Millions of users listen to Spotify’s streaming music service world wide. And behind the scenes we have a world class technology organization, continuing to make Spotify the best music service available.

If you are interested in meeting some of our great engineers and more people who have taken the time to do develop something cool with our service, you are welcome to join any of our groups!

We have Tech Meetups in Stockholm and in New York. And we have two upcoming events this January. Check them out on the next links:

Click here to join the New York Meetup group.

If you want to join the Stockholm Meetup group, come this way.

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.

In the second installment of VICE Meets Spotify: Music Loves Art, we hang out with soul legend Sharon Jones and renowned visual artist Mickalene Thomas. The women chat about their different mediums, what inspires their work, and how they got their start.

Watch as Mickalene and Sharon show Miami what it means to get down and get ready to discover the heart of soul.

Stayed tuned next week for another behind the scenes glimpse of Music Loves Art.

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!

This year has been a very musical one. New artists, great new album releases, amazing covers, surprising comebacks and plenty or surprises.

And you guys were there to listen to all of that! We’ll be showing you very soon which ones were the most popular tracks of the year 2011 on Spotify in each country. But before we’d like to make a playlist that includes your favourite tracks os this year.

Which one was the track that marked 2011 for you? Drag and drop the URL in the box below and in a few days we’ll post the playlist created by all of you!

We are excited to let you know that our BlackBerry app is no longer a Preview release and is now available to any user with a compatible phone. To download the app simply point the browser on your phone to m.spotify.com and follow the installation instructions.

Compatible phones include Bold 9780, Bold 9700, Curve 9300, Bold 9000, Curve 8520. Currently the app only supports phones running on GSM networks. CDMA-network phones and the Torch 9800 are not compatible.

As with all of our mobile app you’ll need a Spotify Premium subscription to stream from our catalogue. You can take advantage of our 48-hour free trial directly from the mobile app or sign up to our 30-day free trial to give it a spin.

Enjoy!

The first episode of Music Loves Art is up! With a behind the scenes look at our Music Loves Art events at Ricochet Lounge during Art Basel 2011, this series captures the exclusive performances and intimate interviews between the visual artists and musicians.

Catch the first episode right here - Nas, Rashid Johnson and Luis Gispert inspire and enlighten. Be sure to head to VICE.com for more exclusive content, playlists and the inside scoop on upcoming episodes.

It’s been an exciting year for Spotify and just before we wrap up 2011, we hear incredible news that we’ve won Best Music Service or App at this year’s Mashable Awards.

Thanks to all our fans who voted for us! We love you guys too. To celebrate, jam with us to this playlist!

We’ve got an exclusive live stream of Common performing tonight at the Highline Ballroom in NYC!

Tune in here to see this influential hip hop star take the stage ahead of the release of his ninth studio album, The Dreamer/The Believer tomorrow. The performance kicks off tonight at 9:00pm ET/8:00pm CT/6:00pm PT.