Spotify

I know I'm late to the party on this one, but oh my God! Spotify! Genius! I thought it sounded a bit rubbish when I heard about it - didn't realise it was extremely minimal on the advertising and full on the breadth and depth of available tunes. For the uninitiated, it's a free music service where you can listen to tracks by just about any artist on an Itunes style application - the only disadvantage being that you can't download anything and get an advert every 20 minutes or so (like commercial radio except all the tunes are great and there are no annoying groovy or wacky djs babbling away). I might even sign up for the premium (ad free) service if I start using it enough.

I assume that eventually (perhaps even now?) you'll be able to download a Spotify app for advanced phones such as the iPhone, meaning there is no need to actually buy any music anymore to listen to on the move? That sounds even less healthy for the industry than file-sharing, but is certainly a great way to spend a quiet Saturday night in and reignite my interest in music after my recent ambivalence. Spotify and Bestival - a stunning combination that has so far introduced me to the delights of Elbow, Friendly Fires and Casiokid in the past 24 hours. Like I said, somewhat late to the party.

I've spent the evening trying to catch Spotify out with the name of a band it's never heard of. So far I've only managed it once - with The Gyres - a band that you nor anyone else really needs to worry about, but a fine benchmark 'one minor localised hit wonder' outfit (all back in their factory jobs within a couple of years of being signed) with which to test just how all-encompassing such a database might be.