The little known Texan psychobilly star was, at the time, expressing his frank disaffection toward the new wave of musicians (Bruce Springsteen in particular) releasing material in Compact Disc form as opposed to the more traditional and much revered vinyl records. But, as a new internet phenomenon looks set to turn the music industry on its head, his words take on an entirely different meaning.

That phenomenon is Spotify – a relatively new, free online music streaming service, already in use by over a million fans worldwide. The brainchild of a team of Swedish developers, Spotify launched in the UK in October 2008 with accounts primarily allocated on an invitation-only basis, before becoming available to all and sundry in February this year.

In basic terms, the service is a free music library open to users by downloading a program from the website (www.spotify.com) to their hard-drive and signing up for a free account. Best of all, Spotify is completely legal - an antidote, if you like, to illegal file-sharing sites such as Limewire and the controversial Pirate Bay.

“So what’s the catch?” I hear you cry, because let’s face it, there’s always a catch. Well, there are several. For starters, although Spotify is free, in essence it is funded by advertising, meaning that the listening experience is punctuated by occasional interruptions aimed at reminding users that they could buy the music they’re hearing if they wanted to. This minor problem can be eradicated by signing up for a ‘Premium’ account at a cost of £99 per year or £9.99 per month. The truth is, however, that the adverts are so sparse (currently one 30 second radio style ad every 20 minutes) that they rarely become an annoyance, making the whole idea of
paying for Spotify practically pointless.

Perhaps the biggest gripe for many Spotify users at present is
its lack of portability. Although similar to iTunes in nature,
there are as yet no methods of transferring music from the
site to a portable listening device meaning that Spotify users
never actually own the music they listen to, they only own
the right to stream it via the internet. At the time of writing
there are unconfirmed rumours circulating that developers are
working on a Spotify iPhone application, but there's nothing
concrete to suggest that this will definitely be the case.

Although many users will be surprised at the wealth and
range of music on offer from Spotify, there are some notable
absentees. Despite signing groundbreaking licensing deals
with the likes of Warner, Universal and EMI last year, music
from artists such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles (whose back catalogue may still be stashed in a dusty cellar somewhere in Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch) is nowhere to be found.

All of these things considered, Spotify is still pretty damn good, meaning that even the staunchest critics of the internet as a music resource might consider conversion to ‘The New Religion’. The Legendary Stardust Cowboy’s words may seem a bit extreme, but CD fans better watch out, ‘cause there’s a new Sheriff in town – Sheriff Spotify.