Spotify – stream all the music you could ever want

Duncan Geere Digital Music, Software
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spotify.jpgGosh. I can get a bit jaded with all the rubbish new music services I get bombarded with every day, which is why it’s such a breath of fresh air when something comes along that ticks every single box. For me, Spotify is that thing. Spotify is a streaming service. It just streams, but by golly does it do it well. It has three things that set it apart from other, similar offerings – catalogue, speed and social functions.

Firstly, Catalogue. It seems to put just about every song in the entire world at your fingertips, streamable within a few seconds. Majors, indies, everyone seems to be on board. There was only one record I looked for, in an extensive list of obscure stuff, that I couldn’t find (Idlewild’s “Captain” mini-album, in case you’re wondering).

Secondly, it’s lightning fast. Rather than being built around a website, you download a small application to play your music in. Some might consider this a disadvantage, but I disagree. It’s responsive, lightweight in terms of memory footprint (just 13MB for me), and echoes Songbird‘s design, which is never a bad reference point.

Lastly, the social functions. You can drag any track, genre, album, artist, or playlist out of the window into a text entry box. Like this: http://open.spotify.com/track/4FtXOAHBz3AoHVvenKyd9V. Clicking that link, if you have Spotify installed, will start that track right up. Very simple, very easy, very intuitive.

So where can you get it? Well, I’m afraid to say that Spotify is in private beta. At the moment, you can’t get in without an invite, and invites aren’t exactly thick on the ground yet. However, there’s a “premium” version that doesn’t include ads, costing a tenner a month, and if you shell out for that, then you can get in today. Money talks.

TDbadgeofawesomeness-spotify.jpgI’m dead impressed by Spotify. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a music service get everything right. The only things I’d add would be S60 and iPhone clients, scrobbling of songs to Last.fm, and more of a recommendations engine. In the meantime, top marks for usability and implementation, Spotify. I hereby award you the Tech Digest Official Badge of Awesomeness. Nice work.

I’ll have a chat to Spotify and see if I can get some invite codes for readers. If you’d like one, then drop us a comment below.

UPDATE: We got overwhelmed by requests for invites, so we won’t be doling any more out here. Go see this page to find out how to sign up for Spotify anywhere in the world.

Spotify (via CMU Daily)

Related posts: Play.com joins 7digital in the DRM-free corner | Songbird – 5 reasons why it’s my favourite media player

Duncan Geere
For latest tech stories go to TechDigest.tv

264 comments

  • I would really love to get an invite to spotify 🙂
    I’ve used Napster before, but have heard so much about this “spotify” and it seems to be all great!
    Plz plz / Best regards from Maximus of Norway

  • I would really love to get an invite to spotify 🙂
    I’ve used Napster before, but have heard so much about this “spotify” and it seems to be all great!
    Plz plz / Best regards from Maximus of Norway

  • i’ve searched the internet for invites but haven’t find any yet.Could I get one here?It would be awsome!

  • I was looking at Datz Music Lounge as I have just bought MP4’s from this website for my daughters.
    http://www.mchmedia.co.uk/media-box-touch-45-c.asp
    They offered it for £85 as a special deal.
    However, having read you review, it has put me off it.
    However Spotify looks really good and would love to have an invite.
    I want to do things legally, as I don’t want my daughters downloading illegally.

    Are the downlaods DRM-free MP3s

    I am new into this game, but have good IT skills.

    I have 4 machines, 2 running Vista Home and 2 on XP pro.

    Many thanks for your advice. Very helpful indeed.

    I assume this is Uk usable software

  • I want this SO BAD, and have tried to get an invite from a couple of sites already. So if I get one, I will be very pleased!

    Lillemor

  • This thing looks great! I’m hoping to get an invite from spotify, but if anyone could expedite the process… => … that would make my day lol! This thing looks promising.

  • Hey

    I was wondering if you had any invites yet…

    I desperatly need to get my music sorted and thsi sounds like an interesting idea.

    Cheers

    Chris

  • hey there duncan

    thanks for sending invite my way…i appreciate your help and about spotify..my first expression was ‘WOW’ …the service is amazing…i couldnt have asked for more better service than this.
    hats up to spotify and duncan. 😉

  • Guys, my apologies. I’ve had to stop approving comments on this entry. I’m getting about 30 or 40 a day, and due to the length of this page, it’s now taking way too long for me to approve each one.

