Does anyone know if it's possible to convert the tracks to MP3 and/or burn them to a CD? I'm assuming they're not stored as MP3 format files.

I guess premium is worth it only if 1. ads really bother you. 2. You would use spotify frequently on your phone.

You might as well check out the trial but I'm warning you that's what I did and it just wasn't possible for me to go back to the ad version again.

Yeah pretty much this.  I think the burning to CD of Spotify downloaded files falls in a murky area legally, but it is technically possible (as revealed by a small amount of Googling).

I was using Spotify Premium for a while but now I'm using Google Play Music All Access.  bloodnarfer's reason #2 was why I was paying for Premium.

Thanks Padraic, I did indeed find 2 methods of converting to MP3s by Googling. Both worked ok but quite how legal they are is another matter. It's not clear if I actually "own" the tracks that I've marked as available offline.

I've gone for the trial version - I will use it mainly when working from home where I can stream from my phone to a Bluetooth speaker. Just need to see what their prog selection is like - I listened to Motorpsycho, Haken and Airbag today so it seems ok, but they only had 1 Transatlantic track.

Thanks for the warning but I doubt I would go back to the free version - too many ads and not enough control over what you can play.

But since it seems the same, you do not own the songs so you cannot burn them to CD, Zune uses DRM protection. Since I have been a Zuner since it came out I am grandfathered in to the service that gives me 10 free DRM-free downloads per month, so I own those songs.....I also buy some off the Marketplace, but generally I use the service to discover new music and listen to it before I look for the vinyl or CD to own. What I download stays available and I can make playlist or whatever....I keep them on a portable HD and just have to sync them monthly to renew the DRM play rights.

 

It works for me.....

 

Beyond just offline listening and no ads, I've found Spotify to be a really great way to discover new bands using the 'related artists' feature, or sometimes just by typing random words to see what shows up (check out Lady Lamb the Beekeeper for example). 

 

One thing that can be annoying though is that songs seem to be linked to albums and/or playlists in the Spotify database, so on occasion when going back online a song update can synch and replace a studio version in an offline album playlist with some other version of the same song.  I had this happen with a Cranberries album playlist once and ended up with a live version of "Zombie" where the audience does most of the singing.  Pretty annoying.  Also, there are an awful lot of older prog artists you can't find on Spotify such as Carol of Harvest, Smell of Incense, and Lamb (the San Francisco one).

 

Otherwise I've been pretty happy with Spotify.  If anyone has experience with better services though, I'm all ears...

 

Ie theft. 

If you care about music, don't use Spotify or any streaming app. Support the artist, buy the music. A lot of people here claim to "support musicians" but five years of download stats show me that this is one of the worst sites I go on for people actually paying for music. 

Spotify rips off musicians. The first to go will be "niche" music, and progressive rock is niche. 

Reconverting offline files to a format you can then own and make portable would be a copyright infringement. Full stop. 

Besides, Spotify premium costs a negligible $9.99 a month in the US for a single account, and $14.99 for a family plan. If you use it as frequently as I do, it more than pays for itself.

I feel the onus is on those of us who really care about music, especially niche genres, to represent. Everyone who is a listener needs to know that they're only supporting their favourites if they buy physical media or downloads, or get out and see them live. Preferably both!

Just to point out this is a 4 year old thread that a spammer dug up to promote their product.

I do use Spotify but I also buy a lot of prog CDs to support a number of prog bands such as The Tangent, Lifesigns, Pendragon, I Am The Manic Whale to name but a few. The reason I asked the question in the first place was to see if I could transfer files to my MP3 player to listen to on the train and I asked it before I fully understood the workings of Spotify. I was not and am not trying to "shortcut the artist".

Though I agree with the sentiment here, https://community.spotify.com/t5/Accounts/When-and-how-does-Spotify-count-songs-as-quot-listened-to-quot/td-p/952243" rel="nofollow - a song only needs to be streamed for 30 seconds in order for it to count as a stream, therefore paying the artist. This has actually been a problem with bots on Spotify, created by scummy managers trying to make a buck off of mediocre artists. Independent music and the internet at large has a bot problem, and I wish more people were talking about it because it's insanely frustrating.