WIMP – Spotify, watch out

A couple of weeks ago I was given an invitation token to a new streaming service much similar to Spotify. This new service with the project name WIMP is also based on the same technical setup as Spotify, coded in AIR. The main difference however is that where Spotify will remain free, you need to pay to use WIMP. Why? They do not believe in a comercial based income model. Fair enough. My first impression when loading the client is that it’s far better looking and more organized than Spotify.

The client is easy to use, intuitive and the learning curve is pretty easy. You have a easy and quick-to-access search field to the upper-right, you have navigation buttons to the upper-left. The image above show how the welcome screen is setup and is the first thing you see when you log on. Here you find latest additions, both albums and songs. You have recommendations, playlists – and of course the top 10 albums/songs. Not to mention the player. Player itself is located to the bottom of the client, with album art, song information and of course a complete list of your current song queue. The search results is nicely organized into albums and songs, and you can quickly browse down to what you want to listen to.

One of the features I do like a lot, is the integration to Last.fm, as well as the quick and easy option to buy any song or album and have it directly delivered to your computer as a MP3 file. A service that works very good. You have a easy way to share playlists on facebook, and I suspect that by the time they open for the public, you will have even more sharing options. The client also show artist information, and together with intuitive functions like drag-and-drop functionality for creating playlists, this is starting to become quite a competor for Spotify. One thing that really makes this the best client for me, is their toll on artists that aren’t on Spotify – like Metallica. All in all, a great client, a great project – and I can’t wait for it to come out of beta stage. Oh, and if you read this Aspiro, feel free to expand my trial period.

Screenshots from WIMP:

Sources:

• http://wimp.aspiro.com/