    For the time being, there are no more invites available here. Thanks for your interest anyway, and if you’re that desperate to get into Spotify, then you can pay for a premium subscription and you’ll get in that way.

  • Hi,

    This sounds really good. Without this article I wouldn’t have even known about this service. Thanks.

    I’m planning to go for either Datz or Nokia Comes With Music and was looking for reviews on internet and came across this one. You made me to consider another option which sounds impressive.

    Could you share an invite if you have any left so that I can try before I buy? Many thanks in advance.

    Hari

  • Hi,

    I’m a big music fan and really excited about the idea of Spotify I read from the internet.

    Could you send me an invite if you got any spare, please?

    Looking forward to see your response.

    Cheers,

    Donovan W

  • Wow … Just Wow !!

    Thanx for the invite ” Duncan Geere ” .. really appreciate it .

    and i would to say a few lines about this site :

    The site is very Amazing indeed … this will lunch a new music revolution .. very cool you don’t even have to dl anything just one click on your favorite song and rock ur mind 😀 .. very good site and promising for sure .. keep it up guys 🙂

    Regards

    :: Ahmed

  • Hi looks really good do you think I could get an invite ? I really need an invite to this site 🙂

  • Hey there,

    It is very kind of you to offer Spotify invites. I listen to music on PC a lot. I read news on the internet about Spotify, which seems really cool.

    Would appreciate an invite if you still have any?

    Thanks a lot!

    Cheers,

    Teresa

  • should have found this blog earlier :P. If you happen to get more I would greatly appreciate one.

  • Hi , would be great if i can get invited, i’m music maniac, so pls can i have one (when it will be possibll)

  • Thanks “Duncan” for invite.I have to say that this is a revolution.I will go with Premium to support these guys,awesome job.

  • Personal internet lossless radiostation – is just a great idea 🙂

    i know i’m not the lucky one already, but if sometimes you’ll dare to ask for more invites – please count me in, thank you very much for your efforts 🙂

  • I’ve heard great things about Spotify and would love to try it… if you get any more invites, can I have one? 🙂

  • I hope there is still some more invites, if there are, I would love to have one. Whether I am one of the luck one or not, thanks for providing us with the invites.

  • Hello: I am really need a Spotify Site Cause I heard its great and I am really interested in the content they have so, if anyone has an invite I’d appreciate if u can invite me, I promise that i will be active and use it For sure.

    Thanks in advance

  • I would like a spotify invite because I`m a good user and A trance techno house elektro minimal and this kind of muzic fan and I would like to join there 🙂

    Thanks a lot Al3x

  • Hello my friends I am really in need of a tracker called Spotify cause I heard its great and I am really interested in the content they have so, if anyone has an invite could you be kind enough to invite me,I promise that i will be active. Thank you

  • Hi guys

    Gosh – what a crazy response. I’m getting more than 20 requests a day here, and it’s making the comments on this section a little screwy, so if yours doesn’t show up immediately, then that’s why.

    Also, I’m sad to say that we’ve run out of invites again. If you asked for one before today (5th Nov) then you should have got one in your email, but if you asked today (or later) then I’m afraid there aren’t any more.

    I’ve asked Spotify once again if we can have some more, but they’re probably getting a little annoyed by me asking, so I can’t guarantee we’ll get any more. If we do, however, then I’ll start sending them out again in first-come, first-served order.

    Once again, if you’ve got an invite, then you’re one of the lucky ones. I’d really appreciate you coming back and giving me (and everyone else) your thoughts on the service. It doesn’t have to be lengthy if you don’t want it to be, just a few sentences on whether you think it’s any good or not.

    Thanks everyone.

    – Duncan

  • This sounds pretty awesome, I miss a lot of the music that i grew up listening too that seem impossible to find anywhere due to being deleted and no longer published. If you have any more invitations i would love to check it out if i could please.
    thx

  • Hello

    i am a great music lover and love to join spotify. If u invite me then be very sure that u gave it to a great music lover .

    So please invite me to this meccah of music.

    Thanks and Regards
    TranquilXXX

  • Hi 🙂

    I wanna join to this site. If any invites are still available I’d very appreciate it.

