Spotify how I miss thee

I thoroughly enjoyed my time living and working in New Zealand for a portion of the year 2013. It is truly an amazing country and definitely one which you should place on a list of places to go if you have the opportunity.

Being from Barbados where online music streaming services such as Spotify are not available I took the opportunity during my time in New Zealand to sign up for a free Spotify account. Reading about the service is one thing but having the opportunity to use it is another. The interface is clean and navigation is easy. Of course the main attraction of a service like Spotify is the music and I found the content to be quite comprehensive, also including some selections from the Caribbean.  The only disadvantage was not having on the go access with my free Spotify account. Yes, I downloaded the iPhone app which gave me access on my mobile device but this was for a promotional period. Since then, however, users of the Spotify service do have complimentary access on their mobile devices, albeit with some limitations attached.

I recently read an article in the online edition of the New Zealand Herald that Telecom (soon to be re-branded as Spark) will offer some its pre and post paid customers free Spotify premium accounts. It will be interesting to see how popular this initiative will be.

Towards the end of 2013 Spotify expanded into 20 more markets, including some in Latin America and the Caribbean, however, Barbados was not included. We do however, have Netflix, which I will write about in another article. Here’s hoping that when Spotify rolls out its next country expansion that Barbados will be included.