Want

Nice logo. Sadly, here in Belgium we are not allowed to use Spotify. Not available in our area...apparently. Why not? Something to do with copyrights. That's a bit weird in this day and age but is something that is happening more and more on the internet.

Spotify allows you to listen to almost any track you want to. Simple but wonderful. You can create your own playlists and listen to your favourite tracks to your your hearts content. But not in Belgium.

Playlist is another piece of software that allows your to create...erm, playlists. It's actually what I used to use for my extremely unpopular Radio Free Belgium blog. I went to put some new music up a few days ago only to find that it is now no longer available in my area. What's going on? Belgium hasn't ceased to exist. We haven't suddenly found ourselves in the 1970's like the time travelling show Life on Mars...although it feels like it sometimes. So why isn't it available in my bloody area?? The joke of it is that people can illegally download the songs that they WANT to listen to legally if Spotify was available!

The record companies should be working hand in hand with sites like Spotify to get peoples music to the masses. When I listen to music online I like to discover new groups, I don't want to listen to Coldplay, Elbow, U2 or The Killers because I have their cd's already. I wouldn't have discovered artists like Josh Rouse, Ryan Adams and The Decemberists if it wasn't for the internet. You wont hear their music often if at all on British radio stations but after hearing their music I bought their cd's...The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists has to be the cd of the year in my opinion.

To tie in with my reference to Life on Mars, there is one great website I have found which while it isn't the same as Spotify, it is still excellent and my favourite music site at the moment. It's called 8tracks and is just jam packed with good music. People upload 8 songs from their own music collection and complete strangers like you and me can listen to them. Some of these mini albums are really rather good and to clarify an earlier point, I have been listening to a few 8tracks as I've been writing and found 2 groups, Mimicking Birds and Miracle Fortress, that I will be looking out for in future!

http://www.8tracks.com/ but be warned people of Belgium, I don't know for how long it will be available in our area...