To our new Dutch readers and the rest of you new music fans, welcome to the Pansentient League, a blog that’s (mostly) about music-streaming service Spotify. You’ll find all sorts of Spotify-related articles and links on this site, as well as some reviews and news about my favourite music genres and the occasional post on science-fiction books and gadgets.

If you’re new to Spotify, here’s a primer with some of the best links and resources to help you get the most out of Europe’s most awesome music service.

Some essential Spotify links:

• The SPOTIFY RESOURCES page at the top of the blog lists all the very latest Spotify-related site, blog, application, and resource. Every couple of months or so, the list is moved across to the Spotify Resources Page on Spotify’s own website.

• We recently ran the first Spotify Community Site Awards – The Spotties! – where thousands of Spotify fans voted for their favourite sites and apps across several categories such as Best Playlist Sharing Site and Best Remote Control.  Here are the winners!

• Spotify used to publish lists of all the new music released on their service. They don’t do this anymore, so instead check out the NEW ON SPOTIFY page for a list of new-release albums and singles added to Spotify over the last 7 days.

• Your favourite band not on Spotify? An album you love that was there last week has disappeared from Spotify? Although the library of songs is growing at a phenomenal rate, the record labels and artists sometimes decide to remove their music. SPOTIFY REMOVALS lists what’s Missing In Action.

• Spotify Twitter List – Real-time list of Spotify news and views as tweeted by the most influential Spotify users on Twitter.

Here are some of the most popular Spotify-themed posts on this site from the past year:

• The Spotify Money Flow – a simple graphic to show how artists get paid by Spotify.
• Why I Subscribed to Spotify Premium – I used the free service few months then went premium. Here’s why.
• How Spotify Replaces Piracy for Music Discovery – Another simple graphic to highlight the shift from illegal bittorrents.
• Spotify: An Independent Artist’s View – Guest-post from the synth band Northern Kind which provoked a fascinating comments thread about the pros and cons of indie artists releasing their music on Spotify.
• How to Support Your Favourite Bands – Some ideas on how to say thank you for the music.

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Here are a few tips and tricks:

• Managing Your Spotify Music Collection – One way to manage all your music in Spotify.
• Replacing your mp3 Collection with Spotify Shortcuts – How to clear up some disk space.
• Who to Follow on Twitter for Spotify Users – Some of the regular Spotify tweeters.
• 5 Tips for Making a Better Spotify Playlist– A few suggestions to take or leave.

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And here are some content-related posts:

• Labels on Spotify – A clickable list of some of my favourite record labels on Spotify.
• Science Fiction TV Soundtracks on Spotify – Two of my favourite things: Sci-Fi and music!
• Stand-Up Comedy on Spotify – Spotlighting some of the wealth of stand-up comedy in Spotify.
• Videogame Soundtracks on Spotify – A look at computer game music in Spotify.

Finally check out my Spotify Predictions for 2010 – looks like a few have come true already…

Is there a feature you’d like to see about Spotify? Let us know in the comments!

Pansentient League

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