Spotify is seriously Facebook-friendly, says the service on its website. But it’s one thing being friendly and another being assimilated. So it’s with more than a little sadness that I read this thread on Get Satisfaction. Baffled user Dean asks:

There seems to be nowhere on Spotify’s website that lets you sign up for Spotify without a Facebook account. The sign up links ask to to log in to Facebook or create a new Facebook account.

Is there a hidden link anywhere on the website that lets you sign up without linking it to a Facebook account?

Clearly, Dean must be some kind of numpty, because, surely, Spofity wouldn’t be so insanely stupid to require you to have a Facebook account to sign-up, right? Right? Luckily, ’employee’ Darran was on hand to put everyone’s minds to rest. And by ‘put everyone’s minds to rest’, I mean ‘punch you all in the face if you had any idealistic thoughts about Spotify being anything other than Facebook’s bitch these days’:

Unfortunately you will need a Facebook account to access Spotify from now on, unless you already have an account set up.

This does not stop you creating the Facebook account adding nothing to it and making it totally private as the Facebook account does not have to be actively used.

This is a mind-bafflingly stupid decision. The only thought that crossed my mind is that Spotify is in a financial mess and needed a Facebook injection, but Facebook said “I will only inject money goodness into you, if you’re shackled to me forever”. Because Zuckerberg is kinky that way.