    Thanks a lot.

  • Aww man, I’ve been waiting for something like this forever. I would love an invite if anybody has one. =]

  • hey, i love music and especially listening on my PC, spotify sounds great and something i would love to have, i would really appreciate an invite if u have any.
    thanks 🙂

  • Plz plz…i wud like to get in there….can u spare a invite ? Thank You for this generous offer !

    Cheers.

  • Sound very promising, `very simple, very easy, very intuitive`. I’ll be more then grateful for an invite to the site.

  • i’ve posted allready but didn’t stick above..
    i was just saying that it is a nice review and you got me:) i love music and i would apreciate an invite to spotify..
    thx a lot

  • i would love to be part of spotify .. i <3 music .
    an invite would be appreciated ….thanks a ton in advance .

    Regards

  • Hi all,
    I would like to ask for one invite too.
    If somebody can help me I will be really happy.
    Thanks Marek

  • Hi there, very nice review, you got me;)
    I have to try it:) i’m a big music fan, and i’m sure i will be happy with that invite..

    Thanks for this!
    See you soon

  • Hey there this sounds like a revolutionary and nice idea. I would be very glad if you could spare an invite, thanks in advance…

    Michael

  • This sounds great;i wuld like to apply for an code if it is still available.

    Thanks a lot and have a good day.

  • Nice one 🙂 I just heard there were tons of invites given out and i was wondering if i could get one 🙂 I download a lot of music and i want to try this one 😀 Thank you in advance 😛 ( I don`t use to ask invites just-like-that, so i will be active if i can get an invite 🙂 )

  • Hey, if you still got invites i would really like to check this out…i keep hearing it’s great from all my friends.

    Thanks a lot and nice writing!

  • I would like to have an rapid way to acess my friends musics and i think this program may do that realy easy…

    thanks

  • Hi,

    Spotify looks awesome, a great music place and a nice project. I will appreciate a invite,please!

    Thanks for this great opportunity

  • Hey,

    I would also love an invite to this revolution,I heard amazing things about this project.I wish you have more left.If I like it,I will go with Premium to support you for sure.

    Cheers.

    //Anna

  • Seems that Spotify is a new generation of music database, what makes me some curiosity in get it. I will appreciate a invite,please!

    Thanks

  • i would really love an invite if you have any left heard what a great place it is and i know it is hard to get in there.

    thanks in advance !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Hello,
    I would love an invite, if possible. I heard great things about Spotify, and I really appreciate one invite.
    Thank You a lot.

    Take care.
    Cheers,

    David D.

  • Hi!
    I would really appreciate an invite to spotity, if you still have any left 🙂
    Thank you very much

  • wow, that thing sounds pretty cool, better than the new datz. i’d relly love an invite if you have any left, but no worries if you don’t.

    cheers

    dom

  • i would really love to be part of spotify …i <3 Music … an invite would be appreciated

  • Hi There,

    It’s really awesome that you are so kind to offer Spotify invites. I’m a big music fan. I’d really love an invite from you if you still have any spare.

    THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

    Best Regards,

    Mark

  • Hi.

    I have heard good things about this site on the internet. I wanna try it if possible.
    hope you can invite me to this site.

    thanks

  • Hi there,
    it sounds really like excellent project.
    If is possible I would like to one invite too.
    Thank you a lot 🙂

  • I’d love an invite to try out Spotify and see (hear?) its “awesomeness” myself. Thanks!

  • Hi,
    I would really appreciate an invite. I love music and Spotify seems to be the place be. 😀

    Thanks.

  • Hi,

    I’d really appreciate an invite if you still have any left – thanks a lot.

    Cheers Lee

  • Hi there. First of all, I’d like to thank you for this generous offer. I heard great thing about Spotify. If you still have any spare invite, may I have one please?

    Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!

    Cheers,

    Richard

  • Hi! I’d like an invite to spotify, please. My friends told me that it’s great, so I’d appreciate an invitation.

    Thanks in advance.

    David

  • Would love an invite for this! I am in the channel Islands so will be really intrigued to see if it works, as these things usually don’t.

    Cheers
    Dan

  • After seeing some of my friends use it I can only say the same: would give away my right and left arm for an invite 😛 Could I get one as well, please? Thank you very much!

