The popular European music streaming service Spotify has gotten a substantial new desktop update in new version 0.43, which brings social networking integration, the ability to import your own MP3 into your Spotify library, an offline storage locker, and a new user inboxes for the sharing of tracks.
The music library feature is probably the most impressive: it allows you to import your entire music library to Spotify. This won’t upload any of your tracks to the cloud, but it will allow you to stream your music wherever you are on any device that supports Spotify, whether that’s another computer or on your iPhone.
Social networking is done through Facebook Connect, which allows you to broadcast your music and playlists on the social networking service. Your friends can then subscribe to your playlists and listen to the music you like just by clicking the link.
Even better is the new Inbox feature, which allows you to drag and drop tracks to automatically recommend them to friends.
It’s a huge update made all the more maddening because Spotify closed off access to its service in Germany late last year. I guess us unlucky Euros, like you American Cowboy-Os, will just have to be patient and wait for Spotify to get its ducks in a row with the local music publishing oligarchies.
