Purchasing SC—Spinlet Credit
Purchasing SC, the virtual currency that is used in buying the music and paying for membership and other services mentioned is easy. According to the information we have, using your phone credit, which is the only one available for now, is one of the options that are available in purchasing contents on Spinlet. They will be working on allowing users to use local debit card and mobile money in the future.
Spinlet Credit, SC, is the currency used in getting music and paying for subscription
The fact that they were able to pull this off and allow operator support for buying the Spinlet credit is a huge plus. I don’t have to bother about getting gift cards or getting a paypal or credit card before buying, just bill directly to my phone credit. I think that is cool. What do you think?
According to what Eric Idahi, the Chairman, Spinlet is working on bringing in credit card and mobile money options. And when that is done, 1 SC = N1. The monthly subscription as a member won’t cost as much as N1,350, but will be N500.
Ease of getting the music
For now their library isn’t robust. They only have a few songs. I presume they will be signing more deals with record labels to have more music and new releases in the Spinlet library. Imagine a situation where 2Face releases a new album and you have a choice of either going to look for it in Alaba market — it takes time for it to circulate round the town — or stream and download it on Spinlet. For now, many people may still want to get their music on 4shared or other torrent sites, but as times goes on, the ease of getting the music from a music store like Spinlet will become the norm. Off course, those that still prefer to get their song from Torrent sites will still do. The ease of getting the new release without searching the internet will make you get it from your music store.
The different options for paying for the music
You can decide to get the music per track or per album. A track goes for 30 SC = N80, a full album will be 150 SC = N400. Besides these, there is another option. The option I am on and the option I think most people would go for is to subscribe for premium membership for 500 SC = N1,350 per month. This allows you to download up to 500mb of music and do unlimited streaming of music. Once you subscribe though, you’d be in auto renewal. Every other month your subscription will be renewed. All you have to do is to top up your credit.
While you are streaming the music, you will be using internet data. It is better that you are on an internet plan. Otherwise your pre-paid credit will be used up.
The Blackberry Advantage
For those using Blackberry and having active BIS, they’d be able to stream music without worrying about exhausting their internet data. That is a huge advantage. Ife Oluwadebo is using a Blackberry Bold 9700 and he said he observed that with no credit, but an active BIS, he was able to stream music within the Spinlet app.
Many of the folks using Blackberry who enjoy listening to music on their phone will find this to be an easy way to consume music digitally. They will find it easier than those using Symbian and Android. I’d love to see what the users statistic for Spinlet will look like four months from now.
On the average, I use close to 20mb in one music session of 1 hour. If I listen for two hours, that would be 40mb. This is an estimate of my own usage pattern. Considering a situation where I am on a 200 mb data plan which costs an average of N1,000. If I listen to 40mb of music daily, my 200mb will only last me for 5 days. This is why I believe most of the users will come primarily among the blackberry folks, until there is a special data plan on Android and Symbian that bundles data cheaper that will alow them to stream music on Spinlet. Those who have 1gb or 5gb cap on their mobile phone, like my friend Bukola using an Android may not mind streaming music on Spinlet.
Final Thoughts
I personally will score the app and the service an overall 6/10. They have done so well so far. In a different blog post, i will be sharing what I think Spinlet should add and what they should improve to enhance the user’s experience and improve patronage.
I know a couple of people have tried the app. Some are still waiting to read a full review before trying. You can go ahead and try it. I will like to hear your feedbacks and what you think of the app.
