We know there's been a lot of fuss on the boards about Spotify, so we thought we'd share their news and link you to some playlists...

We just received an email from Spotify which reads:

Hello from Spotify!

As of today we're taking our first baby steps in opening up our music streaming service to the whole of the UK.

We've been bowled over by the interest that Spotify has received in the UK in the short time since our launch, and as a result we feel now is a good time to open up the free service to everyone in the Kingdom, without the need of a Spotify invite. This will be the first country that Spotify will give users' unrestricted access.

Up until now we've kept a close eye on controlling user growth, while adding on average 10,000 new tracks per day, so that we can maintain our technical stability and ensure that absolutely everyone gets the best music experience we can offer. That will always be the case, but we're now at a stage where we're ready to grow further.

As of today, people will no longer need an invitation to join Spotify and can register for free directly on our website at spotify.com. The premium subscription will continue to be available to users who wish to sign up to our ad-free service, which will see further shiny new features added in the coming months.

So why begin unrestricted access in the UK? Our user base has grown very quickly in the UK, which is a priority market for us. We feel now's the right time to spread our wings while still remaining in beta for the immediate future as we carefully track our growth.

We'll be releasing a statement later today on our blog http://www.spotify.com/blog/ so please keep checking the site for news on this and other exciting projects we've got coming up.

Happy listening and please continue to let us know what you think about the service.

Jim Butcher
Communications Manager

Not played around with it yet? Basically you can stream pretty much anything (although they have huge holes in independent labels' catalogues - there's virtually no Domino, Sub Pop or Wichita to name but three of our favourites).

Here's links to some playlists to leave on in the background, or to use to browse more by the acts in question and similar acts - and acts similar to the similar acts, etc, etc...

• Drowned in Sound's albums of 2008
• DiS Editor's mixtape
• DiSsers United - a collaborative playlist
• DiSsers album's of the Noughties - another collaborative playlist

DiScuss: All that make sense? Wut is a Spotify? Share your playlist links below...