Spotify launched to the general public here in the US last week after a previous launch as an invite only beta earlier this summer. But the method that Spotify has decided to sign up new members has some people very upset. News.com reports that Spotify requires users have a Facebook account before they can access the music service. There is no alternative method to using Spotify here in the US; if you don"t have a Facebook account or don"t wish to use Facebook, you can"t sign on to use Spotify.
This all-or-nothing requirement is supposed to allow Spotify users to share which music they are listening to with their Facebook friends. But that prospect doesn"t sit well with a number of people. The Getsatisfaction.com web site has comments from a number of users similar to this one: "Not cool. My Spotify account isn"t linked to Facebook, and it"ll stay that way, thankyouverymuch. If I didn"t have an account already, this would prevent me from signing up."
For his part, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has been responding to messages on his Twitter page from angry patrons. One message had Ek saying, "About FB registrations. We want to remove the barrier to sign-up and create a more seamless experience. As we think our users are social." In another message he said, "We"ll try lots of things, and probably screw up from time to time, but we value feedback and will make changes based on it."
Meanwhile if you have both a Spotify and Facebook account and want to keep your music from being seen by your friends, Spotify offers up an easy way to make that happen. In Spotify"s preferences section, simply uncheck the box with the "Get personal recommendations by sending music you play to Facebook"s Open Graph" label.