If you’ve lost track of your various iTunes subscriptions, there’s a relatively easy way to view them all at once, as well as manage which ones will (or won’t) renew themselves automatically.

You’ll need to open iTunes on a Mac or PC to view and manage your iTunes Store subscriptions.

First, launch iTunes on your Mac or PC desktop, then click Account, View My Account. You’ll probably be prompted to enter your iTunes Store password (which, remember, may or may not be the same as your iCloud account) before you can proceed.

Once that’s done, you’ll land on the Account Information page. Scroll down to the Settings section, then click the Manage link to the right of  your iTunes Subscriptions.

Now you should be at the Manage Subscriptions screen, where you’ll see a list of your active and expired iTunes subscriptions. For each entry, you’ll see the date when the subscription ends, as well as whether the subscription has its “automatic renewal” setting on or off.

To turn off automatic renewal for a subscription, click the Edit link, then toggle off the “Automatic Renewal” setting—and don’t worry, your subscription will remain active until its expiration date.

Click here for more Mac tips!

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Hi George! While you can’t actually delete unwanted apps from iCloud, you can hide them from your list of purchased items.

(And in case you’re wondering, no—purchased apps don’t count against your allotment of iCloud storage.)

You can hide apps, music, videos, or books from your Purchased list with a little help from iTunes.

Now, you used to be able to hide purchased apps directly from your iPhone/iPad, but that feature seems to have been disabled sometime after last fall’s big iOS 6 update.

That said, you can still hide apps—or purchased music, videos, or books for that matter—with a little help from iTunes on your Mac or PC.

Here’s how…

• Just open iTunes, click on the iTunes Store tab, click Apps (or Music or Videos), then click the Purchased link in the right column.
• You’ll see a grid of all the apps you’ve ever purchased from the App Store, and each one will have a little “X” next to its icon.
• Click the X, and poof! The app will disappear from your Purchased list.

Bonus tip

Want to get your hidden apps, music, or videos back? No problem…

• Open iTunes again, click the iTunes Store tab, tap the button marked with your iTunes user name, then select Account.
• On the next page, under the “iTunes in the Cloud” heading, click the “Manage” link next to “Hidden Purchases.”
• You should now see a listing of all your hidden purchases in iTunes and the App Store. Just click the “Unhide” button next to anything you want re-listed in your “Purchased” apps.

Looking for more iPhone tips? Click here, or click here for help with your iPad.

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Hi Libby! Yep, we can fix this. All you have to do is tweak a key setting in iTunes.

Don’t want your iPad or iPhone to sync with iTunes automatically? Just tweak a key setting.

Let’s get started…

• Open iTunes, then click Edit (on a PC) or iTunes (on a Mac), and select Preferences from the drop-down menu.
• Click the Devices tab at the top of the Preferences window, then check the box labeled “Prevent iPod, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically.”
• Click OK.

Now, when you connect your iPad (or iPhone, or iPod Touch) to your PC, it won’t immediately start syncing thousands of songs, photos, and apps.

Click the “Sync” button once you’re ready to sync your device with iTunes.

Once you decide you are ready to sync, just click the iPad (or iPhone) button in the top-right corner of the iTunes interface (or in the left sidebar, if the sidebar is enabled), then click the Sync button in the bottom-right corner.

Hope that helps, Libby.

Still have questions? Let me know!

Click here for more iPad tips, or click here for help with your iPhone.

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Of course, the MiniPlayer won’t do much good if its buried under an avalanche of desktop windows. Luckily, there’s a way to keep the MiniPlayer floating above the fray.

The iTunes MiniPlayer lets you play and pause your music, search your tunes, queue up new tracks, and more.

On a Mac:

• Click the Window menu, then select MiniPlayer (to show both the main iTunes interface and the MiniPlayer at once) or “Switch to MiniPlayer” (to turn the iTunes interface into the MiniPlayer remote).
• You can also click the rectangular MiniPlayer icon in the top-right corner of the iTunes interface, or press the COMMAND + OPTION + M keyboard shortcut.

You can toggle between the main iTunes window and the MiniPlayer by clicking the “Switch to MiniPlayer” option (seen here in the Windows version of iTunes).

On a Windows PC:

• Click the menu icon in the top-left corner of the iTunes interface, then select “Switch to MiniPlayer,” or use the CONTROL + SHIFT + M keyboard shortcut.
• To use both the main iTunes window and the MiniPlayer at once, click View from the menu bar (which you may need to reveal by pressing CONTROL + B) and then select Show MiniPlayer.

