Yes, it has arrived.

Spotify, the music streaming service that for years hindered many a local music accificando from listening to newly-released tracks because their service doesn’t didn’t dig South African IP addresses, launched in the country on Monday.

And we are stoked.

Sure, Apple Music and Deezer might have bigger catalogues, but the Swedish music streaming service is considered the best option out there – if only for its legit recommendations algorithm, intuitive interface, and wide-ranging support for third-party hardware like smart TVs and speakers.

So you will never be without your favourite music.

Stuff, those local dudes who know the tech game more than many, listed a legit list of tips to get the most out of the service, moving you from novice to semi-pro in an hour, max.

Check it:

Local content for the win

Local artists they feature range from Fokofpolsiekar to Moonchild Sanelly, and Johnny Clegg. Then there’s Shortstraw, The Kiffness and even some Cassper Nyovest.

Now you have no excuse for being ignorant.

Just save them, dude

Rather than making playlist after playlist like you’re used to, Spotify in general is way more efficient when you add tracks to your library instead. You can even save a whole album:

Hear a track you like and want to hear the whole album? Click the three dots next to a track (or right click on it) and select “Go to album”. The same menu also lets you view the artist’s whole discography, add a track or album to your queue, add the song to a playlist, share with other users, or even view the song’s credits.

To view songs, albums or artists in your library pick the appropriate category from “Your Library” at the top of the left-hand panel in the desktop or browser apps, or select “My Music” from the tabs at the bottom of the mobile apps.

Discover a whole range of new music

This is the feature you didn’t know you’ve been waiting for:

Every Monday Spotify makes every use a 30-song playlist called Discover Weekly that collects tracks it thinks the user will like based on their listening history. This could be current tracks, classic ones or deep cuts that your history suggests you’ve yet to find. Every Friday users get another personalised playlist, Release Radar, that works similarly, but only adds recent releases. When there haven’t been enough new releases in a week for a whole new playlist you’ll see some of the previous week’s finds down the bottom.

Save your favourite playlists offline

We all know that using data isn’t the most efficient money-saving practice, so you can save your favourite playlists offline:

With a Spotify Premium account you can save tracks offline on up to three devices and manage your devices via the settings menu.

If you update an offline playlist on another device, say your phone, when you desktop is next online and Spotify is open the new tracks will automatically be downloaded.

Beware the 3 333 offline song limit

Weird, but one of Spotify’s quirks is its choice in numbers:

It’ll only let you save 3,333 tracks offline per device, and will only let you add 9,999 tracks to your library. There’s no workaround for the former, but for the latter you can add tracks to playlists, which aren’t subject to the same limits as your library. You’re only likely to run into this problem if, like us, you get a shiny new 256GB phone and try to download your entire song list to it, only to find you get an error message when you hit the (pretty arbitrary) 3,333-track limit.

Use Spotify Connect to play on different devices

Thanks to Bluetooth, Apple’s Airplay speakers, smart TVs and Google Chromecast devices, you can stream audio through them from your phone, tablet or laptop:

To send audio to other devices on desktop click the devices icon next to the volume slider in the player at the bottom of the app. On mobile, tap the “now playing” bar above the section tabs to make it full screen, and then select “Devices available”.

Excited? Sure you are.

Right now, Spotify offers a choice of either the free or Premium package:

The free service is extremely limited, but users can try the Premium service for 30 days before they’ll be charged the R60/month subscription fee.

Spotify is also offering new users the option to sign up to Sony’s PlayStation service and get two months of Premium for R12, but the facility isn’t live yet.

Stuff has a few more tips – here –  otherwise, just pop over here and get listening. Tune!

[source: stuff]