Yes, this is too greedy.

The only way this would've worked was if it played instantly regardless of whether you have spotify, an account or not. While it plays you might of course at the same time (discretely) mention that you can download the spotify app for a better experience.

This could have been a great way to advertise spotify (in theory replacing an extremely popular use of youtube (that youtube is used as a means to discover music is proof that this is an area just waiting to be disrupted)).

No one will use these play-buttons as their main music source so spotify won't loose anything in providing this. Perhaps even a short commercial after the track have been played if you don't already have the client installed would have been an perfectly fair way of recouping whatever "lost" on providing a free listen.

Almost saddens me they didn't realize this.

Rdio offers a 30 second clip before asking you to sign up for sign in.

http://blog.rdio.com/us/2010/10/now-live-embedding-rdio.html

This isn't a totally open, perfect tool, but Spotify is constrained by the major labels it works with, and I think its good to see them pushing out beyond Facebook.

You forgot step 3: Angrily give up because they require a Facebook account to sign up.

It works perfect when you have the Spotify app open. But indeed, when you don't have it installed or open, it's not really as intuitive as it could be!

Here is how it "works" for me:

1. Click "Play" 2. Get a message saying that the service is not available where I live.

Lucky, you :)

I get to see only "Sorry, we're not available where you are."

It plays in the background if you have Spotify and a browser which supports CORS.

Strange, for me Spotify just starts and the music begins toplay.