Tablets and smartphones have been able to pick up a lot of the work you used to be able to do on your desktop computer, but there's one area the old faithful still holds the advantage - Spotify.
There are many music subscription services available today, but that's the one that's caught my eye. A common question I'm asked is how to use it on a mobile device. My answer? You have to pay to make the most of it.
That's not really the answer anyone's looking for but Spotify's strength isn't its free mobile app. You can transfer your own songs from your computer to your device and listen through the app for free, but you could already do that without needing the Spotify app. If you pay, you can stream radio and on-demand music from the enormous online catalogue as well as download playlists for times you're going to be away from the wifi. The paid option is worth looking at if you spend a fair bit of money on music and primarily listen to it on your mobile device. Apparently six million people have signed up. But the free option is a no-brainer if you listen to music at home and your computer or laptop have decent speakers. As mentioned, the catalogue is huge - you can just search for any artist, any song, and be listening to it straightaway.
Queue up a whole bunch of favourite tracks or organise them into playlists to hear again later. It's also a great way of trying before buying that new album you have your eye on.
It's a social tool too. You can share tracks through Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr and, if you want, friends can see feeds of what you're listening to. Some of my friends insist the bubblegum pop music on their feed is on their kids' playlists, but I have my suspicions.