Now that you’ve got the MiniPlayer on your desktop, how do you keep it visible above your other desktop windows?

Here’s the trick:

• Click iTunes, Preferences (on a Mac) or Edit, Preferences (for Windows), then click the Advanced tab.
• Check the box labeled “Keep MiniPlayer on top of all other windows.”

Bonus tip

 
Like the song that’s playing? Hover your mouse over the album cover in the MiniPlayer, click the little arrow immediately to the right, then select “Add to” from the pop-up menu to add the track to a playlist.

Note: You’ll need to upgrade to the just-released iTunes 11 to add a song to a playlist from the MiniPlayer.

Got more iTunes questions? Post ’em in the comments below.

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Hi Allan! Yes, you’re right: if your iPad is already synced with iTunes on another computer, the copy of iTunes on your system will try to wipe the apps, music, photos and other goodies off your iPad the moment you connect it to your laptop.

Just check the box to keep iTunes from immediately syncing a connected iPad, iPhone, or iPod.

The first step is to prevent iTunes from syncing automatically with your iPad:

• Open iTunes, click the iTunes menu (on a Mac) or Edit (on a PC) in the top-left corner of your screen, then select Preferences.
• Click the Devices tab, then check the box marked “Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically.”
• Click OK.

Now, when you connect your iPad with iTunes, your iPad will appear in the left column of the iTunes interface, under the Devices heading—but nothing will get synced.

You can also go ahead and click the “Info,” “Apps,” “Music,” “Movies,” “TV Shows,” and “Photos” tabs along the top of the iTunes window, and you’ll notice that none of the “sync” options (such as “Sync Apps” or “Sync Music”) are checked.

If you do check any of those “sync” boxes, iTunes will again warn you that it will wipe the relevant content from your iPad before proceeding.

Of course, you could always re-download any apps, music, or other items that you’ve previously purchased from iTunes. But songs, snapshots, or anything else that didn’t come from the iTunes store will be erased for good.

So … now what?

If your iPhone or iPad is already synced with an iTunes library, iTunes on another system will try to wipe your content before it begins syncing.

When it comes to your music and photos, you’ll need to get them off your iPad before trying to sync with iTunes—and for that, you’ll need the help of some third-party applications.

Lifehacker has a handy list of programs that will copy music from an iPad, iPhone or iPod to your desktop. My personal favorite is Senuti for Mac ($19, or free for a limited demo version), which lets you pull tunes off any iDevice in just a few clicks.

Once you’ve copied your music to your laptop, you can then drag all your albums into the iTunes interface, then (once you’re ready) check the iTunes “Sync Music” box.

And what about your photos? The good news is that iTunes won’t erase any photos sitting in your iPad’s camera roll, even if your iPad is synced with another photo library.

The bad news? Any other photos in your iPad’s photo library (including those synced from another system) will get erased, unless you back them up first.

An easy (and free) solution I found in the App Store is called WiFi Photo Transfer, an app that lets you wirelessly transfer any and all images from an iPhone, iPad or iPod to a nearby PC or Mac, so long as both devices are connected to the same local Wi-Fi network.

What about apps, contacts, and other content on your iPad? In general, the same rules apply. Click, say, “Sync Apps,” and iTunes will erase all the apps on your iPad and replace them with the apps stored in iTunes.

Keep in mind, though, that you can always sync some items through iTunes and not others.

For example, you could sync your music and photos while keeping the “Sync Apps” or “Sync Contacts” boxes unchecked.

And remember, you can wirelessly back up most of your iPad data, including items that aren’t synced with iTunes, with a free iCloud account.

Hope that helps, Allan.

Still have questions? Let me know!

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Sure, I’ll rent the odd feature from iTunes or stream a TV show from Netflix’s instant streaming catalog; after all, it beats slogging to the local video store in a snowstorm. But I’m still partial to good old-fashioned discs, even if it means waiting a day or two before pressing “play.”

Why trek to a Redbox kiosk, drive to Blockbuster (yes, they’re still around), or wait for a red Netflix envelope to arrive in the mail when you could stream a movie rental with a single mouse click? Well, there are at least five good reasons I can think of, starting with…

1. DVDs and Blu-rays never buffer
Once in a blue moon, I’ll get a scuffed DVD from Netflix that skips just as you’re about to find out whodunnit—and no, that’s not cool.

