Like everyone else I know, I joined Spotify, paying $10 a month for a streaming jukebox with almost any song you could want to hear. It’s an incredible tool—do I really want to buy the Cure’s early, extremely dark album, Pornography? I’d better give it a listen first—but parts of it are creeping me out: mainly, the Facebook integration. When signing up, I found that Spotify automatically retrieved my Facebook information before I’d entered even my email address. I don’t like the idea of multiple platforms cross-accessing my data, so I went to Facebook and turned off the “platform sharing” that Facebook automatically turns on—only to find that the only way to join Spotify is by letting them access your Facebook info.

Creepy, in my opinion.

Then, of course, Spotify automatically displays what you’re listening to on your Facebook feed; you have to know that, and you have to know to go to “Preferences” to turn it off.

And now, as I try to log back in for the first time since joining yesterday, Spotify is showing me a prompt that automatically checks a box saying, “Show what I listen to on Facebook.” It’s grayed-out, so that it’s less noticeable than the text around it. Pretty heavy-handed.

And after I have logged back in, Spotify asks if I want to erase all the music on my iPod and replace it with songs from Spotify. Why would I want to do that? What does that do for me other than make me more dependent on maintaining my Spotify subscription?

If I sound suspicious, well, I am. I don’t see how Spotify can make money charging subscribers ten bucks a month….so where does the revenue come from?

Wonder what other folks think of Spotify…