Geoff on… technology

Donate 2 Date is a website that helps raise money for charity by setting people up on dates. This is not just for celebrities (though you might find one or two), it’s for everyone. It’s a fantastic way to raise money, no marathons or shaved heads, just a good time with philanthropist.

After you sign up, you’re listed in the current auctions. People can come along and bid for a date with you. You are in complete control over who you accept. No need to worry about some weird (but rich) person winning your auction. You can pick the person you most like the look of (if they show suitable generosity to your chosen charity of course!)

Despite being brand new, there have already been a number of bidding wars over some people, reaching into the hundreds of pounds.

You can read more about Donate 2 Date here.

Spotify is a new music service that lets you listen to unlimited amounts of music for free. They have an impressively complete collection and you have complete control over what you listen to. The only caveat: it’s ad supported. However, the ads are sparse (about one 30 second add for every album you listen to).

I was initially skeptical about having ads. I hate radio stations that will have you listening to adverts all day long or TV stations that play a few minutes of ads every 20 minutes. But adverts in Spotify are rare enough that it doesn’t bother me. If you don’t like the adverts, you can pay a subscription at £9.99 a month or a day pass for £0.99 (for parties perhaps?). I think the £9.99 a month is a little steep, but luckily I’m happy with the ad-supported version.

They have most of the music I like to listen to. However, they often don’t have the obscure first albums (produced by tiny labels), which is a real shame. I expect this will change if Spotify gets big. There are a couple of big names who are not available. The only one I have really missed is Metallica’s new album.

Each artist has links to similar artists. This is nice for finding new music, but doesn’t appear to be particularly clever. That said, exploring is effortless because songs are played instantly and the browsing interface is very well designed. Songs and playlists can be sent to friends using special URLs, but these have to be emailed or IMed, it would be much better to have a more tightly integrated social network. I’m sure this will follow later on.

At the moment, Spotify is invitation only. I have a few spare, leave me your email and I’ll send you one if I have one left.