Far more aggravating, though, are the times when the movie I’m streaming grinds to a halt, usually due to a choppy broadband connection. (Anyone with a cable modem who’s tried to stream an instant Netflix video on a Saturday night—precisely when everyone else on the block is also trying to stream a Netflix movie—will know what I’m talking about.) Sure, the video stream usually resumes after “buffering” for a few seconds, but the interruptions can be jarring, not to mention frequent.

2. Blu-ray picture quality can’t be beat
Several streaming-video services now offer HD instant movies and TV shows at full 1080p resolution, but not all 1080p video is created equal. Indeed, even the rock-solid high-def videos you’ll see from the likes of Vudu, Xbox Live and Netflix look a little soft compared to the razor-sharp picture on the best Blu-ray discs.

For my money, “Avatar” looks more astonishing on Blu-ray than it did in 3D at my local IMAX theater, and I was equally impressed by the theater-like image quality of “The Tree of Life” on Blu-ray.

Related: 10 classic, must-have Blu-ray movies

A recent viewing of “Moneyball” at 1080p over Xbox Live’s “Zune” video store looked … well, just OK (maybe somewhere between DVD and Blu-ray quality). Now, “just OK” might work fine for a straight-ahead drama like “Moneyball,” but it’s a shame when it comes to an epic like “Tree of Life,” or the newly restored “Gone With the Wind.”

And while some of the videos in Netflix’s instant catalog look surprisingly good (take “Black Hawk Down,” for instance), too many are marred by VHS-quality transfers that have been cropped to fit your HDTV screen.

3. You want it, you got it
Probably the biggest complaints I hear about Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service is that the selection stinks—and specifically, that the 25,000-odd streaming titles on Netflix are continually being shuffled in and out, seemingly at random. And while the video catalogs of à la carte streaming services like iTunes and Amazon tend to be a bit more stable, individual titles may still be yanked in deference to the home-video “windows” of such premium-cable channels like HBO and Showtime.

On the other hand, a quick glance at Netflix’s DVD and Blu-ray catalog reveals a staggering number of movies and TV shows—more than 100,000, all told, including just about every movie ever made.

And while the big movie studios have started holding back their latest releases from Netflix, Redbox and Blockbuster for a month or more (to boost streaming and pay-per-view rentals, or so the theory goes), you can at least be fairly confident a DVD that’s available for rent today will still be available tomorrow, next week, and the following month.

4. Subtitles and alternate audio tracks
More and more streaming-video services are offering subtitles and closed-captions for their instant-watch titles—particularly Netflix, which only recently began adding English subtitles to its streaming collection. Still, too many streaming-video services fail to offer subtitles or alternate-language tracks for their rentals, which can be particularly annoying for a) hard-of-hearing viewers and b) those of us who’d rather not hear Gérard Depardieu speak in badly dubbed English.

DVDs and Blu-ray discs, on the other hand, typically offer a generous selection of subtitle and audio options—perfect for, say, non-English speakers who want to watch the new “Star Trek” movie with Portuguese subtitles, or movie lovers who like hearing the actors in French films speak, you know, French.

5. Bring on the extras
For the most part, the movies and TV shows available for streaming come without any documentaries, deleted scenes, audio commentaries, or any other “extras” at all, save for a few exceptions on iTunes and Vudu.

Granted, most of us don’t really care about extras or bonus features when it comes to popcorn-munchers like “Friends with Benefits” or “Captain America.” But if you want Roger Ebert to give you an audio tour of “Citizen Kane” (and I highly recommend you do), you’ll have to rent the DVD or the new Blu-ray to listen in.

So, what about you? Are you still renting movies and TV shows on DVD and Blu-ray, or are you ditching discs for streaming?

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Sure, you could transfer your songs to your iPhone or iPad, but not everyone has enough room on their handsets for all those tunes—especially when it comes to music lovers with a gazillion digital albums sitting on their desktop hard drives.

Enter iTunes Match, a just-launched music service from Apple that features an online, digital “locker” for all your music, which you can stream on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, so long as there’s an Internet connection handy. You’ll also be able to stream “matched” music from iTunes on your Apple TV.

Now, iTunes Match isn’t the only so-called digital music “locker” on the market; Amazon, for one, offers its “Cloud Player,” and there’s also Google Music.

iTunes Match scans all the music on your hard drive, and then “matches” them with high-quality versions that you can stream from iCloud.

