Twitter-style follow features, which will allow Spotify users to keep tabs on artists, friends and celebrities whose music or taste in music they like. If those people then upload a new track or make a new playlist you'll receive an automatic update straight to your phone.

We're excited about seeing the updates "in the wild" and will write up a full review once we've had a play around with them all.

However, the night wasn't just about the raft of new features that'll be introduced to Spotify, but a new band too. In a surprise that had everyone giggling and gasping, Ek revealed that heavy metal superstars Metallica will be releasing their entire back catalogue through the Swedish music platform. ROCK ON! Or something much cooler...

The long-awaited Spotify application for the iPad has been released today, but don't just expect a big version of the current mobile app, this latest offering really plays to the tablet's strengths.

Up until now Spotify lovers with an iPad have been able to play their favourite tracks, but only from the music streaming service's mobile app, which looks tiny in comparison to the tablet's screen and doesn't make the most of its functionality. Well today, after waiting for what feels like eons for it to arrive, the Spotify iPad app is finally here.

The new Spotify app isn't just a bigger version of the mobile version, but it has a slide-out navigation panel, a trending playlists section (based on both location and friends) and full, individually-tweaked support for both landscape and portrait orientations.

The search functionality has been updated too, with band biography information and pictures offered up alongside tracks, while all album art work and interface features make full use of the new iPad's Retina Display.

Available from iTunes for free.

Spotify is set to roll out a big new makeover to its Android offering complete with easier navigation, high-res album artwork and a range of cool new features.

If you're a Spotify-loving Android user you've probably always feel like you've had a bit of a raw deal when it comes to the mobile application of the uber-popular streaming service. While iPhone owners get a slick, clean interface, the Android version of Spotify has always been a bit of a... well... mess.

Until now that is, as it looks like CEO Daniel Ek and his gang have finally recognised this, as Tech Digest has just been sent a preview build of a forthcoming Android makeover for the app, which now looks and feels much much better.

Fully supporting Android 4.0, the app has been redesigned from the ground up to make use of Android at its best. It now features a left-hand slide-out panel for navigating social sections and browsing pals' playlists, checking out new releases, your inbox and app settings.

Album artwork now comes in high-resolution, while the related artist tab appears for the first time in mobiles too.

There are also a host of other little improvements, such as locally downloaded playlists appearing at the top of your playlist pile instead of dotted among you many created song collections, meaning you'll easily be able to avoid tapping into your 3G allowance.

And there's still more to come; Spotify will be adding folder support and Last FM scrobbling before the app goes live in Google Play in the near future.

[Via Tech Digest]

Today Spotify has launched its new Play Button, which allows users to listen to content all over the web and embed tracks and playlists easier to blogs and social networks.

The new Spotify Play Button is a music widget that will allow users to share and discover music even more easily across blogging platforms, websites and social networks.

Gustav Söderström, chief product officer at Spotify, said:

"Today we're giving every blogger and web editor the ability to light up the internet with music.

"Adding a personalised soundtrack to your website or blog has never been this easy.

"You want to give your fans access to any song, album or playlist of your choosing and in its entirety, while ensuring people stay glued to your site. The Spotify Play Button does all of this for free, while making sure artists get paid for every play."

Those who use Tumblr get enhanced Spotify Play Button functionality, with the widget integrated into the dashboard, letting you search for the song you want to include directly from Tumblr and embed it instantly.

Those who aren't Tumblr users can also easily add the Spotify Play Button to their websites. Simply grab the URL for the track, album or playlist you're looking to share, and head over to the Spotify developer website to get the embed link.

[Via Tech Digest]

Today popular music service Spotify made a quick announcement on its blog to launch a new Spotify Community area of its main site, called community.spotify.com/.

The Spotify Community is a huge forum giving users a place to talk about everything from issues logging into the streaming service to general chit-chat about music:

"You can use our Community portal to ask for support, help other users like you, provide us with feedback, share new ideas, playlists and musical opinions. This forum is yours!"

Some users have already commented on the blog post, pointing out that it's strange for the company to launch a brand new community when its GetSatisfaction forum already provides users with plenty of answers to their questions. However, this new step seems much more focused on getting users to engage with one another just as much as engaging with the Spotify brand.

