New Musical Express (NME) is the latest brand to jump on the Spotify bandwagon, releasing its first app on the music-streaming service today.
NME first launched as a weekly music magazine in the UK in 1952, and at one point was the number one go-to for the coolest music. It launched an online version of the publication in 1996, and today it is still among the top standalone music sites in the world.
Now, NME has teamed up with Spotify to roll out a music-recommendation app, letting users read interviews with new bands, check out new albums and songs bearing the ‘NME Recommends’ stamp of approval, and stream NME’s curated playlists.
“We’re incredibly excited about our shiny new Spotify app,” says Luke Lewis, Editor of NME.COM. “We want passionate music fans to access NME wherever they are – so it’s fantastic that people can enjoy our new band recommendations, reviews and playlists right there within Spotify.”
To access the app, you’ll need to visit the Spotify App Finder and add the NME App. When you launch it, you’ll see three main sections: New Bands We Love, NME Recommends, and NME Playlists.
Each section displays three items in the main view, which you can expand by clicking ‘More’. Playlists at the time of writing include ‘100 Best Tracks in NME’s Lifetime’, and ’40 Most Explosive Choruses’.
While NME may longer hold the clout it once did as an authority in the music press, I still find myself gravitating towards the site to keep up with who’s doing what in music. It’s as close to keeping my finger on the pulse as I get these days.
Spotify’s app is actually good insofar as it lets you discover and read about new artists, whilst listening to them within Spotify too. And if you want to simply dance about to some classic 90s Britpop, well, you can do that too.
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