But iTunes Match offers a clever feature that Amazon and Google don’t (or at least, not yet): the ability to scan the music on your hard drive, and then quickly “match” those songs with high-quality versions of each track that are already sitting on Apple’s iCloud servers.

That’s a much speedier process than uploading each and every MP3 you own to your digital music account—a chore that could take hours or days, depending on the size of your music collection and the speed of your Internet connection.

Of course, iTunes Music comes with strings attached. For starters, it’ll cost you: think $25 a year for 25,000 songs (any tracks purchased from iTunes don’t count against the limit, by the way), plus more for additional storage.

Also, while Apple has about 20 million tracks in its iCloud library, it probably won’t be able to match everything in your personal collection—and that means you probably will have to upload at least some songs to your music-locker-in-the-sky. So yes, you may still be in for a long wait, especially if you have a lot of obscure tunes on your hard drive.

And while you’re free to stream your music over your iPhone’s 3G connection, doing so will count against any data limits in your monthly wireless plan, so make sure to stream with caution. (You can also disable cellular music streaming by tapping Settings, Store on your iPhone or iPad, and then switching “Use Cellular Data” to “Off.”)

So, ready to starting scanning and matching? Here’s how to get started.

• First, you’ll need the latest version of iTunes (10.5.1), which Mac users can grab by launching iTunes and selecting “Check for Updates” from the iTunes menu. On a PC, launch iTunes, then select “Check for Updates” from the Help menu. If the latest version of iTunes doesn’t pop up, you can download it directly right here.
• You should also sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch with iTunes before switching to iTunes Match. The reason: iCloud will wipe all the tunes stored on your iDevice before replacing them with music from iTunes Match. Theoretically, that shouldn’t be a problem, since all your music should still be sitting safely in the iTunes library on your Mac or PC; that said, better safe than sorry.
• On iTunes, click iTunes Match in the left column, then click the blue Subscribe button once you’re ready to pay the $25 annual subscription fee.
• Next, iTunes should begin the process of scanning your music library, sending the results to Apple, and then determining how many songs it can match. The process should take anywhere from 10 minutes to half an hour, depending on the size of your music collection—and once that’s done, any matched songs will be available in iCloud, ready for streaming or downloading.
• So, what about the songs that iTunes wasn’t able to match? Well, they’ll have to be uploaded one by one; iTunes will do it all automatically, but again, if you have a lot of obscure music to upload, you could be in for a long wait. The good news, though, is that you can keep using iTunes even as iTunes Match continues to grind away.
• Ready to start streaming your iTunes Match-ed music from iCloud to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch? On your device, tap Settings, Music, then switch iTunes Match to “On.” You’ll be warned that all the music on your handheld will be deleted and replaced by your iCloud tracks; go ahead and tap “Continue” (and remember, because you synced your iDevice with iTunes, any music stored on your handset should be safely backed up on your PC or Mac). Note: I recommend turning on iTunes Match on your iPhone or iPad only after iTunes Match is finished processing and uploading all your songs; otherwise, you might be left with frustrating gaps in your mobile music collection.
• You can also connect another Mac or PC to iTunes Match. Just launch iTunes, then click Store, Turn On iTunes Match, and enter the Apple ID you use for making iTunes purchases. iTunes will then begin the “scan and match” process with the tracks on the new computer, and you’ll also be able to stream or download any iTunes Match songs synced from previous systems. (You can connect up to 10 computers and iDevices to a single iTunes Match account.)
• Once you’ve got iTunes Match enabled, you’ll start seeing some strange new “cloud” icons in your iTunes library; some indicate duplicate tracks, others designate songs that are still processing, while still others flag any tracks that iTunes wasn’t able to upload, Click here for a chart that decodes the meaning of the various icons.
• Last but not least, you can set your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, to list every single track available for streaming or downloading from iCloud, not just the ones stored “locally” on your handheld. To do so, tap Settings, Music, then switch “Show All Music” to “On.”

Have any questions—or problems, for that matter? Let me know; I’m still in the process of testing iTunes Match myself, so we’ll figure it out together.

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Hi Shelley! Sounds like you’re all set with iCloud Backup, which automatically backs up your iPhone’s settings, messages, photos, and app data whenever your iPhone is charging and asleep.

But here’s the thing: syncing with iTunes on your PC or Mac still has its uses, particularly when it comes to photos, podcasts, and songs and videos that you didn’t buy from the iTunes Store.

