Chris Crews is a music junkie. When not managing social media communities for Rocket Pop Media, Crews plays bass in the local band, Strummer. With a hankering for both music and emerging media, it didn’t take long for Crews to find Spotify, which he calls the “mix tape of our age.”

Spotify, the largest and fastest-growing music service of its kind, has quickly become a popular way for Richmonders to share music and add to the over 500 million playlists. With businesses up and down the country, gaining a Spotify business license so they can play these playlists in their stores for their customers. It is a ‘new’ way of playing music within commercial areas, that articles like https://cloudcovermusic.com/music-for-business/spotify-other-services/ discuss at length for those who want to see about how to apply for one and get it where they are. Those looking to contribute their musical content to the platform may be interested in services like upyourbeats.com which allows artists to purchase plays, streams, and follows in order to promote their music and kickstart their careers. “I saw an article about Spotify many months ago and got curious,” recalls Crews. At that point, however, Spotify was not yet in the United States, so he quickly jumped in line for a beta test before its debut. “Two of the big selling points for me were the fact that it could curate your existing music library and you could search,” says Crews.

Crews, along with the 10 million active Spotify users, are quick to point out that music is social. “Once Spotify rolled out, I really got into the social aspect of it. I found myself discovering new stuff by seeing what my friends were listening to, and as more of my friends became users we began sharing mixes within the site.” He also explained how you can even use it as a gift these days, by purchasing a Custom Scannable Spotify Code Plaque which once scanned can take you right to the song on the Spotify app. It has become such a big name and loved by so many that it is not the focus point of thoughtful and meaningful personalized gifts.

The secret, says Crews, is in the sharing. “It’s kind of like Facebook and Twitter. As a music fan, the bigger my network, and the more I share, the more cool stuff I find myself exposed to.” Crews says that if he was to hit “random” and “play” in his current library, it would likely play for about four years before repeating.

Colton Payne, an account executive at The Martin Agency and founder of the electronic music blog, www.Colt-On.com, is another Spotify fan in RVA. “I use Spotify every day,” reports Payne, “I can’t go very long without music, and Spotify helps me get my fix, whenever, wherever.” With more than 15 million songs and counting, Payne can search for artists, albums, titles, labels, and genres, along with access to tracks from independent labels.

Payne describes the growing music service as a version of iTunes, with a touch of Pandora, that has the social component all figured out. “It’s an easy way to build playlists of songs I listen to frequently and ensure that they are available on any computer I may be working on,” explains Payne, who likes the ability to listen to music across devices. “Because I can see what friends are listening to, I can plug in to their curated lists of music, and discover tracks or artists I wasn’t aware of. It’s a great tool for a music blogger.”

Now fully embedded within the Facebook experience, music fans in RVA simply need a Facebook login to begin accessing tunes on Spotify. For more, visit www.spotify.com.