Uh, I missed that one.

I feel like I missed something here.  Do you remember Matthew Sweet?  Well, I don't.  But I wish that I did.
Upon a recent jaunt through Spotify's music recommendations, I connected to Sweet's music after completing a full listen of Jellyfish's "Spilt Milk" (which, by the way, happens to be a fantastic album).  So there I am, listening to Sweet's "Girlfriend" and realizing that I just absolutely missed this album.
You know that feeling when you discover a diamond in the rough?  Yeah, that was this one.  It got me thinking though, how could I have missed this?
It was 1991 and I feel like I was gobbling up as much music as I could, and yet this slipped right through the cracks.  At the time, the best way to discover new music was on the radio or from a friend's mixtape, so it's no wonder that I find this little gem all these years later combing an extensive catalog of music.  That's the beauty of a system like Spotify or iTunes or any of the other online libraries, suddenly the power is right in your hands.  No longer is it necessary to listen to what the radio wants you to hear.  You create your own radio and listen to what you want to hear.  There's a Matthew Sweet out there for everyone.  What's yours?

The Last Music Library You'll Ever Need. Until the Next One.

Look out iTunes, Spotify is here.  For those of you that haven't experienced the wave of music's future, I encourage you to go to www.spotify.com and download the last music library system you will ever need.  Sure, it took a while for it to get to the US, but now that it's here, I can't imagine it going anywhere else.

What amazes me so much about Spotify, though, is that it does seem to have staying power over all the other music player start-ups that have come (and pretty much gone at this point).  MOG?  Rdio?  Last.fm?  Anyone use these any more?  Or did you ever to begin with?  I really liked Rhapsody when it came out, but why pay $10/month, when I can get Spotify's music for free?  And the radio advertisements aren't yet annoying.  I almost enjoy listening to them because I know that's the only way any of the artists are getting paid (from those advertisements).   Maybe it's just Spotify's slick interface that out-shines the rest of them.  Essentially, it feels like iTunes, just without 30-second snippets and having to purchase everything.  Instead, it's all neatly organized and F R E E, free.

So, I guess the next question is... what's going to take its place next year?  Free iTunes?