Spotify is the latest music website and maybe the smartest. The music industry has been trapped between fending off the Napsters and disliking Apple’s dominance of paid-for music downloads through its itunes services.

The music industry’s overly protectionist approach to copyright has made music often exorbitantly expensive for certain users – like community radio stations in rural areas with small populations. It has seen clever and successful experiments like Coldplay’s, in releasing new material straight to the web for download at a price decided by the user. It has been beset by a variety of piratic assaults on its stronghold. And itunes still rules.

The industry knows it has to change, finding a way to protect artists’ rights fairly by finding the line between burning off potential users and being endlessly vulnerably to the latest piracy.

So now there’s Spotify – with a very new take on using music. You can listen to what music you like via the site – but you cannot download it. The deal is that you listen to an advertisement every twenty minutes – and that’s where the money comes from.

The site is supposed to be a beta vesion accessible only by invitation – but we were able to download the software and open an account without an invitation – so go check it out and share your reactions here.

What is Spotify?

Spotify