Over the past few weeks we’ve seen a number of great uses of the Spotify Platform that have enabled wonderful new musical experiences. In-client experiences such as Songkick’s integration and Last.fm’s discovery engine. Third party mobile apps like SpotOn and Soundrop. And now we have another great project to let you know about.

One of our Mac OS X engineers has released a libspotify-based desktop client for OS X Lion, Viva, that he’s built to test libspotify and CocoaLibSpotify and as an interesting ‘side project’.

While this isn’t an official Spotify client it is another example of just how powerful and easy it is to build upon the Spotify Platform. If you’re running OS X Lion feel free to check it out, it’s a little rough around the edges but still great to use.

If you’re a developer and want to learn how to build something yourself using the Spotify Platform check out our developer site now.

When Henry and I are baking up a storm, it’s fueled by good strong coffee, a love of sharing great food, bounced along with brotherly banter, and always accompanied by awesome music. Since we were kids, growing up above Hobbs House bakery in Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, music has influenced how we do what we do.

Namely baking lush bread and whoop ass buns. I distinctly remember hearing Roxy Music, and ’80’s classics wafting up from the bakery to my bedroom, very early in the morning. Music mingling up with the best aroma in the world, baking bread, enough to influence any impressionable lad and I was [dough] hooked.

Since those early days, wherever Henry or I have baked and cooked, we’ve always played music we love to set the tone and tempo. We’ve learnt that playing music you love, helps a shift go faster and smoother and of course it makes everything taste better. And now with Spotify Premium, everything just gotten a hec of a lot more irresistible.

We’ve made a series titled Fabulous Baker Brothers for Channel 4 (it’s on now) and this is our HOT playlist of tracks we’re loving right NOW! We shared it with the producers to help influence the mood of the show and it has inspired the tunes played throughout the series, and kept us rocking whilst we wrote our book.

This selection of tunes is a heady mix of spirited Blues, Soul and timeless Rock and Roll. So BEAT IT, MIX IT, STIR IT UP, SHAKE IT, till your mojo’s working and your baps are baked. Real bread is on the rise, and you knead to make sure your listening to this ‘HOT tunes from the #bakerbrothers oven‘ playlist, whatever your cooking.

This week, Florence + The Machine added exclusive tracks to their acclaimed #1 album ‘Ceremonials’. Recorded at the Digster concert at the Intima Theatre in Stockholm, this release of the album features live versions of ‘Never Let Me Go’, ‘Lover To Lover’, ‘Spectrum’, and ‘Dog Days Are Over’. Check them out by clicking here.

Korn’s new album The Path of Totality features a host of new collaborations that reads like a who’s who of dubstep. To celebrate the release of the album we’ve got playlists for your delight from Jonathan Davis (Korn), Skrillex, Excision, Kill The Noise and Noisia, showcasing both rock and electronic arenas. Check them out here.

Hot tip for 2012 – ∆ (Alt-J) – have just released their first single, the double A-side Matilda/Fitzpleasure. To celebrate they’ve created a special playlist featuring tracks from those that influence them: Laura Marling, Radiohead, and Elliot Smith, but to name a few.

Sarah Atereth, just named Music Week’s Future Face of 2012, shares with you some of her favourite songs of all time. Featuring tracks from Stevie Nicks and Blondie, Sarah says, “I am continually moved by the passion, depth of songwriting and pure joy these songs bring me!” Take a listen here.

Finally, don’t forget to check out these exclusive pre-releases from Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Milagres, and Fránçois & The Atlas Mountains.

SANE has teamed up with Spotify and Feeling Gloomy to help lift everyone’s mood in January with the power of music.

We want you to make a playlist or album of your favourite “sad songs that make you happy” i.e. songs that might have dark lyrics or mood but in fact cheer you up.

Just choose some cheer-up songs and create a Blue Mood Month playlist on Spotify. Please share it with us on Facebook and Twitter (#BlueMoodMonth hastag) and encourage friends and family to get involved as well.

Our friends at SANE and Feeling Gloomy have asked lots of lovely celebs for their favourite ‘sad songs that make you happy’ in support of Blue Mood Month. These playlists will inspire people of all ages to cheer up!

Check out these playlists here.

It’s BRIT Awards time again! The 2012 nominations were announced last night, showcasing the best in British talent alongside the best international artists.

This year, we’re delighted to be the Official Digital Streaming Partner for the BRITs. So, let’s start with a playlist of all the nominees for you. Who’d get your vote?

Listen to the playlist!

With his new orchestral album If… Bill Ryder-Jones produced a soundtrack of Italo Calvino’s novel ‘If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller’ and now he’d like to write a soundtrack for one of you.

Bill himself will pick the winner and the resulting track will be yours to keep and also uploaded onto Spotify so you can listen to it wherever you are.

Competition details are here!

2011 concluded an incredible year for Josh T. Pearson by receiving Rough Trade’s coveted ‘Album of the Year’ title for the deeply affecting Last Of The Country Gentlemen. To commemorate this massive achievement Josh’s put together a special playlist for Spotify. Listen here.

The Little Willies (featuring Norah Jones on vocals and piano), have just released their second album of covers: ‘For the Good Times’. To see where their inspiration came from, and to check out their new album, listen here.

Also don’t forget to check out these exclusive pre-releases from First Aid Kit, Tribes, World Routes and Enter Shikari.

We are delighted to see great applications created by other developers using the Spotify Platform. We’re really impressed by one that’s been released this week, SpotON Radio , a third-party radio application for iOS devices.

