iSpot a flaw in this plan

So, it's finally happened: Spotify have announced their plans to go mobile. It's been rumoured for ages, and now a teaser video has been released, outlining a proposed Spotify iPhone 'app'. It's pretty much a big deal.

Not owning an iPhone, I wasn't too excited when I first heard

about this. I've got an iPod Touch, so I can access the internet

wireless within the confines of my own home, or within any

other open access wireless zone, but that's by no means a

universal thing. If it needed internet access in order to stream

music, it was of no consequence to me, I reasoned. But that's

the awesome thing about this application in its current

prototype form: playlists can be selected for offline streaming.

This is great - perfect for songs that you go through phases of

listening to a lot for a week or two, but have only a temporary

attachment to. Basically, songs that you want to listen to, but

have no real inclination to own. This is what Spotify is great

for in its computer-based form. Before this, if you wanted to

hear a song that you didn't already have, you had to

download it, be it through legal channels or illegal ones. Now,

you just search for them on Spotify. Recent such songs for me

would include 'Touch Me' by The Doors, 'At the River' by

Groove Armada and an Italian song called 'Primavera

Anticipada' by Laura Pausini (don't even ask). But could a

mobile version of this service completely change how we listen

to music?

The current downfall of Spotify for me is that I like to feel that

I 'own' tracks, whether I've bought them or not. Which means

having the opportunity to listen to them on my iPod as well.

Much as the Spotify adverts irk me, I don't get annoyed enough

by them to warrant paying £9.99 per month simply to get rid of

them. But to be able to listen to anything I want (provided I've

cued it up beforehand) while away from the internet? That

might just cause me to reconsider. After all, £9.99 for a month's

worth of unlimited music really isn't a lot at all when you think

about it; it's equivalent to just one album.

Ultimately, though, it's probably not going to get approved by

Apple, is it? Let's be honest - why would it be, in the form

they're currently proposing? With an iPhone, you can

download tunes directly to the device from the iTunes store.

And each time you do so, that's a nice little 79p for Apple.

Why would you do this in addition to having the Spotify app?

Unless Spotify are paying Apple a fair amount of cash, it's

likely that Apple would lose a fair amount of revenue. I'd

love to see the app in its proposed form get released, and

soon, but I'm not too hopeful about it. Fingers crossed, eh?

My current playlist, featuring some rather shameful picks: summer playlist

Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me

A little behind the technological times, perhaps, but yesterday I acquired an iPod Touch. I'm the first to admit to skepticism when it comes to touch-screen gadgets; I made the mistake a while back of getting a touch-screen phone when changing contracts, and hated it so much that I eventually exchanged it for a downgrade, just so that I could have buttons.

I was pleasantly surprised, though. To be honest, I'd only really got the iPod as it was pretty much free with the MacBook I was buying - there was an offer on meaning that if I got both, I got £145 off. So the iPod was £20, and I thought that 20 quid for a brand-new iPod wasn't really something to be argued with. Now, I love it.

iPods have always been user-friendly and nicely designed, but the Touch takes this to a new level; it really is a bit of a joy to use. And the Apps are amazing fun - I don't expect them to revolutionise my life (as an article I once read claimed that they would), but I enjoy being able to pop virtual bubble-wrap on a boring car journey. I'm currently also addicted to the Coldplay edition of 'Tap Tap Revenge', which is basically a dance mat for your fingers, set to Coldplay songs. And to think, I once derided the idea of band-related Apps as for sell-outs. Hell, to think that I actually like Coldplay. Should have kept quiet about that one, eh?

I've had an iPod before, but my last one was just a normal black 30GB one, whereas the new one is 8GB. Allowing space for hardware, or software or whatever it is that automatically takes up X amount of space, as well as space for Apps, that's about 6.5GB of music, give or take. In musical terms (as well as in life in general), I'm a bit of a hoarder; why get rid of something that you may, possibly, potentially, at some distant point in the future, wish to listen to again, even if just the once?

Having only limited space to fill has made me somewhat cutthroat about what to add to my iPod and what not to. I've had to make careful decisions about what is, to my mind, essential listening.

There were certain things that were necessary: Morrissey, Belle and Sebastian, Bright Eyes, Nick Cave (barring a few albums, as I had too many), Ash (again, barring a couple of albums and a mass of b-sides). Some things had to be added whole - for example, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't live without having all of Pulp's 'Different Class', The National's 'Boxer or Bon Iver's 'For Emma, Forever Ago'. Some albums just deserve to be listened to in their entirety. I could slice off half of albums by The Sounds and Graham Coxon, though. I needed the whole of the first Long Blondes album, but only half of the disappointing second one.

I've been meaning to streamline the music I carry with me (though not that which is kept on my computer) for quite some time; this has finally given me the impetus to do so. While partially liberating - there was a hell of a lot of dead wood on my old iPod - it was also way more difficult than I was expecting it to be. On the plus side, it's a much more pleasant experience to listen to everything on shuffle, with much less skipping past songs to be done.

I'm not gonna lie, though - 'Tap Tap Revenge' is still the best thing about it, though.

This song definitely made its way onto my new iPod: