Spotify goes back to invitation-only

ONLINE MUSIC streaming service Spotify has gone back to being "invite-only" in the UK because it can't handle the sudden "huge demand" for its mobile listening service.

Spotify is a peer-to-peer (P2P) music streaming service that allows instant listening to specific tracks or albums with almost no buffering delay.

When the outfit was testing its service it had an invite-only subscription method, which meant that users had to be invited by a friend. It dumped that in February but the company warned that if too many people signed up for the service it would have to go back to the invitation system.

Writing in his blog, Andres Sehr said that the change was due to the huge jump in demand in the UK over the last few days since the outfit launched its mobile service.

Sehr said he hoped that Spotify would remain invite-only only for a short time. Punters are still able to sign up for premium accounts immediately. However those who don't want to pay will have to go on a waiting list.

Spotify, which is based in London, has more than one million users. It uses proprietary P2P software and has licensing deals with the recording companies. µ