Everyday Banter

August 28, 2009

Spotify – Outside the UK?

Filed under: internet, Music — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Tums @ 11:48 am
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After talking to my friends lately, they’ve recognised my love towards Spotify, which I’ve mentioned in this blog… More than a few times.

As expected, some of them wanted to have a look at the program. However some of them live outside the UK, mostly in places in Europe that are not supported (places like Denmark and Poland) by Spotify, they don’t have access to it. This is when it came to my attention that there are a lot of blog posts about using the program outside of the UK.

Personally I wouldn’t promote it too much, as it is most likely illegal to do so, although I do believe it should be able to be used anywhere (as I’m sure the team at Spotify would agree). The process basically involves using a proxy to trick the site into thinking you’re from the UK, or asking someone from the UK to make an account for you.

Amidst all of the posts about how to do it, I haven’t noticed any talk of this though:

When I try to login it says that my current country does not match my profile?
When you login Spotify checks the Internet protocol (IP) address that you use to connect to the Internet and compares it to the country you set in your profile when you registered. If they do not match and you are away from your home country more than 14 days you will not be able to log in. If you have moved we suggest you change the country in your profile, as long as you have moved to one of our other launch countries. If you travel extensively you can purchase a premium subscription for unlimited travel. In some cases this error can occur by mistake if you use Spotify at work as many companies route their traffic through other countries therefore you appear to be abroad. If you’re at work and have this problem you can solve it by logging in to your Spotify account at home once and awhile.
What that basically means is if you do use the proxy method of tricking the website, the app itself will give you 2 weeks while it figures out that you don’t live in the UK,  or if you’re just on holiday. It then stops you from listening to anymore music. The question begs; is this rule in practice or are people managing to evade it? Getting someone from the UK to log into their account or using a proxy comes to mind again.
I’ll be watching carefully to see if there are any updates, or if anyone else has an opinion or info, feel free to post.

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