Spotify For Dummies

The ultimate beginner guide to the groundbreaking music service, Spotify!

Spotify is a free online streaming music platform that allows users to listen to songs on demand over the Internet–without having to buy or own the actual tracks. This fun and friendly guide walks you through how best to use this sweet-sounding service. Covering everything from using Spotify on selected mobile phones to creating and sharing your own playlists, Spotify For Dummieshas it all. Experienced author Kim Gilmour details the ins and outs of this revolutionary music, from installing and setup to discovering new artists and taking your musical enjoyment to new levels.

• Explores the social networking aspects of Spotify and how to integrate with them
• Helps you navigate through the various editions of Spotify
• Shows you how to take Spotify with you on your mobile device
• Encourages you to merge your own music collection with Spotify

This book is spot on! Start using Spotify today with this handy guide by your side.

From the Author: Creating and Subscribing to Playlists in Spotify

Author Kim Gilmour

Playlists are what make the world of Spotify go around. All the playlists you create or subscribe to in Spotify are displayed in the left-hand sidebar of the application. You can create a playlist around any theme you want. In Spotify, you can easily turn albums you come across in your searches into playlists, too. Follow these easy steps from Spotify For Dummies author Kim Gilmour and get started creating your own music mixes in no time.

To put together a playlist:
1) Click New Playlist, located at the bottom of Spotify’s left sidebar. New playlist turns into a text box.

2) Type the name for your playlist in the text box, and then press Enter to confirm your selection.

3) After you come across a song that you want to add to your playlist, just drag and drop that track onto the playlist title. Alternatively, right-click the track (Ctrl-click on a Mac) and select Add To from the pop-up menu that appears to bring up a list of your existing playlists. Select the playlist to which you want to add your track.

4) Click your playlist name on the left sidebar. Your new playlist appears in Spotify’s main pane. A selection of albums from the track listings are displayed as the playlist’s artwork.

To turn an album into a playlist:
1) First, access the album listing in Spotify. Either conduct a search for the artist’s name using Spotify’s search bar and click through to the album title from the search results or search for the title of the album directly. Alternatively, you might come across a link to the album, on Facebook, for example.

2) Click and drag the album’s name onto New Playlist, located at the bottom of Spotify’s left sidebar. The album instantly turns into a playlist, with the title consisting of the album’s name and artist.

To subscribe to a playlist someone else has created:
1) Click on a playlist link so that it opens in Spotify. You can access playlists in a variety of ways. You might follow a link to one on a playlist-sharing site like ShareMyPlaylists.com, or see a link to it on Facebook’s Music dashboard. Alternatively, a friend may have sent you a link to a playlist through Spotify’s inbox feature.

2) Under the playlist name, click Subscribe. The playlist appears in the left-hand sidebar, meaning you’ve subscribed to it. It’s now accessible to you at any time.

Publishing playlists:
Warning: Activity relating to playlists you create or subscribe to may be automatically published to your public Spotify profile page—the page that appears when friends click your name if it’s displayed in their People Bar. You may want to turn this automatic publishing off or check its status.

1) To turn off the automatic publishing feature, access your Spotify preferences by clicking File > Preferences on a PC or Spotify > Preferences on a Mac.

2) Under Profile, check if “Automatically publish new playlists” is checked or not. If it is, then any playlist you create is displayed on your public Spotify profile. You’ll need to uncheck the box if you don’t want your playlists to be displayed.

Tip: If you turn automatic publishing off, you can still pick and choose the playlists you want to publicly share with your friends or the greater Spotify community.

1) To share a playlist, right-click a playlist (Ctrl-click on a Mac) and click Publish.

2) You can also share a playlist from your Spotify profile page by clicking your name on the top right of the Spotify application, then clicking Profile. Click the Edit button to publish or unpublish your playlists.