First, a little background. Thanks to iCloud, you can now backup your device automatically (click here for details), download (or re-download) any applications, songs, or TV shows that you’ve purchased from iTunes, and share recent photos you’ve snapped on another iDevice by turning on Photo Stream. And if you’re into podcasts, you can download new episodes from the iTunes Store app on your handset.

If you have a lot of MP3s that you didn’t buy from iTunes, you’ll need iTunes to sync them to your iPhone.

All well and good, but what about songs and videos you didn’t buy from the iTunes Store? To put them on your iPhone, you’ll need to sync with the iTunes desktop software, either using the white USB cable that came in the iPhone box or over Wi-Fi. (More on Wi-Fi iTunes syncing in a moment.)

But wait—what about that new iTunes Match feature, which will let you store all your music in iCloud? Well, iTunes Match, which will scan your hard drive and “match” any songs it identifies with a high-quality version that you can stream from iCloud (or let you upload any tunes that can’t be matched) sounds like a great service, so long as you’re willing to pony up $25 a year. If you’re not, you’re going to need iTunes to transfer any music you didn’t buy on iTunes from your computer’s hard drive to your iPhone.

And while you can re-download any songs or TV shows purchased from iTunes to your iPhone, you can’t re-download purchased movies—or at least, not yet. So if you bought, say, “Toy Story” from the iTunes Store and it’s on your Mac or PC, you’ll need to sync with iTunes to transfer it to your iPhone. By the same token, if you bought “Toy Story” from iTunes directly on your iPhone, you’ll want to sync with iTunes to transfer a backup to your system.

OK, so what about photos? Well, the Photo Stream feature in iCloud will share a limited stream of recent photos you’ve snapped with all your iCloud-connected devices—meaning you could, say, upload pictures from your wedding album in iPhoto to Photo Stream, then go to your iPhone and save the uploaded images from Photo Stream to a new album on your handset.

Now, the Photo Stream method would probably work just fine if you only wanted to upload a snapshot or two, but if you want to load your entire wedding album into Photo Stream, the process might take hours—particularly if we’re talking large, high-quality photos. A much faster solution (as in minutes rather than hours) would be a quick, wired sync with iTunes. (To manage which photos get synced to your iDevice, connect it to your system, open iTunes, select your device in the left column, and click the Photos tab.)

Last but not least, we’ve got podcasts. While you can download as many podcast episodes as you like from the iTunes app on your iPhone, your iPhone won’t automatically check your podcast subscriptions and download new episodes the way that iTunes does. (Why not? Great question.) If you have your podcast subcriptions all refreshed in iTunes, you might be better off syncing all your new episodes in one shot via an iTunes sync rather than downloading them one-by-one on your iPhone.

Hope this helps, Shelley—and if you have more questions, let me know!

Bonus tip: Thanks to iOS 5, you can now sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch with iTunes over your home Wi-Fi network, no wires required. Keep in mind, though, that your PC or Mac must be powered on to perform a Wi-Fi iTunes sync. Also, syncing with iTunes over Wi-Fi will take longer—sometimes much longer, especially if you’re trying to sync lots of music or video—than it would using the USB cable that came with your iOS device.

To enable Wi-Fi sync for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, open iTunes, connect your device and select it in the left column, and check the box labeled “Sync this [iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch] over Wi-Fi.”

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Indeed, a single HD episode of, say, “Mad Men” from the iTunes Store weighs in at a whopping 1.5 GB. Multiply that by a dozen episodes, and you’re looking at 12 GB of hard drive space for a single season. Yikes.

But here’s the good news: with little fanfare Monday, Apple switched on a new feature that lets you re-download any TV shows you’ve previously bought from iTunes onto your Mac, PC, iPhone, or iPad.

That means you can now buy as many TV shows as you want, download only the ones you want to watch, and delete them when you’re done—all with the knowledge that the shows you bought are still sitting on Apple’s servers, ready to be downloaded again.

And as an added benefit, Apple TV users can now purchase and stream TV shows directly over their hard drive-less boxes. Before, viewers could only watch purchased TV shows on their Apple TVs by buying and streaming them over the desktop version of the iTunes software.

So, ready to start re-downloading your purchased TV shows? Here’s how to do it.

