Try before you buy?

Downloading songs has always been an awkward topic in music...witness the dispute between Metallica and Napster. Lars 'Loudmouth' Ulrich may have been right, but got the PR battle wrong.

BitTorrent and other services use P2P (peer to peer networks) to access tunes, albums and much more on a legal footing that is less than clear...i.e. illegal! At this point we at belfastmetalheadsreunited should apologise to Magnum, Marillion and Alestorm. Albums have been downloaded from BitTorrent sources. In defence, m'Lord we say that (a) we already have Magnum and Marillion tracks on vinyl and cassette and just wanted it on the PC without hassle and (b) we bought Alestorm CDs after listening to downloads.

The reason why this post is appearing is that we have discovered Spotify. Spotify is like LastFM, only better. For a start - it appears - that the bands on Spotify receive actual money when you listen to tracks on Spotify. So far this has revealed that we have an eclectic set of tastes!

Spotify also enables devotees to exchange playlists. Playlists so far have encouraged us to shell out the cash for Duff McKagan's Loaded mix of punk and classic rock CD, Sick and caused endless pining for Panic Cells' 'What Doesn't Kill Us' CD which a certain person has in their posession...just one email please to return this asap!

One of the main reasons for this post is to encourage local acts to get in touch with Spotify. Spotify charges for tracks to appear; but get all your acquaintances, Myspace mates, Facebook friends and Bebo buddies to downloads your tracks and...money!

Norn Iron's hard rock and metal scene deserves to dominate Spotify!