Get a quick and easy invitation to Spotify
Tired of waiting for an invite to this much-buzzed-about new music service? Don't worry, the Cheapskate's got you covered.
By now you've probably heard about on-demand music service Spotify, which has finally arrived in the U.S. (As CNET's Donald Bell noted in his hands-on coverage of Spotify, "music fans have reason to cheer.") For now, however, it's invitation-only--and invitations have been very slow in coming.
Until now. Good old Coca-Cola is offering free Spotify invitations to anyone willing to supply an e-mail address. And I like the company's little privacy disclaimer:
"As much as Coke loves to share, we will NOT be giving your information to any third parties. Only Spotify and Coke will have this information. Seriously. This stays between us."
Fair enough. I entered my e-mail address and received my invite less than 30 minutes later. Your mileage may vary, of course, but this looks to be about the fastest way yet to hop on the Spotify bandwagon.
Once you've signed up for your account, you'll need to download the Spotify client (which is available for Mac and Windows). If you want Spotify on your smartphone or other mobile device, you'll need to upgrade to a Premium account, which costs $9.99 monthly.
Personally, I'm not so ga-ga over the service as some folks. I mean, I like having on-demand access to such a mammoth library of music, but Spotify is by no means the only fish in that sea. In fact, I tend to prefer services that let me discover new music, like Pandora and Slacker.
But if you're among those who wept with joy when Spotify finally arrived on U.S. shores (digitally speaking), leave a comment letting me know why. Maybe I'm missing something.
For everyone else, here's your chance to try the service for yourself--no charge, no strings attached, and no long wait.
Bonus deal: Snapfish is offering a pretty sweet deal on photo processing: 100 4x6-inch prints for $1 or 200 prints for $2, when you use coupon code JULY100PRNTS or JULY200PRNTS, respectively. You're still on the hook for shipping (around $5 to $10, depending on how many prints you order), but you're getting the prints for just a penny apiece.