Clever MN people - talk to me of spotify.

[champagnesupernova]

Mate is getting married and venue has suggested using a spotify playlist as background music when people arrive.

How do we get started with this?

you will need a spotify account to create the playlist. assuming you don't have one, ask the venue to let you use theirs or to send you an invitation to join spotify.

you used to be able to join quite easily but they have tightened up things

If you want an account you have to go to the spotify website. You may need an invite if you want a free account. It sounds if the venue may already have access, in which case all they need is alist of your mates favourite tunes.

Now that Spotify isn't free for newcomers it'd mean you'd need to subscribe (if only for a month, just a few weeks before the wedding) to build a playlist. The free version would play adverts too, which would not go down too well!

I'm a bit puzzled as to why a venue would suggest it - the internet is hardly 'robust' for having that as a major source of the music.

The venue could do something much better, if they bought Sonos music players (there are at least 3 different units - one can just feed audio into the venue's amp to provide the background, and there's a free application for iPhone/ iPod Touch to use as a remote control, so choosing your playlist could be done before the wedding. The Sonos system can play from any network PC is can 'see' and/ or from Napster (the venue could afford a fiver a month quite easily!)

I think a better option might be to build a set of MP3s and a playlist to be used from a USB Flash Drive or write the lot onto CD (or CDs, keep at least a couple of backups and have a cheap DVD/MP3 player in the boot in case theirs packs in.

Using the internet as a source could be a nightmare - if the link is down, or there's a problem with Napster / Spotify, then a pile of 'proper' CDs and/or CDs holding MP3 copies of tracks would seem a more reliable method to me.

Good points from others about the venue giving you an invite to join Spotify (I only have a free account, so am unable to offer an invite).

I still stand by my feeling that the net isn't reliable enough for this type of use, and without wishing to sound harsh, wonder if the venue has really considered any backup in case of network/ website problems?