This evening Daniel Ek, the founder and CEO of Spotify, revealed the brand's next evolution, App Finder, set to bring a wealth of apps to the popular music streaming platform.

According to Ek some of the "best and the brightest" contenders of the music and app industries are keen to become part of the service, with the likes of Last.fm, Rolling Stone, Songkick, Fuse and The Guardian all readying different app offerings for the platform.

All of these apps will be able to integrate with Spotify's current catalogue of 16 million tracks and the very good news is they'll be available to both free and premium users.

There are a few different ways the apps can work and the Spotify blog gives users some interesting examples:

"Let's say you're listening to a new track and you'd like to know the lyrics. Just click over to the TuneWiki app and see all the words of the song perfectly synced as you're listening.

"Maybe you want to see a gig this weekend? Check out the Songkick app to find out if any of the artists in your library are performing near you. Then get your hands on tickets with a few clicks."

The App Finder will become part of Spotify's desktop application in the left-hand toolbar, with various pop-up elements appearing on top of the usual Spotify experience.

According to recent reports the App Finder will go live next week and will be part of an automatic update for existing users.

Related: Spotify launches musical advent calendar with Pixie Lott, Primal Scream & Westlife

You get to a certain age and advent calendars just don't seem as magical anymore, especially if you get home after a bad day at the office and stuff ten of the little chocolates into your mouth (we've never done that before, honest). Well this year Spotify aims to give us back a bit of that festive fun that we've all lost somewhere over the years with the help of some of the world's top artists.

The popular music streaming service teamed up with Leona Lewis, Jason Derulo, Kelly Clarkson, Maroon 5, Ryan Adams, Westlife, Pixie Lott and Primal Scream and asked them to submit a personal selection of 24 songs for the run up to Christmas. All of the selections have been added to a kind of musical advent calendar, which will soon exist as a shiny Facebook app called Festive Playlist.

Each day throughout December users can visit Spotify's Festive Playlist to reveal an artist's selection for that particular day. Now don't worry, it isn't all cheesy carols and self promotion, there are a few unexpected choices thrown in along the way that might raise an eyebrow or two.

Nikki Lambert, the European marketing director at Spotify, said:

"The advent calendar ritual of opening a new door each day to discover a new treat, is one of the most fun things about the run up to Christmas. And what could be better to be revealed each day than a favourite track from your favourite artist? We have worked with some of the biggest stars in the world to make this the only Advent Calendar you'll need this year!"

The Facebook app will be going live tomorrow (awh just like a real advent calendar) on the Spotify Facebook page or at facebook.com/spotifyfestive.

We love Spotify here at Shiny HQ and spend far too much time putting together playlists to match our mood. Luckily it can sneakily be filed under research! There is an upbeat one, an indie one and an angry one...

Yet again the conversation moved on to music today and more precise motivational songs. We got onto this topic as we've just finished reading this new book called Stop Thinking Start Doing which is all about... well stop putting things off and following your dreams. If you want to do something but secretly fear you're never going to do it, whatever that might be, then this book might help you (it's only in paperback now but will be available on the Kindle very soon!)

So we set the Shiny team to the task of collating a motivational Spotify playlist for those times when you need a bit of uplifting music, whether it is a 20 mile jog in the freezing cold, keeping your blog up to date or just doing whatever it is you've been putting off for weeks.

Check out ShinyShiny's cheesetastic motivational Spotify playlist here.

Now the list is nowhere near complete so have a listen and let us know what is missing. And yes we are well aware that there are some cringe-worthy choices in there... Motivational music might make you cringe at times, but there is nothing like a bit of Bon Jovi or Survivor to lift your spirits.

There's a great story over at One Mobile Ring, which if confirmed may have a huge impact on the way we consume music on the move. The site is claiming that Virgin Media will soon be announcing that Spotify will be accessible on the Virgin Mobile phones - without incurring any data charges, or affecting the accompanying phone's data allowance.

