I see that Spotify is changing its terms:

"New Spotify users will be able to enjoy our unrivalled free service as it is today for the first 6 months.
As of May 1st, any user who signed up to the free service on or before November 1st 2010 will be able to play each track for free up to a total of 5 times. Users who signed up after the beginning of November will see these changes applied 6 months after the time they set up their Spotify account.
Additionally, total listening time for free users will be limited to 10 hours per month after the first 6 months. That’s equivalent to around 200 tracks or 20 albums."

Another nail in the coffin of The Age of The Free Tinterweb...

Full story: https://www.spotify.com/se/blog/archives/2011/04/14/upcoming-changes-to-...

Anyone in Yorkshire fancy suggesting a date and venue?

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/yorkshire-massive-meet

Lordy. Yesterday, I was looking for a pop song for my kids and I opened Spotify. In the 'Top Lists' section is a song by Enrique Iglesias sweetly called 'Tonight (I'm ****ing You)'. The asterisks - which don't appear on Spotify - are the well known anglo Saxon swear word beginning with 'F'. There is an alternative version called Tonight (I'm Loving You), in the same way that Ceelo Green's fantastic 'Forget You' is a version of the much dumber '**** You'.

What happened to innuendo and subtlety in music? Is this in your face out and out profanity about record sales and impact? Or are artists genuinely happy to swear like troopers? Would Smokie Robinson's 'Who's Loving You?' have sold more is it was called 'Who's ****ing You'? How about if Bad Company had made 'Feel Like ****ing You'? Can you imagine if Top of the Pops did come back? It would be post-watershed, viewing along with the rest of Sweary TV.

Any other examples of crass single-entendre in pop spotted by the Massive?

http://www.conoroberst.com/ has news of July shows in Birmingham, Gateshead, Leeds and Manchester to add to the sold out Albert Hall gig in June... Lovely.

The GLW uses Mumsnet, which has a whole section of AIBU? questions and I have one which I'd like the Massive to pass comment on...

I'm down in London next weekend for a night out with an old friend. He lives a hour from central London and we're meeting in town for a wander and chinwag. I suggested a beer with various friends for a boys night out in the evening before we schlep back to his place. Chum is up for this so I put the word out to various mutual friends. We're all married, all have kids, all have partners.

One mutual friend of long standing calls to say he's up for it and - here's the crux - will be bringing his GLW too. Mention this to Pal I'm staying with expecting surprise; he then says that his GLW won't be joining us as she has given up trying to enjoy company of mutual friend's GLW...

Am I being unreasonable to expect that a boy's night out should be just that?

Latest in a series (see posts passim) for kids and parents. Missing songs Spotify doesn't have include Do You Wanna Go? and Cartwheels and Somersaults by Justin Roberts, The Vowel Family by They might Be Giants and Daffy Duck's Rhapsody - which I strongly recommend.

http://open.spotify.com/user/dafridge/playlist/3ob4ccm55Bf7nxCtkgbIBz

And its a collaborative list, so feel free to add to it...

I'm off out tonight to a cinema I haven't been to for twenty odd years (the Cottage Road in Leeds), and had a discussion with my wife in which we remembered going to see a film with an interval there back in the day. In fact, we saw lots of films with intervals. It wasn't unusual for a film over two hours or so.

Does this still happen in the UK? Last time I recall it was in Wanaka, New Zealand, about five years ago. But in the UK? Any Massive cinemas still do half time ice cream?

I've just started using a car to commute to work and I want to be able to connect my iPod to the car radio. I'm also getting fed up of the low-ish quality playback, which is rubbish compared to the £50 Sennheiser earbuds I normally use to listen to my iPod.

Having spoken to a couple of entirely useless sales people in my local car accessories emporia, I'm not much closer to deciding what might actually make my car-based listening more pleasurable. Has any member of the Massive found any kit which might help?

I keep meaning to ask this - is there any kind of Album review index for the magazine? I'd find it useful to refer back to reviews in the months following publication - could someone keep a list on the website somewhere?

Here's a playlist of songs for kids which won't drive parents (too) crazy... For every Balamory/Thomas the Tank Engine you get a little Radiohead/Waterboys/Nick Drake, and some non-plinky-plonk versions of kid's favourites. Enjoy!

http://open.spotify.com/user/dafridge/playlist/2GBMg2rFfcLytLRevFCb7c

Apologoies for hijacking the usual format, but it's August and the office is probably empty, so it's user content all the way...

It's Spotify Friday again and today's theme is Sport, specifically Cricket in honour of today's test.

Add them to our Sport Spotify playlist and share the love.

THE RULES:
1] Be sparing. One track per band, no wholesale additions – nobody wants to hear the whole of that Deluxe Edition b-sides disc, do they?
2] Keep the quality up.
3] There are no more rules.

Chocks away – add your voice to the sound of the crowd.

http://open.spotify.com/user/dafridge/playlist/2Es6KKvgLRMPQLGFwg8sLc

Following on from the minor skirmish on DH's Michael Jackson thread, how much influence did Depeche Mode have on the techno/dance explosion of the late 80s?

I've always felt that this track http://open.spotify.com/track/02b6ICVNdyN15o9AKFgyLz from 1986's Black Celebration must have had a big impact, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that DM were influenced by others. The obvious links are Kraftwerk et al, but this thumping bass line played on a synthesiser merged with electronic percussion and 'haunted' synth melody seemed new to me at the time and on the road to umpteen later dance tracks.

Anyone in the Massive know better?

I went to see Maximo Park last week. Totting it up, it was the tenth time I'd seen them, mainly because I saw them a lot when they first broke through and I like their lead singer a lot.

The only other people I've seen ten or more times are Prince - the most amazing live performer I have ever seen, and someone I would watch every night of the week, forever - and Depeche Mode - the best 'big show' act I've ever seen and, well, if you do, you do.

Most other performers I've seen once or twice and then been disappointed and not bothered to return. It really does take something special to make you want to return to the well again and again.

Anyone else you've seen ten times or more?

Not likely to be a Word favourite, I'd have thought, but just in case - is anyone else looking forward to the new Major League Baseball season? I've had Ry Coodet's Chávez Ravine and Theme Time Radio hour's Baseball episode on Loop in anticipation. I've surprised myself with how excited by the prospect of watching men dressed in 1950 clobber running around some grass...

Anyone else a 'fellow baseball nut?'

My starter for ten: Pop culture is driven by people aged 35.

Why? By the time those in the 'media' get to 35, they are beginning to have the dominant say in what we get to see, hear and read. Generally, people tend to have a huge soft spot for the music and TV they liked when they were between 15 and 18. Whatever those 35 year olds liked then gets pushed back into the mainstream.

Which is why we had the 50s rival in the 70s (Grease, Sha-na-na et al), the 60s fest in the 80s and why Electropop and all things 80s are being shoved at us now. It probably means the Britpop revival is only a few years away, followed by a return to Loungecore/Chill out...

What does the Massive think?