Five Cool Websites for New Spotify Users

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Spotify is finally here in the U.S.!

I’ve been using the service over here in Europe for quite a while and it’s packed with lots of cool stuff: more music than you can ever reasonably listen to, social network features, and more. But one of my favorite features is the way Spotify links out to the rest of the internet.

(MORE: ‘Spotify’ Free Music Service Launches Today in the U.S.)

Every track, album and playlist has a unique address that you can share elsewhere on the net. Right-click on anything you see in Spotify, and you’ll see a menu with options including “Copy HTTP Link” and “Copy Spotify URI” – if you click the “HTTP Link” option, you’ll get a link you can paste anywhere.

The other thing that’s cool about Spotify is its API for developers, which means people can build their own applications that link right into Spotify’s massive database.

Put these two things together, and what do you get? Websites that let you do fun stuff, like these:

Spotimy: Lets you find cool stuff, new stuff, hot stuff, and strange stuff. If you’re stuck for something to listen to, this is an excellent starting point. Try the Recommended list, or the best albums of recent weeks list.

New releases on Spotify: Spotify’s music database gets updated in chunks on a weekly basis, so it’s hard to keep track of what’s new. This site shows it all to you in a list sorted by artist popularity. If you want to see the new stuff that people are enjoying, start here.

Biblify: This one looks at the latest albums list, checks for reviews on matching albums, and shows you the best stuff. The reviews sites included are The Guardian, NME, Pitchfork, Uncut, Drowned In Sound, The Fly and the BBC. Pitchify, which we covered here previously, does a similar job. Hot Spotify has loads of good links too.

Playlistify: Playlists are central to Spotify. You can make them out of individual tracks or entire albums. They can be as huge as you like. They can be kept private or shared with the world. This site lets you find some of the best ones. When you find one you like, click the “Subscribe” button to instantly add it to the list of playlists in the sidebar.

Tubufy: Spotify playlists transformed into Youtube video playlists. Need I say more? Here’s the current U.S. Top 40 chart to get you started.

Just one thing to keep in mind when using third-party services like this. The insane complexity of international music licensing means that sometimes you’ll see a Spotify link, click it, and see a message on Spotify telling you that song or album isn’t available in your country. Top tip: Sometimes, that just means that that particular version of that song or album isn’t available in your country. When that happens, it’s worth doing a search by artist name or album title – you’ll often find that an identical release of the same album is available in your country.

MORE: How to Roll Your Own Music Streaming Service