SpotON Radio allows you to create personalized radio stations on your iOS device. These stations mix your Spotify favourite tracks with similar songs. Just download the application to your iOS device, login with your Spotify or Facebook credentials and start discovering new music!

These are some other features that SpotON Radio offers:

• Create personalized radio stations based on any artist
• Like and dislike songs to fine tune your stations entirely to your own taste
• Add new tracks or export the entire stations’ history directly into your Spotify playlists
• You can skip as many songs as you like

It’s a great way to find new music similar to your own taste! And it is all powered by Spotify’s huge music catalogue and EchoNest’s song recommendation engine.

Spotify Premium subscribers can enjoy SpotON Radio right now. Head over to the App Store to get it.

We present you the music selection that our friends from Sharemyplaylists have handpicked for this month.

Best of Annie Mac 11
If you like your dance music, check out this collection of bangers from Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac’s end-of-year show. There’s 2011’s biggest tunes from the likes of The 2 Bears, Duck Sauce, Chase & Status and Toddla T, alongside classics from Inner City, A Guy Called Gerald, Daft Punk and Utah Saints. And loads more besides – 60 tracks, in fact.

I, Partridge
The literary event of 2011 was, unquestionably, the autobiography from north Norfolk’s greatest living broadcaster, Alan Partridge. If you haven’t got your copy of I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan, get one now. Or, better still, get the audiobook – it’s ace. Also worth checking out is this accompanying soundtrack created by Alan himself (aka SMP user Mike Chatterton). We’re pleased to see this one in the chart.

Unsigned Finds: Best of 2011
Okay, we know you’re probably bored with the end-of-year lists, but this one from Unsigned Finds is so good we had to bring it to your attention. And we guarantee you won’t find a best-of list quite this anywhere else. For the best new and unsigned bands from the past 12 months, get clicking here. Go on, then – what you waiting for. Now!

~ K-Pop 4 Dummies ~
Next up, SMP user Freddie Buddy would like to introduce you to K-pop – that’s pop music from Korea, you know. Sadly, Kim Jong-il’s cover of Ain’t No Fun (If The Homies Can’t Have None) didn’t make this list, but there’s still some bloody good music here. A lot of it is as mad as a box of frogs, of course, but it’s good nonetheless.

January 2012 - Acid Jazz Hispano
Quite simply one of the best playlists you will ever hear on Spotify, or anywhere else for that matter, it’s Acid Jazz Hispano. Acid jazz, funk, soul, electro, house, rare groove, disco, R&B and hip-hop – they’ve got it all. This month featuring Jurassic 5, Clyde Alexander & Sanction, Donny Hathaway, Q-Tip, The Bahama Soul Club, Public Enemy and The Universal International Orchestra, among many, many others. Brilliant.

Consultthis Music: De La Soul sampled
Incredible reception for this one on the SMP Facebook page. De La Soul – the greatest hip-hop act of all-time – are the subject of this playlist. If you want to know where they pilfered their hooks from, check out Consultthis Music: De La Soul sampled: Johnny Cash, Sly & The Family Stone, James Brown, Average White Band and more.

RIP 2011: Remembering Those We Lost This Year
This superb playlist, as the title suggests, pays tribute to many of the artists that died in 2011: Amy Winehouse, Gil Scott-Heron, DJ Mehdi, Dobie Gray, Bert Jansch, Gerard Smith and Nate Dogg, among others. Sorely missed – all of them.

Kieron’s Electro Mix Vol.8
Next, an expertly curated electronic music playlist from SMP’s very own Kieron, his ace Kieron’s Electro Mix Vol.8. If you missed episodes 1-7, allows us to fill you in. Basically, right, there’s all this amazing electro music that wants to take over your cerebellum and force you to bust moves like James Brown on hot coals. Damu The Fudgemunk, Fred Everything, Weirdo Police, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Felix Da Housecat, Laid Back and a cast of thousands also star in this one. And they’re all probably having affairs with each other, or something.

Dave Godin’s Deep Soul Treasurers
Another playlist that received a big reaction for this one on the SMP Facebook page – and a must-hear mixtape for serious soul-heads – is Dave Godin’s Deep Soul Treasurers. It features such soul gems as Jimmy Holiday, Doris Duke, The Soul Children Bobby Moore & The Formosts, George Perkins and The Silver Stars and more. And it’s absolutely brilliant.

Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Rey was pretty big in 2011, but she’s going to be huge in 2012. Whatever successes come her way, will she ever match the unbridled joy creating a playlist for SMP brings? Probably not. She’s got good taste in music, has Lana Del Rey: Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Nat King Cole and more feature on this on.

It’s a new year and everyone’s eager to have their opinion heard on what’s hot for 2012:

To celebrate BBC Sound of 2012, we’ve put together all the tastemakers’ picks in a handy playlist. Featuring the likes of Spector, Dot Rotten, and Nicki and the Dove, there is something new for everyone to discover in 2012. Listen here.

The editors over at Digster have also put together some tips for the New Year. As well as hot new Pop/Rock, Digster has two exclusive playlists from 2012
frontrunners Lana Del Rey and Maverick Sabre. Check out these, and even more on their Spotify profile, here.

How was 2011 for you? It’s been an incredible year for Spotify – we launched in new countries including the US, made music more social than ever with Facebook, and opened up Spotify to a new world of apps. We liked 2011!

But how was 2011 for music? What were the most popular tracks of the year? Find out how your favourites fared in our Review of the Year.

Check out our Review of the Year, which includes the Top 100 tracks by country and playlists from the likes of Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, Willow Smith and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park.

Thanks for listening to Spotify in 2011. We wish you a very happy New Year!