Eclectic Grooves

Word on the street is that blogging has become irrelevant thanks to social networking behemoths like Facebook and Twitter. While I don't usually like to agree with bold statements such as this, I would have to agree that these sites have unknowingly contributed to the ever decreasing popularity of the music blog. Over the past couple months alone, I have seen countless bloggers decide to pack it in because there just wasn't enough feedback or interest from the readers.  This can likely be chalked up to our generation's indelible need for instant gratification. Because most people want everything right now in an easily digestible package,  they aren't taking the time to enjoy the simple pleasure of listening to a record in its entirety. Memories of my first record purchase are fuzzy at best, but I never will forget the euphoric feeling of holding that 12" round cylinder in my hands for the first time....

Ever since stumbling upon an article discussing Spotify on the Mercury blog End Hits, I have been obsessively compiling playlists and searching for new music on Spotify like a kid in a candy store. It is currently invite only, but I received my invite within a week of the service launching in the U.S. If you don't want to wait for an invite, you can purchase their premium package for only $4.99 a month. Like any new service, it is imperfect, but what it does offer is well worth it. The cost of the service is free with advertisements for six months,  $4.99 for the premium package with no ads and $9.99 for the mobile version which allows you to access your entire I-tunes library as well as a massive archive of over 15 million tracks from Spotify. While they don't have everything on Spotify, they are adding over a hundred tracks a day. I was surprised that the sound quality is as good as it is for most albums, with only a few things ...