So, let's get this straight. You will be able to listen to streamed music over 3G wherever you are and not have to pay date charges for it. Spotify works OK over 3G, but most people realise that if they do use it they will incur huge date charges. In the future, when we get 4G networks, data costs will tumble and being able to access music in this way will be a no brainer. It will work better as connections will also be faster and more robust. It is interesting to note that one of the world's most advanced 4G networks, Yota in Russia cites streamed music as one of its cores services.

Apparently Virgin Media is the only digital entertainment provider in the UK to offer the music platform across multiple services, and for the foreseeable future will be the only company to offer Spotify on 3G.

We'll be watching this story develop

The jury is very much out on Facebook's music offering - this comes after conducting a scientific search of social media reponses from two other people.

While everyone seems to love the Spotify link up, some people seem to have issues about people sharing what they are listening to in their timeline.

Personally I am all up for finding out what music other people are playing. However I think that Facebook's limited user response to this - you can either 'like' their music or add a comment - is now a bit outdated. I think it is time Zuckerberg and his pals created a few more options.

How about...

Dislike button - for mild distaste when you see someone playing Ed Sheeran.

Pathetic attempt to be a hipster button - for when people are playing Warpaint when you know they'd rather be listening to One Direction (or buying one of their phones)

Try and listen to something new you saddo button - For when they are playing Nirvana, REM or anything else that they listened to at Uni (sadly I think I might get this one a lot)

Your partner has hijacked your Spotify account button - For when the music gets much better/much worse or starts breaking into classical or jazz

We know you are playing air guitar button - Appropriate for Aerosmith, Green Day, Led Zep etc

Simon Cowell button - For when the music they play has absolutely no musical and artistic credibility, but you bet they wouldn't half fancy shagging the lead singer.

You have accidentally left Spotify running on random button - Tells the user to sort it quick before it starts playing their Genevieve Waite tracks.

Any more? What button would you want?

So what the hell is Deezer? And do you need another music streaming service in your life? Well, chances are you hadn't heard of Deezer before last night when the French company announced its role as part of Facebook's music package. Deezer however has been around for a while. It was launched as a service back in 2007 in France (before Spotify) and since then has signed up more than 20 million users and 1.3 million subscribers. It actually debuted in the UK earlier in September, but will have got a massive new number of subscribers yesterday.

But what if you have Spotify already - do you need another music streaming service? Well here are the differences between the two.

1 Deezer is web-based. Spotify is client based.

The big difference is that Deezer is a web based service. So you don't have to download any software, you simply go to the website, create your account and the music - all 13 million tracks - is waiting for you.

With Spotify you have to have a computer with the client on board for it to work. The Facebook upgrade, which lets you listen to Spotify songs on the social networking sites, doesn't actually change this. If you try to listen to a song it then downloads the client on to the PC. Very cleverly it doesn't matter who has been using the Spotify client as it automatically logs you out of someone else's account and connects to yours.

I guess the browser based nature of the service might mean that Deezer can go a few places that Spotify can't as it might be able to skip through some work firewalls.

2 The free options are different

As you probably know the free Spotify service is one, ad funded and, two comes with a few restrictions on the number of times you can play a track. With Deezer things are a little different. You can access the radio channels and Smartradio, but music on demand is limited to 30 second clips rather than the whole song. To listen to whole albums etc you have to subscribe. However when we signed in this morning we were offered a few weeks of the service for free. I am not sure how long this will be available for.

3 The mobile service is different

Deezer wins on this one. Its mobile options are easier to use and more detailed than Spotify's and includes extra features such as radio and Smartradio. You can also listen to music on your mobile via Deezer (well the radio and Smartradio) without having to pay for a subscription, Spotify only offers its mobile service to its paying customers.

Other than those three biggies the services are fairly similar.

Spotify has the edge in number of track 15 million to 13 million, however I did keep finding things on Deezer that are not on Spotify. The big names are John Lennon (his catalogue was removed from Spotify a few months back) and Pink Floyd (whose albums are being rolled out on Deezer in the next few weeks). Neither service has The Beatles or Led Zeppelin.

