Online music, and confusion

We're big fans of the online music service Spotify here in the Computeractive office.

Most of us have stumped up for either the Premium or Unlimited subscriptions. Admittedly, for most of us it was a result of a steady increase in the amount of ads being played, but we'd all say it was worth it.

But some people disagree: the responses to blog posts by our communities editor Tim and editor Paul were mixed, to say the least (there aren't many comments on the blog posts themselves, but they elicited a fiery response on our Facebook page and in the office postbag).

For many, online music has been devalued to the point at which it's not worth paying for it. Or maybe, it's just a matter of being utterly confused by the idea of online music altogether, as illustrated by an illuminating comment on Charlie Brooker's recent Guardian column on the same subject:

I once worked for an internet service provider. And believe it or not we used to get calls from people complaining about the sound quality of music they'd downloaded illegally. They'd even turn abusive when we told them it had nothing do with us.

- user JoeMcCann, Guardian website