Spotify iPhone App

[John Duncan]

Joe Cox:
JohnDuncan:storsvante:Anyone know what quality you get the off-line content in? 320kbps?

Site doesn't say. I'd be surprised if it were 320, having seen how quickly it can download (and frankly, it was so quick it might not even be 160). But I really don't care.

That's not very on brand, John.

I have my Stuff head on.

 

[margetti]

storsvante:Anyone know what quality you get the off-line content in? 320kbps?

The FT says.. "The music plays at roughly the same bitrate... as the standard desktop player, around 160 kbps"

http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2009/09/hands-on-with-the-spotify-iphone-app/

 

[Anonymous]

the spotify app is a great idea, simple interface too, offline caching of playlists is great, still waiting to try that out, as I don't have a wifi network at work. I've seen some comments that this is a good way for Apple to see how successful music subscription might be, prior to launching a service of their own.

In terms of quality 160K is a fair enough trade off, given that most people will be listening to this with nothing posher than a set of SE110s. Not everyone has a portable headphone amp plugged into the lineout dock cable of their iPhone.

would love to see last.fm integration too, I'm now over 20k tracks listened to and noted by last.fm, so it is a good recommendation service for me, listening to music without recording the listens is slightly frustrating...

 

[lordmortlock]

It would be even better if you could control desktop spotify with it remotely...

 

[Clare Newsome]

Remember, Spotify-lovers, you still have a chance to cast your vote for the service in our Readers Awards.

Of course - in the interests of impartiality in this post - you may prefer to vote for the Apple iPhone, Denon D-M37DAB, Yamaha DSP-Z7, AVI ADM 9.1s, Cambridge Audio DACMagic, NaimUniti or Lindy mains conditioner

All entries put you in the pot to win some top prizes.....

 

[Anonymous]

lordmortlock:It would be even better if you could control desktop spotify with it remotely...

definitely that would be excellent, might come in a future release, as there are a number of hacks to make a remote over http iirc.

There is also this http://themacbox.co.uk/smr/ which will let the Apple Remote control spotify. I'm using an old powerbook G4 as my music machine, which doesn't work with the remote, at some point I'll retire my current macbook pro and this will then work.

the iPhone app as a spotify remote would be excellent though

 

[Joe Cox]

zzgavin:
lordmortlock:It would be even better if you could control desktop spotify with it remotely...

definitely that would be excellent, might come in a future release, as there are a number of hacks to make a remote over http iirc.

There is also this http://themacbox.co.uk/smr/ which will let the Apple Remote control spotify. I'm using an old powerbook G4 as my music machine, which doesn't work with the remote, at some point I'll retire my current macbook pro and this will then work.

the iPhone app as a spotify remote would be excellent though

shouldn't be too hard (he says, not having a clue how that computer jiggery pokery actually works). you can use the iPhone to remotely control your iTunes library after all.

 

[professorhat]

You can use Rowmote to remotely control Spotify (in terms of pausing / playing / skipping a track on a playlist you've already set up).

 

[lordmortlock]

Thanks Prof - I've had a play around with this and its really useful but I'd love total control - search, create playlist etc.

Anyone from spotify R&D reading? C'mon... make it!!

 

[lordmortlock]

PS...

I'd pay for it...

 

[John Duncan]

Clare Newsome:
Remember, Spotify-lovers, you still have a chance to cast your vote for the service in our Readers Awards.

Of course - in the interests of impartiality in this post - you may prefer to vote for the Apple iPhone, Denon D-M37DAB, Yamaha DSP-Z7, AVI ADM 9.1s, Cambridge Audio DACMagic, NaimUniti or Lindy mains conditioner

All entries put you in the pot to win some top prizes.....

Except me, obv

 

[Charlie Jefferson]

I'm loving the new app too.

Listening offline on the way to work this morning was great. ( Bits of The new Cribs & Prefab Sprout albums mixed into a playlist with Levon Helm and Dizzee Rascal - just because I can!)

At home I wish I could control Spotify wirelessly to stream through my hifi. Anyone know when this is happening?

 

[John Duncan]

Stuck 428 songs on a playlist last night, took about an hour on my 2meg broadband. Much quicker on the work wifi though, which must be uber.

Note that the songs appear to have taken up 2.8gig, which suggests 5-6meg a song...

 

[crusaderlord]

great idea and great application - just the pricing structure niggles for me. £10 per month regardless of usage.

i want to have it but doubt i would get the deserved usage from it for the price of 2 new CD's a month.

 

[Charlie Jefferson]

I've got to say for £10 a month the pricing is equitable.

Free stuff is so late 90's . . .

 

[fatboyslimfast]

I'm seriously thinking about dumping my napster subscription for this...

...unless napster get their head out of their collective rear regarding not making it work with Safari browser (eg iphone...).