    /Emmy, Sweden

  • Hi there.

    Reading your article makes me very curious to check out Spotify. Only trouble – I don’t have an invite. I have signed up (twice) for an invite from Spotify themselves, but nothing happended. Would it be possible for you to provide me with one?

    Thanks for an interesting article!

    Best regards
    Eje Andersson
    Sweden

  • I heard great things about spotify, and of course i love music, so 1 invite would be much appreciated

  • This sounds really cool. I’d love to try it out.

    For an invite, where do I send my left arm? 😉

    Thank you very much

    Martin

  • I heard a lot of great things about spotify, and I think that it’s the thing I’ve been looking for. Unfortunately, no one has invites (at least among my friends), so if you come up to some extra invites, I’d really love one.
    Thanx

  • I’d love an invite, I requested one om Spotify i couple of weeks ago but got nothing:-(

  • I would like one invite pls.
    I have heard many people say it is an awesome site.
    I would like to try

  • hey there duncan…nice to see that your helping people connect to music.if you feel generous enough i would also like to feel the music in spotify,hope to receive an answer from you…and yeah if given an invite,ill give my honest feed back too 🙂

    thanks again duncan.

    Nick.

  • I would love an invite. I’ve been looking for one for a while, but they are hard to get.

  • Hi,
    any chance you might have any more spotify invites? i’m in canada so we haven’t gotten any yet. thanks!!!

  • I have seen some reviews of the programme and also heard lots of good things about it..Thank you for this review too!

    If some great soul could give me an invite,i would be very happy and make good use of it 🙂

    Thanks

    TommyC

  • Wonderful article! 🙂 I am very excited about this new music phenomenon and would love to join!! If you could invite me I’d be eternally grateful!

    Thanks so much!

    Cheers m8! 🙂

  • Hi,
    First of all thanks for a nice review, this makes me long for it even more.
    Would love to try it before i buy it, if you have a spare invite i would be grateful if you could let me try it out.
    Thanks 🙂

  • Have been searching all over the place for an invite to this truly awesome service. Hope you have any invites left after this amazing response you’ve got here 🙂

  • Hey Duncan!
    I’m very interested in testing the spotify!
    If you wish you can send me an invite.
    Thank u.

  • One of my friends got an invite and he said it was AWESOMEE!!! I’d really like one please! Thank you very much 🙂

  • Hello, my son has told me about this service and to register here to try it. Thank you very much

    Lilian

    • @Erik, I fully expect a delivery of your left arm in the post over the weekend.

      Sent out the latest batch of invites. Keep em coming, and don’t forget to tell us what you think of the service!

  • Sounds like a fantastic service, would love to try it out if I could just get my hands on a invite…. and thanks for a interesting article btw.

    Andre

  • Hi!

    If possible, I would really like to get an invite!
    This program seems AWESOME! :O

  • all day bored at work, this would suit me well. so i extend the hand an ask for an invite too 🙂

    thnx

  • I’d be very happy if you hooked me up with this mad service! 😀 A music lover like me just got to have an invitation. Can you please send me one, thanks in advance!

  • Wow, I hear this is so cool and the sharing of playlists sounds so great. Can i pls get an invite?!

    Thx!!

  • Very cool, this is totally my sort of thing! Duncan – if you do get another load of invites pls could i have one? Sounds ace 🙂

    • Yaaaay. Three cheers for Spotify – I’ve got another bunch of invites. More sent out.

  • This sounds like very interesting stuff. I am eager to try it out if you could spare me an invite!

    Cheers,
    Joseph

    • Okay, everyone. We’re out of invites. I’ve asked the folks at Spotify for some more. Until then, I won’t be able to send any more out.

  • Hiya

    I would love an invite if you happened to have any more spare.

    *fingers crossed*

    Cheers

    Si

  • Would love one of those invites if there are more around. Spotify seems to be the next big thing! Hope it is as good as iTunes but free!
    Cheers
    Magnus

  • ha ha, jeees… good news gets around quick…:) no risk in asking for an invite…
    any left… would go crazy for one…)

  • Hi,

    I would love to get a chance to try this out so if there are any invites left I’d be grateful to get one.

    Thanks!

  • Hi,

    If you have any invites left, I would be most grateful if you send me one. I am a music addict and this seems to be the killer app. for me!

    Erik

  • Hi there,

    I would _love_ to get one invite to Spotify. I’ve been search for an invite so long now and I am very curous about the hole thing. So, please: “do my day”.

    Cheers!

  • Hi, is it possible to get an invitation? I would love to use spotify on a upcoming party of mine.

    • Just sent out a tonne more invites, as well as followups to anyone who lost their first one. We still have a few left, so don’t hesitate to post below if you’d like one.

      Also, don’t forget to let us know your thoughts on the software. I think it’s amazing, but want to know what you think, too.

  • hey
    can you please send me another one. i think the last one eneded up in my junk mail box.

  • A friend of mine at work just got hold of this and it’s awesome! Don’t suppose there are any more invites going?

  • Hey there i didn’t get any mail from you with a spotify code.

    “Hey!
    I can really need one of this invites and would love to help out at the site=)

    Posted by: Robin M | October 20, 2008 5:13 PM”

  • Duncan

    Could I have an invite please. I hope you can see the email address – id really like to check this out as Itunes is starting to bug me now

    • I’ve just sent out another huge wodge of invites, so if you’ve asked and haven’t recieved, then check your junk mail – if it’s not there, then ask again and I’ll try again.

      If you’ve got one, then please come back and tell us what you think of the service. You might even get featured in a future post!

  • Hi! Spotify seems like a dream to me. If you have any invites left, I´d love one! 🙂 Thanx!

  • Hey there , i would love an invite to spotify as i am a big music fan , please throw me an invite ! Cheers

  • Thank you for the invitation, first impressions after browsing a bit is that this seems to be a truly fast service, works amazing and is very intuitive and simple. For the music archive I haven’t “found” any songs that I missed, on the contrary I’ve found more music (songs featuring artists I like, not as the main act though).
    For the price it feels like it actually could be worth 99$ a year – even if a slightly smaller price tag could’ve been nice.

    Regards
    Jonas

  • Hi, another Swede dropping in.. Been searching for an invite and hope to get one here. I have seen some application similar to what Spotify is described like so would be nice to try one of these out for myself.

    Regards
    Jonas

  • Love to try this. Sounds awesome, better than Last.FM, and I’ve longed to use something like this.. just too much music out there to find without help.

    Would love an invite, should you still have any left 🙂

  • I’d love to try Spotify! If you guys still have invites left, I would really appreciate one. 🙂

  • Any invites left? I’ve been following Spotify for some time now, and I’ve been dying to try it out. Thanks!

    • Tonnes more invites sent out. Keep em coming, and be sure to come back and tell us what you think of the service 🙂

  • Swedes love music! And so do I, is there any possibility that you might have an invite left? I would be forever grateful.

  • Hi there,

    Sounds like a great service! If you still have invites left I’d love to check it out.

    Kind regards,

    Erik

  • Duncan, I am on my knees begging…do you have any invites left for a craving Swede?

    Rgds,

    Christian

    • Certainly do! I didn’t know we had such an active Swedish readership… or have you all come here from somewhere else?

  • Hi Duncan,
    I just want to thank you for your generosity. Using Spotify has been an amazing experience. Even with ads every 20-30 minutes or so (only 4 different ones so far), the content and service you get through the application is truly invigorating. Never have ads felt like such a low cost. This is the future of music. “All the music, all the time”, and it is finally true. With a few exceptions, some albums, some artists missing, it’s on the other hand a huge library. I explore music mainly by searching for a song, see what collections it is on, and play those collections. The radio skewed towards too few artists, and with no voting options its not up to the last.fm (pandora) par, just yet. But the options to actually play what you want, freely skip songs in the radio and play them over and over again if you want, adds a lot of strength and makes it better than Internet radio. My suggestions for improvements is to make it closer to iTunes for organizing the music, so it feels like its yours. Make folders for playlists, and enable some rating system – so you can come back to the music you enjoy.
    Oh and btw collaborative/open playlists is the best thing since sliced bread.
    With Spotify I am now the envy of most of my best friends and my whole workplace. I am just waiting until I am getting invites of my own so I can spread the glory even further.(I share the account in the meantime). Thanks again!

    • That’s one of the best comments I’ve ever had on Tech Digest. Thanks for sharing, Staffan – I completely agree – it’s an amazing service that needs a tiny bit of tweaking in the radio category. I still haven’t properly explored the collaborative playlists – I really need to!

  • Hi
    Went to a friend last night and used Spotify. I would love to have an invite so I can use it on my computer:) Please with suger on top!

    • The world is now better. If it’s not yet, then check your junk mail. Plenty of invites left, so tell friends, family and co-workers if you think they might be interested.

  • Would love an invite too please. We can’t just have Tobias running around with his better day – and Håkan has started to taunt me!

  • Hi!

    I´d love to have a code if there still is on available, it would just make my day so much better!

    Thanks!

  • Hello.

    It works perfectly on Ubuntu (under WINE). Sounds great, never skips at all. Haven’t heard an advert yet!

    The catalog is pretty extensive, if missing a fair few indie labels but I guess they will all get there in time.

    Over all I like it.

  • Thanks Duncan. This is great – I have found lots of new artists already. Still haven’t given it a try with some of my more obscure tastes, but it’s simple, straightforward to use and sounds good. Ok, it serves up the occasional advert – only had one so far so it’s a ratio that’s quite acceptable to me at the moment.

  • It was me being a bit impatient there 🙂

    The invite was in my inbox all along and now I’m up and running. Thanks a lot, much appreciated!

  • Hi Duncan.
    I’d love to get a code if you have any left. My friends with beta codes have been taunting me for too long now.

    Cheers

  • Oh, it would be so great to get a code, if you have any left. Friends with beta codes have been teasing me for too long now 🙂

    • Everyone who’s asked should have one. If it’s missing, then check your junk email, and post again if you still can’t find it. Be sure to drop back and share your opinions – especially as they seem to have started serving ads today…

  • Hi there Duncan,
    Finally a good alternative to Pandora, Last.fm, Justplay and all others. Interesting service. I would also appreciate a beta invite if you still have some lying around.
    Take care // Staffan

  • I would really love to get an invite to spotify…since I cancelled my Napster account I’m searching for a new music source…
    Thanks for your effort and help in advance

  • I have really been looking forward to Spotify! Have been using Deezer at current which is also a great service, so my take is that whoever has the biggest catalogue of songs will be the winner. Would be great to try Spotify out.

    • You should have an invite in the mail, Karl. When you’ve compared the two, please drop back and let us know which one you reckon is the better of the two 🙂

  • My only issue so far would be a relative lack of newer artists – e.g. had trouble getting many results for Dizzee Rascal. Don’t know if that’s because of where Spotify is located, and he may not be big news there…?

    But it’s very quick, smooth and I haven’t had to wait in frustration for the odd track to load up as I sometimes do on my (still beloved) Hype Machine.

    The mark of a good music site for me is that I want to pull a sickie so that I can spend a whole morning/afternoon playing with it.

    I’m practising my man-flu voice as we speak…

  • If you’ve still got an invite lying around I’d love to check it out! I’ve only heard good things about this service so far.

  • Thanks for the invite. The app is indeed very fast – you can skip forward to parts of the track without much delay. Interface is nice and clean – very iTunes. I like the way it groups tracks with the same name by the same artist together although I’ve seen a few mix singles which just have the title and not the title and mix version. Great selection though. Would be worth signing up to I think.

  • This really seems like a great new service. Just hope they can keep the same prices going forward if this takes off. Love to get an invite if you still have some left over.

  • Looks good. Hope they’ll be looking to integrate with Sonos at some point soon (like Napster has). I’d like to receive one of the invites. Cheers.

  • Thanks for that Duncan, wow – i’m impressed, seems like a very broad selection of music. I like the fact that it’s intelligent enough to offer suggestions if you mis-spell the artist/title as well.
    Would be nice to see suggestions of similar songs/artists (a la Grooveshark).
    The radio feature is fantastic – easy to select genres and decades.

    • It’s the wiiiiiide selection of stuff that I’m most impressed with, that and the speed of the app. Agree about the similar songs suggestion, and the radio functionality doesn’t seem as *smart* to me as I think it ought to be, but overall I think it’s fantastic.

    • Check your mail Nick, and be sure to come back and let me know what you think of it 🙂

      I’ve got a big pile of invites now (thanks Spotify!), so drop us a line if you want one.

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