Spotify in Ireland? Not Quite…
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!
Tags: Audio, Music, Music Business, Spotify
June 22nd, 2009 at 06 06066u30e35 ppm3530 1 066 3001e pm
That’s a shame. got very excited when I read your previous post. I think others have managed to get around the territory thing, I must go investigate more …
August 27th, 2009 at 16 08168u31e19 ppm1931 7 168 3107e pm
go to edit profile and change your country back to ireland and post code to whatever. That is working for me .
August 27th, 2009 at 03 08038u31e50 ppm5031 10 038 3110e pm
Cheers, Cell Man!
September 10th, 2009 at 42 09429u30e42 pam4230 10 429 3010e am
Some more info on this at this blog entry –
http://www.moanincronin.com/2009/06/05/spotify-in-ireland-it-works/
October 1st, 2009 at 07 100710u31e48 ppm4831 9 0710 3109e pm
Bad news people – I was having a great time with Spotify in Ireland by doing what Cell Man suggested until the other week I got an email from Spotify, the gist of which was:
While we are really happy that you are enthusiastically using Spotify, we are unfortunately going to have to restrict access to your free account. Spotify is currently available in six countries: Sweden, Norway,
Finland, Spain, France and the UK. We never intended to allow use of our service outside of those countries and we do not run any adverts on your account like we do in the launch countries.
For this reason we have to restrict your account, you will be able to log in to Spotify and view music and playlists but not listen to any music.
Bit of a bummer, I thought, but them’s the breaks
December 10th, 2009 at 18 121812u31e40 ppm4031 3 1812 3103e pm
Hello,
You can still use Spotify free in Ireland (or any other coutry probably).
Spotify allows you to travel with your free account for 2 weeks before restricting you. All you need is a friend physically in the UK to log-in once a fortnight. It instantly lets you continue listening!
Minor Snags… The account probably needs to be set up by your friend in the UK and they will need to know your username and pass to un-restrict your account every 2 weeks. Its not a problem for me as I see my mate on facebook chat all the time and tell him to do it. Its a 2 second job.
Hope this works for others!
December 11th, 2009 at 39 123912u31e54 ppm5431 6 3912 3106e pm
According to the Spotify site, even Spotify Premium “is not available in your country yet”. Bummer.
December 12th, 2009 at 08 120812u31e27 pam2731 2 0812 3102e am
Conor, that’s an inspired idea. Kinda like being an Irish tax exile in reverse! Will definitely try that out.
December 21st, 2009 at 38 123812u31e37 pam3731 12 3812 3112e am
Yes I share an account with a London based friend and have no problem using spotify. It is delightful, though I think I will pay the tenner a month to ban the advertisments.