Monday, Aug. 24, 2009
Spotify
The holy grail of online music is what's known as a "celestial jukebox": an archive of every album in the world, there just for the listening. Think iTunes without the 99-cent song fee. The celestial jukebox is no pipe dream; it's here now. Spotify will stream virtually anything you want and pay the royalties for you. The service is supported by advertisements, just like terrestrial radio, or you can subscribe to an ad-free version. Currently the service is only available in Europe, but the company has just raised $50 million, and a U.S. launch is said to be imminent.