I've been a Spotify user for the last 2 or 3 years; ever since its library
overtook Napster's in terms of depth and coverage. Officially the only desktop
clients are for Windows and Mac. However, there is also a "preview" version of
a Linux client which has never been formally released. It's available on a "no
warranty or official support" basis for use on Debian-based distros.
Over the last year or so, this Linux client has improved dramatically. It used
to freeze or crash so often that I had to rely upon the Windows client running
in a Virtualbox VM. I've had no problems of that nature in the last 6 months or
more and, despite its unsupported status, the Linux client it is now my
standard means of using Spotify.
The ability to download tracks for local off-line playback is a real boon when
you have a poor or slow connection. It avoids the buffering that you might
otherwise encounter with the web-based stream.
The only problem I occasionally encounter is with the indexing. The list of
albums and tracks for a given artist may lack a particular item of interest to
you. An explicit search for that item by title will often find it. I suspect
that this problem could well be at the server end, in which case it will not be
unique to the Linux client.
I know that FLOSS purists will not want to run proprietary software such as
this, but I am one of those people willing to turn a blind-eye when it provides
superior functionality.
The Clementine media player for Linux now provides an add-on to give access to
Spotify for Premium Service members. This is a significant improvement on
browser-based streaming, as each track is copied to a local cache before
playing, thereby avoiding buffering with slow connections. It doesn't, however,
offer the off-line playback facility, which can be so useful if you are on the
move, away from an internet connection.
For any Linux users who may have tried the Spotify client in the past, and
given up in frustration, I would highly recommend giving it another go.
Regards
Nige
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