I've stumped up £99 for a years subscription and with the new albums from Neil Young, U2 and Gomez in my playlist, I figure I have saved £30 already. Unless the site crashes, and I have not had that or heard about such so far, I can access the music when ever I want to as easily as from itunes. I do not know what bit rate it comes through at, but comparisons with with my itunes imported CDs I would put Spotify at the equivalent of 256kbps ripped CDs or itunes plus, perfectly acceptable.