Spotify mutes and sound disappears

Had a lot of problems recently with the sound in Spotify suddenly muting/disappearing in the middle of listening to music, although the progress bar of the song I was listening to kept on moving. I am using Debian and using Spotify via wine.

Found the solution though which was quite simple:
Run winecfg, go to the Audio tab and select the following settings under the DirectSound settings:
Hardware accelration: Emulation
Def. Sample rate: 44100
Def. Bits per sample: 16
Turn OFF Driver Emulation.

Hope this helps :)

Alternatives to Spotify

After crawling the web for some time I found you some replacements and alternatives for Spotify. None of them could really handle with the functionality and ease of Spotify, and I'm not quite sure about how legal these streamers are, even though many of them seem to stream the tracks off from i.e. youtube.

For my own well being I think I will stick to spotify.

But here are the 4 alternatives to spotify:
http://streamdrag.com/
http://songza.com/
http://www.seeqpod.com
http://justhearit.com/

Spotify invite not needed! Solution!

UPDATE 19. July 2011:
For US users check this out:
http://www.spotify.com/us/coca-cola/


UPDATE 31. January 2010:
I'm sorry guys. Currently no working method available. Please let me know if there is one and I will add it immediately. If I find something I will add it, so please check back.

UPDATE 4. October 2009:
Click here, and select continue. As postal code/zip type: 69002. Now register your account :) Congrats! To change contry, log into your account at spotify.com and select your real country.

UPDATE 5. May 2009:
New proxy working. To get a free spotify account:
1. Click here.
2. Click "Continue anyway..."
3. If the ads pop up, simply click "fermer"(close)
4. As postal code type: "90112"
5. As country select "France"
6. Select gender and date of birth
7. Finish the rest, and click "Create account and proceed"
8. Congrats! :)

A thank you in my comment field is always appreciated.


UPDATE 1. May 2009:
Seems like the pages listed below are running really fast out of invites lately, so here's another one which should work. Simply click here and it will take you directly to the registration.

PLEASE notify me whether it works or not :)

UPDATE 3. January 2009: Unfortunately it seems like the proxy is down, but I've found a couple solutions though :) First off, some sites who are giving out free invites daily. Check if they are giving out invites, otherwise check back some hours later. The url's:
http://spotify.rejected.se/ (English)
http://garaget.in/invites/ (English & Swedish)
http://lakka.se/index.php?p=spot (Swedish)
The second solution is checking out the IRC channel #spotify on Quakenet. Rumors has it they are giving out lots of invites.

A thank you in the comment field is always appreciated :)

Old post:
My hunt on getting free Spotify accounts for you continues! I finally found a solution which will work for everyone. And best of all; you dont need a invite either!

All you have to do is register via this proxy. Copy and paste the link below to the address field in your browser, and you will be sent straight to the registration form!

http://hideonline.net/browse.php?u=czovL3d3dy5zcG90aWZ5LmNvbS9lbi9nZXQtc 3RhcnRlZC8%3D&b=61

Congratulations with your new Spotify account!

PS.. Please post a thank you in the comment field if it works :) (no registration needed)

Free spotify invites here!

UPDATE 23. January: Spotify invites are no longer needed. Check out my new solution on how to get spotify accounts by clicking right here.

Old post:
Wow, I suddenly came over a site which shares spotify invites to everyone. Time for me to share it with my dear readers. You simply submit some information, and they will send you a spotify invite right away. I just tested it, and it works.

The only con is that the site is in Norwegian, but I will translate it for you. If they run empty you could check out my previous post about how to get a free spotify account.

URL: http://sites.google.com/site/spotivite/
Translation:
Norwegian -> English
Info -> Info
Spørsmål -> Question. This changes but I will try to update the correct answers standby...
Update 23.01.2009: Correct Answer: høy
Svar -> Answer
Velg -> Choose: Pick a random number
E-post -> E-mail

How to get spotify

UPDATE 20. February: Check out my new solutions on how to get spotify accounts by clicking right here.

I will here present you three ways to get Spotify. But first I must say that Spotify is such a GREAT tool in all ways. It's free and legal, and It's great to finally see that the music industry delivers an alternate to pirating. If you like Spotify, support them, and buy an account.
PS! Spotify works great with Linux as well. Simply install and start it via wine. Here is the instruction for using it with Linux.

Here are three ways to get a free account:

A) Go to http://www.spotify.com/ click "Get started" and submit your e-mail address in the last field. Hopefully they will send you an invite in not to long.

B) Haven't confirmed this one yet, but rumors says it works:
1.) Find a UK proxy, i.e. this one. Enter www.spotify.com as URL, and make sure it wont remove the scripts.
2.) Click "Get started" and enter the proper information. Make sure country is set to "United Kingdom" and postal code "SW1A 2AB".
3.) Submit the information, and let's hope it works :) Hopefully you will get some invites as well..

C) Ask friends who have bought an account to give you an invite. Ask around and you will probably find someone who can help you out. In my own case it was a friend of mine who presented me to spotify, and fixed me an invite from a friend of his who had bought an spotify premium account.