The interfaces and general features (like social sharing of tracks) work in a similar way. Deezer looks a little more MySpacey to Spotify's iTunes influenced design. Deezer does have Soundcloud integration, which is a very nice touch. I guess Spotify will get this soon.

The subscription deals are virtually identical with both charging £4.99 for full PC service and £9.99 if you want to take tracks with you on your mobile. Slight moan about Deezer though - their service is 4.99 and 9.99 Euros which makes it even cheaper in France. Shame they couldn't have saved us Brits a few pence too.

Overall then, do you need both? Well probably not. Is one better than the other? Not really, it is too close to call. There might come a day when one of them offers a feature that will make me change my mind, but for now both services are well worth considering. Five quid a month for all that music? Bargain!

A new online recommendation tool called Spotalike lets you quickly and easily find Spotify playlists that'll suit you.

It's very much like the music version of film and TV recommending gem Jinni (if you haven't tried Jinni yet do it NOW). Spotalike asks you to enter just one track by one artist and it'll recommend a playlist that you'll like gathered from the Last.fm vaults.

Now Spotalike can't read your mind, so if you enter a song that you know doesn't fall in line with the rest of your music tastes it won't be able to tell.

Although there are similar recommendation tools integrated within other programmes, we love Spotalike because it's just SO simple, making it ideal for a Spotify beginner who wants some ready-made playlists, or even a seasoned user searching for a little bit of inspiration.

Spotify, the award-winning music service from Sweden has finally broken into the US market after years of negotiation with record labels.

Will their subscription-based model topple the Apple iTunes? I think Apple should be getting worried.

Though Apple first broke a psychological boundary by getting music fans to pay for something virtual - a file rather than a CD; Spotify have taken the process to its natural conclusion and realised that we don't even need to pay for the file.

All we want is access to the file. The end user just wants to listen to as much music as cheaply as possible. Spotify realised that. And delivers it. Letting you listen to any of 13million tracks for £9.99 a month, a deal which kind of beats Apple's 99p a track proposition.

We just need that file for the 3 minutes we're listening to it.

I know it means I don't own the tracks like I would with iTunes. But you know what? I don't really care. I can buy a CD off Amazon if I really want something. And the playlists function is fantastic.

There's been huge demand for a service like this for a while, but Spotify are the first to have done it so well: with almost flawless technology and enough legal muscle to get the labels on board.

US readers - sign up to be notified about the US Spotify launch here

Spotify have censored an advert running on their music service that used the song "Too Drunk to Fuck" because it "encourages binge drinking".

The ad was for Kronenbourg and featured the song from The Kennedy's playing in the background. No other albums or song titles are censored and they pretty much cover the gamut of bad words. And, as everyone has pointed out - it really doesn't encourage binge drinking. The contrary in fact.

However alcohol pressure group Portmans said it breached a rule that bans advertisers from "encouraging irresponsible or immoderate drinking".

You can listen to the track normally though. Just not in the context of Kronenbourg sales.

Censorship has come up with Spotify before - they reserve the right to take down playlists with offensive or defamatory names: see No rude Playlist names say Spotify

[via NME]

A deal between Virgin Media and Spotify will open up the music service's vast library to Virgin media subscribers.

Spotify will be one of the bolt-on extras subscribers can get in their subscription packages - Spotify unlimited and Spotify premium are both on offer. We're not surprised Virgin want to bump up the music access on their service, I personally found their current catalog of music videos on the top media package available to be really limited.

Spotify is fast becoming the tech industry's music player and library of choice. See their deal with Facebook.

What's in it for Spotify? Well a bunch of money we imagine, Virgin have deep pockets. And then - there's the reach this will give them:

Andreas Liffgarden, director of business development at Spotify said:
"By teaming up with Virgin Media we're giving millions more people across the UK the chance to enjoy all the world's music at their fingertips, however they choose to listen to it - be that on their computer, mobile, and for the first time through their TV."

More details on the Virgin Media website

Facebook are making an "awesome" announcement at 10am PST today, or 6pm GMT, 7pm British Summer Time.

Timed to pull the carpet from under Google Plus - which has been dominating tech news for the past week since its launch - Zuckerberg made clear that this wasn't just any old announcement. It's going to be something awesome.

