A lot has changed in the way we listen and consume music over the last 7 years, fact. We all know how the story goes. Shortly after Napster launched the peer to peer mp3 file sharing phenomenon, Apple launched the first 5Gb iPod along with their groundbreaking music application iTunes, the rest as they say is history. It definitely shaped the way we approach music in many ways and tipped the music industry itself upside down.

Since then, plenty of applications have been and gone, some making more noise than others. iTunes is still by far the Daddy. But others have tried to fill the gaps iTunes has purposely left.

These have been filled by the likes of Pandora and Last FM. Both applications allowing you access to massive databases of music based on your choice, all the while learning more about the users music tastes and then offering up new alternatives and suggestions. The key being that all of this is free. The user doesn't physically own the mp3's, but can simply stream them through their mac or pc.

Yesterday I came across Spotify. Thankfully the application itself has been given more love than the brand name itself and after a days usage turned out to be a quality music player, similar to iTunes in design and layout, it allows you to search and listen to a massive database of music and save playlists, searches and favorites. The amount of music I found was pretty impressive. So much so it starts to beg the question, as these databases grow and grow and if somebody can make this type of application also available for mobile/iPhone, will there ever be a need to buy music???

www.spotify.com

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