Archive for June, 2009

Last week, I posted about Spotify; the insanely scary and cool application which streams pretty much any song to your PC legally, and for free. I was under the impression that the app didn’t seem to care where you were.

Unfortunately, turns out, Spotify allows users to go on a “holiday” for 2 weeks away from their home territory, but after that, they shut you down. Currently, Ireland is not a territory where you can use the free service. Thus, as a citizen of Ireland, I am deSpotified, unless I agree to pay the (frankly quite reasonable) €10 a month to subscribe. Tempting, but somehow, I feel robbed as my UK friends use the service for free. In the music world, the valuable lesson here is that perception of value is more an issue than price. Record companies, take heed!

I was in the UK last week for a welcome break, and everyone there, from my tech-savvy gearslut mates in Brighton (”Silicon Beach” to the rest of us) to my 11 year old (more…)