Spotify

While there are many comparable music streaming programs like Pandora and Slacker, I'm going to look at Spotify and how it relates to computer science in this blog entry. After the Spotify software is installed into your computer's hardware, your computer is entered into the peer-to-peer (P2P) network in which your computer sends data to Spotify's network and Spotify's network sends data to you and to any computer that is wired into the P2P network. 

When a song or album is selected, it sends a command to the software to transmit the data to your computer. In the same way, when the song or album has been completed, your computer is sent a command to transmit the data back through the P2P network. If the song or album is downloaded to the computer, the data is actually stored into the computer and is not sent back through the P2P network. 

The data that is sent through the P2P network is in the Vorbis format because it creates small and easily transferred files. The result is a shorter latency which means that the time between picking a song and hearing it play is much shorter. It also starts "pre-fetching" the next song in your playlist or album to help reduce the wait between songs even more. What do all of these things mean? Spotify has thoughtfully manipulated its programming and streaming system to give us the best music experience it can. Thanks Spotify!

References:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/audio-music/spotify6.htm

http://www.dummies.com/social-media/spotify/how-spotify-works/

https://www.engadget.com/2012/10/09/samsung-spotify-smart-tv/

http://gizmodo.com/5995060/how-spotify-got-itself-a-new-logo