A really smart move by Spotify this morning. The service allowed its users, even those using the free, ad-supported version, to create profiles and share their playlists with friends. Not just one track or album – the entire library.

Once you create your profile you can decide which playlists to share and which should remain private (some of mine will certainly remain private, no doubt about that). The same applies to the most popular artists you listen to and the most frequently played tracks.

And in a really clever move Spotify also allowed importing your music library from iTunes and Windows Media Player. In fact, any “legally purchased” mp3 track can be added to your library and synchronised across multiple devices.

And I think that bit actually excites me the most. I’m getting tired of iTunes and its restrictive policy regarding sharing and using music I paid for.

Subscribing to others’ playlists is easy, and so is sharing – you just drag and drop. The shared tracks end up in the newly created ‘inbox’.

And if that’s not enough, you can stalk your friends through The Feed, which collects information on all tracks your contacts share on Facebook. Marvellous.

Spotify still hasn’t addressed the issue of navigation though. I don’t have that many playlists, yet I find it really annoying scrolling up and down the page trying to find something. Can’t imagine what it’s like searching through hundreds of playlists.

Now, should I consider paying for their premium service? It may even make sense…

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