Spotify is now a Social Butterfly – Takes on Last.fm and iTunes

Spotify has definitely got iTunes and Last.fm in its crosshairs and may have hit the Apple media player squarely ‘tween the eyes with this latest version.

Spotify, in a swift one-two, now handles MP3 playback as well as now pulling in Facebook social stuff to create a Spotify profile showing off your friends and playlists a la Last.fm.

How will this taunt the mighty iTunes? Well, users of Spotify will be used to the streaming and cached tracks playing their choice of tunes but with this latest version you’ll notice new little musical note icons next to some tracks (remember the streamed and cached tracks have no icon?) they’ll be your MP3’s. 😉

As well as that little addition all your iTunes playlists, including your iPod on-the-go playlists and Genius mixes will also appear as Spotify playlists. Before you ask – you can mix MP3’s with cached and streamed tracks in your playlists. Wollop!

Now, if you have an MP3 of an artist that isn’t on Spotify the name will be greyed out but you’ll still be able to play it. On the flip-side, if the artist is on Spotify you’ll be able click their name and be shown a list of the artists tracks Spotify can stream.

When you subscribe to a shared playlist you’ll be able to see all the other users who listen to the list and, if they’ve enabled the new social features, you’ll be able to see their profile and other playlists – new friendships may be born. Tis a beautiful thing 🙂

When you connect via Facebook you create a Spotify profile with your Facebook picture. Your public profile will show your playlists as ten-track tasters that you can edit by reordering the playlist (ie. hiding those guilty pleasures!). Spotify doesn’t store your info but drags your picture and friends list each time you look at your profile – this means you’ll have to connect to Facebook each time.

Thankfully, you can choose to publish your playlists or not.

As well as sharing tracks via Facebook you can sling it over using Twitter or, of course, to a specific Spotify friend.

Is this enough to ditch iTunes?

Well, Spotify will play MP3s and send you over to a store to buy the music just like iTunes. Spotify syncs with your mobile phone just like iTunes.

iTunes doesn’t offer streaming but does have a more sophisticated four-star rating system than Spotify’s single star but iTunes has no sharing function.

iTunes doesn’t let you share playlists except through the iTunes store.

The killer blow is if this is worth the Spotify subscription (or putting up with ads).

So – iTunes or new Spotify?

Let me know 🙂

The new features will be appear automatically next week or, if you can’t wait, you can grab it now at spotify.com/uk/download.