 

[Clare Newsome]

Our colleagues on Stuff have posted a cheeky little blog that runs through How to listen to Spotify music while using other iPhone apps. BUT - *huge disclaimer here* - it does involve some hackery that won't be for warranty-keen types, and we're not responsible if your Apple goes wonky....

 

[John Duncan]

Right, down to sound quality. Anybody think it sounds a bit flat offline?

 

[Anonymous]

It must be the q5 ogg vorbis, ie same as the free desktop version.

it would cost too much to have a third set of music encoded,

so a 160k bit rate

 

[chebby]

Hmmm.

My current problem with Spotify (and the reason I am not yet a subscriber) is that when logged into my work applications - from home, on the computer I use for work and the same one that is connected to my DAC and hifi - I am using VPN and am therefore subject to work firewalls etc.

These firewalls allow most things (even iTunes downloads) but for some reason will not allow me to log in to the Spotify application. (I am not alone in this regard and do not wish to even try to circumvent a work firewall even if it were possible.)

As soon as I log off from the secure work connection Spotify works fine.

However, the time I want Spotify most is during my work hours so therefore a subscription would be next to wasted.

But now...

I could subscribe (I am registered already) and download the iPhone Spotify app and plug my iPhone straight into the front of the Nait 5i with something like a Russ Andrews GQ-24 and use it from there instead. The iPhone would not be subject to the same firewalls and should work fine.

Is there anything wrong with this plan?

Will I get 320kbps via an iPhone? (As a subscriber obviously.)

Will it sound rubbish plugged directly into the Nait's front panel input as described rather than via my DAC?

Would I be better off plugging the iPhone into the laptop with it's own USB connector (whilst the iPhone is running Spotify app) and thence through the DAC the laptop is connected to? (I'll bet there is some reason that won't work. It sounds to easy.)

If that did not also present a firewall problem then at least it will be charging whilst playing.

 

[John Duncan]

I'm still trying to work out whether it's 320k via the iPhone (or more correctly, iPod Touch). I suspect that it's not when it's offline, which has been 95% of my listening so far.

Can't think of any way of playing an iPod through your PC, except to play its iTunes-sourced content.

Will it sound rubbish connected via the headphone socket to the 3.5mm jack on your Naim? I suspect so, but more because of the low volume of an iPod rather than inherently poor quality of output or anything like that - course, a GQ-24 ought to fix that by bypassing the volume. I'll give it a go tonight and give you a snap verdict if I get round to it (albeit with a Gotham

).

 

[chebby]

Thanks John

 

[John Duncan]

Right. tried to do A/B comparisons between iPod Touch and @TV playing Spotify through Airfoil, but thwarted by fact that plaing it on one pauses the other

. Inital impressions - streaming direct via airfoil quite a bit more dynamic and spacious than via iPod, though as I say I'm doing one after the other and having to adjust volume accordingly, so concentration tricky. Listening to iPod via 3.5mm link certainly doesn't lack enjoyment, but not sure I'd choose it as a long term solution.

EDIT - inital thought that 'offline' mode was lacking somewhat compared to live streaming not vindicated though.

 

[PadRock]

professorhat:
I guess the argument is if you allowed it for all apps, people could well start getting really slow iPhones because most people don't realise some of these apps are still running when they switch to another app and it would result in lots of complaints (similar to when I worked in support - the number of times I would go see someone with a "slow" laptop and find they had about 50 applications open because they didn't see why they should have to close them down once they'd finished using them).

I like storsvante's idea of giving us the option though, maybe with a warning it could lead to slowdown and what to do if that happens.

If you jailbreak your phone, you can download a thing called 'Backgrounder' from Cydia and this allows you to run apps in the background ... you may find that handy? It also puts a little mark beside each app that is being 'backgrounded' so you know which ones to close down so it doesn't kill your battery

 

[chebby]

JohnDuncan:Right. tried to do A/B comparisons between iPod Touch and @TV playing Spotify through Airfoil, but thwarted by fact that plaing it on one pauses the other

. Inital impressions - streaming direct via airfoil quite a bit more dynamic and spacious than via iPod, though as I say I'm doing one after the other and having to adjust volume accordingly, so concentration tricky. Listening to iPod via 3.5mm link certainly doesn't lack enjoyment, but not sure I'd choose it as a long term solution.

EDIT - inital thought that 'offline' mode was lacking somewhat compared to live streaming not vindicated though.

Thanks for trying it all out anyway John.

Before I commit to £10 a month subscription, I will get the lead anyway and try 320kbps iTunes downloads to get a rough idea of what it would sound like. I will get an ordinary 3.5mm - 3.5mm lead and if that shows promise then i may get the RA GQ-24 with the iPod/iPhone connection.