Spotify in Australia! YAY! Requires Facebook Account. BOO.

So, evidently this post is going to be a little bit of a rant. But it's valid. It's a valid rant.

Spotify finally came to Australia, and you can only use it if you have a Facebook account.

I was still living in China when I decided that I would quit Facebook as soon as I returned home. Even now I get asked 'why?' a lot, and I suppose the simplest answer is that I did it becase I felt like I couldn't. I felt like Facebook had carved a place for itself in my life, and that there was no way I could function as a social being without it. I don't like the idea of that thing being a corporation, and that corporation having so much power over the relationships and events in my life. (That sounds a lot more ridiculousconspiracytheory than I want it to.) Also because I was being signed up to notifications about swimwear collections. I don't know what the fuck that was about because I never even talked about the beach in any of my status updates anyways, so their special intel was clearly wrong.

I digress.

I love not having Facebook. I think it's one of the best decisions I've made in my life so far as a young adult - but here's the thing. I didn't totally delete it, nor did I just 'deactivate' it (which everyone knows doesn't work). I still have the page, I just deleted all my friends. It's the only way to ensure that I can still 'like' local businesses, enter great competitions, and get updates from vital university study groups, whilst not ever actually 'using' Facebook. It also means future employers know I don't have a super gross/kinky/overtlypublic page, and if I were to ever throw in the towel, I would have to search through and find each one of my friends again, request their friendship, and concede to each one of them that I couldn't survive without it. I don't think this will ever happen though, because I still get invited to all the parties and I still see all of the photos of my friends' holidays and I still talk to my overseas friends - all better and more meaningfully.

It also means that I have an account when I need one - like when I'm registering for Spotify.

I think what I want to express here, is that it's totally bullshit that someone who loves music needs Facebook to be able to get Spotify. I mean, on the download page there's a quote from Mark Zuckerberg about how much he loves Spotify. Talk about conflict of interests! - AT LEAST DON'T BE SO VULGAR ABOUT IT, FOR CHRISTS SAKE! I don't want to need Facebook! When will this madness end? Will I need a Facebook account to pay bills online? Will they team up with Ebay next? What if I need a Facebook account to use Skype?

I first found out about Spotify almost a year ago, when I was in Shanghai, when it was available to my roommate Hanna because she's from Finland. It struck me as something wondrous, and I began counting down until its Australian arrival, and now I'm just a bit bitter.

I don't appreciate Facebook having such wide-reaching tentacles. I'm not worried about my information being collected, I'm not even really worried about my privacy. I just feel like Facebook is an obnoxious drunk that turns up to all of my parties and tries to feel up my friends. That's what it's like. And you say "Go away, Carl!" And everyone says "Let him stay, it would be wierd if he wasn't here." And so you reply "But he's a fucking douchebag" And then they tell you that "We know he sucks, but he's the social glue" and that he sets people up with new people all the time and that he takes photos and projects them on his ass. And then they say "You've taken the analogy too far." And you concede that yes you have, but you're still pissed, so you just walk away humming Champage Supernova and have some more punch.

And then you blog about it, and it feels a bit better. At least you're not wasting your hours stalking pictures of the idiots you went to school with that you don't even like or know.