On iTunes:

1. Open iTunes, click the iTunes Store link in the left-hand column, and click the Purchased link on the right side of the screen.
2. You’ll now jump to a page labeled “Purchased,” with four tabs along the top: Music, TV Shows, Apps, and Books. Click the TV Shows tab, then click the “Not In My Library” button in the upper-right corner of the page.
3. Now, click a selection from the left-hand column; either All TV Seasons or a specific season. A list of the TV episodes you’ve already purchased should appear. You can opt to see your shows grouped by season or laid out by episode by clicking the Seasons or Episodes buttons just below the menu tabs.
4. Found an episode your want to download again? Click the “cloud” icon, and you’re on your way.

On the iPhone or iPod Touch:

1. Tap the iTunes icon, then tap the “Purchased” tab at the bottom of the screen.
2. You’ll now get the choice of two options: Music or TV Shows. Go ahead and tap the TV Shows option.
3. You should see a list of episodes grouped by TV series; you can also search for an episode, see a list of every episode you’ve ever bought, or a sampling of recent purchases.
4. Read to re-download? Tap the cloud icon.

On the iPad:

1. Tap the iTunes icon, then the Purchased tab at the bottom of the screen.
2. You should arrive at a listing of all your previously purchased songs. To see your TV shows, tap the “View: Music” button in the top-left corner of the screen and select “TV Shows.”
3. The process is now pretty much the same as on the iPhone; just select a series or search, then click the cloud icon when you’ve found an episode you’d like to re-download.

Now when you’re finished watching an episode, you can just delete it—and then re-download it when you’re ready to watch again.

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So, what’s so special about Spotify? Aren’t there already music sites like Pandora and Slacker (more on them in a moment) that stream tunes to your PC for free? Well yes, but Spotify boasts a key twist that sets it apart.

What exactly is Spotify?

Launched back in 2008, Spotify is an online music streaming company that serves up more than 15 million songs from all the big music labels, which you play through a peppy, easy-to-use desktop application (similar to iTunes).

Spotify has been up and running in seven countries—including the UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, The Netherlands, and Spain for some time now, but it’s only making its (long-awaited) U.S. debut today.

How much does Spotify cost?

Spotify offers three membership levels: a free service that lets you play up to 20 hours of music a month (as noted by the New York Times) with occassional advertising, a $4.99-a-month Unlimited plan that lets you stream unlimited music, without the ads, and a $9.99 Premium service that offers downloadable or streaming music for your smartphone.

OK, so what’s so special about that? Aren’t there already websites that stream music for free?

Yes indeed. There’s Pandora, a popular music site that lets you create instant (and free) radio “stations” based on, say, your favorite artist or a particular song. Two other sites—Slacker, and Last.fm—do much the same thing. Meanwhile, we’ve also got Napster and Rhapsody, which offer for-pay streaming music starting at $5 and $10 a month, respectively.

Spotify’s peppy, easy-to-use desktop software for the Mac.

But here’s the thing: With Pandora, Slacker, and Last.fm, you can’t search for and play the exact song you want to hear (or at least you can’t with their free accounts). Instead, selecting, say, “Born in the U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen will queue up an instant “station” with similar songs—great if you’re simply in a Bruce kind of mood, not so great if you must hear “Born in the U.S.A.” in particular.

With Spotify, you can choose and play an exact song with a free account—a key advantage over its free online music competitors.

The catch? As I mentioned above, you’ll hear occasional advertisements between tracks, and you’re restricted to 20 hours of music streaming a month in the first six months of your membership. After six months, you can only listen to 10 hours a month.

And one more thing: you aren’t allowed to listen to any particular song more than five times a month.

But if you pay for a Spotify account, those limitations are lifted, right?

Yep—starting with the $5/month Unlimited plan, you can listen to all the music you want, all the time.

Is all this legal?

Yes. Spotify signed deals with all the big music lables, so don’t worry—you won’t get hit with any lawsuits or get in trouble for using Spotify on your work PC.

Okie doke, you convinced me. Where can I sign up?

Right here, but there’s another catch: For now, access to the free Spotify plan is by invitation only. You can sign up here to request an invite. That said, you can sign up for an Unlimited or Premium account immediately—and if you do, you’ll be granted two invites to share with your friends.

Any other interesting features we should know about?

Well, Spotify’s desktop software is actually pretty nice—clean, easy to use, and very fast (and streaming tracks on Spotify start playing instantly, by the way). You can also share any songs you’re listening to on Facebook or Twitter, and you can share (or not) your iTunes playlists with your Facebook friends.

So, any other questions about Spotify? Let me know!

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