Most people are expecting a link-up with Skype and the integration of video chat into the Facebook user interface. Facebook's close ties with Microsoft (Skype's owners) make this a strong possibility.

But you know what we'd love it to be? That music service that was touted when the Facebook Spotify deal was mentioned last month. The service was tipped to launch in a few weeks, which would be, well about now.

The integration with Spotify isn't just some random feature - this music library will be core to Facebook's strategy of becoming the place to share and discover content. They started it with the Like Button, and importing a vast library of content like music will be a significant next step.

And could mean people turning less to places like Youtube to share music. Youtube being owned by Google of course.

IMHO, music sharing services ARE awesome. More awesome than video chat I think.

The hitch? Well when the Spotify deal was raised a couple of weeks ago, it was stated that only places that already have Spotify will get the Facebook integration. That would cut out the US, because Spotify is only available in the UK and Europe. Apparently Facebook are in talks with American partners which could power their service there, but given how slow record labels are in making changes, it's hard to see how they could have pulled that off already.

And it's inconceivable that Facebook will make a big deal out of a service that's not available in the US.

Other big suggestions for the reveal are:

Integration with Skype - video chat

An iPad app - Facebook have one, and they promised to launch it soon

A better mobile app that makes it much easier to share pictures, Instagram-style

Facebook's Project Sparta - a suite of html5 apps that could rival Apple's app store

As Spotity is rumoured to be joining forces with Facebook, another music service is eyeing up social networks as a way to get ahead. Last.fm's plans are that its users will be able to sign in from Facebook, and they can also share tracks with their Facebook friends. The same system will make it easier to find your friends on Last.fm and see what they are listening to.

Sounds like we can expect some competition in the music streaming arena. Last.fm has about 30 million monthly users, and charges £3 per month in subscription fees. The group faces strong competition from Spotify and free services, meaning plans are in the works to make itself unique:

"I know we have a lot of work to do, but we want to become the connective tissue between services like Spotify and iTunes and the place where people publish their music taste online," Vice President of Product at Last.fm, Matthew Hawn, told BBC News. "If Foursquare is where you publish your location, and Facebook is where you socially connect, Last.fm should be where you publish your taste in music."

Last.fm is now going to try and make its service more mainstream, added Hawn - this includes a redesign of the site and again running live music events.

Music service Spotify is rumoured to be closing a deal with Facebook that will see the music player deeply embedded in the social network. Spotify icons would appear on the homepage of every Facebook user and Facebookers would be able to browse, listen to and share Spotify's 10million songs.

Spotify has been making some big changes lately - cutting its free service & letting people download music onto iPods and phones - but this is a bit of a thunderbolt.

Having Spotify as a browsable music library for Facebook would cement the new "we're a music discovery service" spiel from Spotify. It meant that when you heard a cool new song you could post it on your friends' walls, they'd be able to listen to it, and yes - buy it if they wanted to. It makes Spotify the default Facebook music player. You could share a Youtube video too of course- but Google own that, and well it doesn't really monetise in the same way.

Could the deal breathe new life into the Spotify Free model? We'd like to think so. Facebook has a potent network of advertisers for starters, and even if Spotify doesn't get a direct cut of Facebook advertising, it offers advertisers much more information about who they're targeting. And having the Spotify icon on the home page of Facebook is a massive coup that will drive loads of people to the service. Perhaps more users would mean more ad revenue = more free music.

I mean if anyone knows how to monetise a completely free service - it's Facebook.

I could see listening time being limited on Facebook. But I just can't imagine a service on Facebook cutting you out for listening to a song more than 5 times. Maybe this much hated feature of the new Spotify

People talk about music all the time on Facebook - it's a very natural pairing for a site that aims to be a hub for interests and entertainment. Spotify Social - the current Facebook integration that lets you share friends' playlists - is one of the best uses of Facebook Connect that I've ever seen.

It would square Facebook up to Apple more by providing a very potent rival to iTunes with enormous reach.

Expect an announcement in two weeks.. though only in the countries where Spotify is currently available.

Related: Spotify Explain: Why we cut the Free Service..

[via Forbes]