16 December 2009

Spotify’s Symbian Mobile App
Gets An Update & Many Bug Fixes

Spotify, the much-hyped Sweden's digital music service, has released first update to its Spotify client application for Symbian devices that fixes a number of issues with the initial release and adds support for some new models.

This release includes fix for disappearing offline tracks, fix for the problem when adding tracks to existing playlists on touch screens devices, adds special characters for Norwegian and French as well as support for special types of keyboards, e.g. non-touch phones with dual keyboards.

Updated Spotify application v 0.3.22 (61361) also includes the support for Nokia E72, Nokia N82, Nokia 6110 Navigator, Nokia 6210, Navigator, Nokia 6290, Nokia N79.

To get Spotify’s Symbian application, music fans can either download it directly to their phones by visiting m.spotify.com through their mobile web browser, or by entering their phone number on our new Symbian information page to receive instructions via an SMS.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, Spotify is a proprietary peer-to-peer music streaming service which is gradually gathering a large fan-base in Europe and allows instant listening to specific tracks or albums with almost no buffering delay. Music can be browsed by artists, albums or created playlists as well as by direct searches.

Although, due to the system's DRM, it is not possible to save the streamed music for use outside the application; a link is provided to allow the listener to directly purchase the material via partner retailers. The program/service in its free version is only available in parts of western Europe during the ongoing beta programme although the subscription model should be available in almost all countries.

Spotify has won plaudits from the music industry, which has been hammered by piracy, for offering a better and smoother alternative to illegal sites. It has more than 6 million users in Europe and over 5 million tracks available.

Users of the service can either listen to music for free and in exchange for watching adverts, or pay a premium fee of 9.99 pounds ($16.37) a month to avoid the ads.