Ten ways to get the most out of Spotify.

Spotify is an online music streaming service that gives you legal access to millions of tracks. It lets you play your favourite music on your computer or on your phone, instantly. With Spotify, your music collection is stored in the cloud - so wherever and whenever you log into your account, all your tracks will be there.

Signing up: what type of account do you need?

You can register for a free Basic account supported by advertising, or for a £9.99 a month Premium account which cuts out the ads and offers a range of extra features.

You'll need the Premium subscription if you want to use Spotify on your phone – you can only use the Basic version on a computer. As a Premium subscriber, you can stream any of the millions of tracks in the Spotify library, listen to higher quality versions of tracks and you can also create offline playlists which let you listen to music without being connected to the internet or our network.

It's easy to get started with Spotify.

First, check if your phone's compatible with Spotify: go to m.spotify.com using your phone’s browser. If it is, create an account by choosing a username and password. All new users also need a Facebook account to register.

Download and install Spotify for your computer on either Windows or Mac. Want to get it on your phone? Join as a Premium user and download the app.


Ten ways to get the most out of Spotify.

Want to get to know Spotify a bit better? We’ve put together a list of ten tips, shortcuts and hints to help you get even more out of using Spotify.

1. It's easy to share a track with friends.

Sniffed out an up and coming new band? Heard a track that reminds you of the good old days? You can send tracks to your friends on Spotify by right clicking the track and choosing Send/Share to > Spotify People > <username>. When they log in, they'll see your message in their inbox on the left hand side.

2. Show what you're listening to in Windows Live Messenger.

If you use Windows Live Messenger, you can set it to display what you're listening to in Spotify as your current status. In Messenger, go to Options > Personal then check Show Song Information from Windows Media Player as a Personal Message. Don't be alarmed - this doesn't just work for Windows Media Player. It applies to Spotify and iTunes too.

3. Explore music you'd never normally listen to.

When you're browsing Spotify, you'll see a list of other artists, songs and genres similar to the one you search for and listen to. This is really useful if you're bored of the same old tunes but don't want to invest in albums you might not like. On Spotify, you can listen to as many tracks you like - and if they're not to your taste, you've lost nothing.

4. Going somewhere where you won't have internet access?

Want to be able to listen to your music when you're on the underground or when you don't have 3G signal? Here's how to set up offline playlists. Star the track or playlist you want to be able to access offline, then right click it and hit Available Offline. Spotify will then download all your starred tracks to your computer or phone, so you don't need internet access to listen to them. This feature is also only available if you've got a Premium account.

5. Read more about your favourite artists.

Forget going to Wikipedia to look up info on your favourite bands, musicians or singers. In Spotify, click the name of an artist to visit their page. Click Biography or Related Artists to learn more about them, and see a selection of other similar artists.

6. See what the Spotify team are listening to.

They come across thousands of new tracks every day. So who better to go to for musical inspiration? Check out the Spotify crew’s own playlists by selecting Help > About then clicking on a Spotify team member's name. You'll see their Spotify Social page, plus what they're enjoying listening to right now.

7. Share your music with your friends.

It’s easier than ever to discover and share music with your friends. If you linked your Facebook and Spotify accounts when you signed up for Spotify, your Spotify activity will appear on your news feed in Facebook. And that also lets you see and hear what your friends are listening to – just click on any music post that appears in your Facebook feed to play it in Spotify.

8. And choose not to share it: change your privacy options.

Not everyone likes having every song that's played automatically posted on Facebook. Especially if those tracks involve boy bands from the early 90s. No problem - you can change your settings so Facebook doesn't reveal your Spotify activity. From the title menu, click Edit > Preferences. If you never want to share what you are listening to, uncheck Get personal recommendations. Having a Britney moment and prefer not to share your current session? Just check Private listening.

9. Import your own music into Spotify.

If you're anything like us, you'll have loads of music on your computer that you copied from CDs or bought from iTunes in the good old days. The good news is that you don't have to find all of those tracks again in Spotify. In your Spotify Library, you’ll see Local files. Click this and you’ll see Import music. From here you can import tracks from your hard drive or your iTunes Music Library.

And if you keep your music on an external hard drive? Click Spotify in your menu bar, then Preferences. Scroll down and click Add Source. Select your music folder on your external hard drive to add all those songs to your Spotify Library. Job done!

10. Want better sound quality?

If you have a Premium account and you're listening to music on your computer, don't forget to set your streaming to high quality. Go to the title menu and click Edit > Preferences and check the high quality option. All music will now play at a higher bitrate: 320 kbps instead of the usual 160 kbps.