With the recent availability of Spotify to the US, it’s already getting great reviews from first-time users.  We’re pretty impressed by it from the moment of download to the point when you’re actually listening to its massive music library.

We went ahead and signed up for the unlimited version, filling out the necessary details (username, password, etc.)  You’re then prompted to download the Spotify desktop client, and that’s when the fun really begins.

Upon opening Spotify’s desktop client, you’ll see a homepage with “What’s New.”  You can go ahead and peruse through this page, or dig a little deeper.  One of the easiest ways to add music to your playlists is to subscribe to another user’s existing playlist.  Spotify even created a special “Welcome U.S. users” playlist, chalk full of “American” classics.  Wouldn’t you know, Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York tops the list.  I’m wondering if they sought out songs for every state and city–Sweet Home Alabama, some title about Malibu, and Springstein’s Born in the U.S.A. all grace this playlist.

You can also check out top tracks and artists, or pull from your iTunes.  These are all great ways to get started on creating an in-depth profile for your Spotify account, which is the most fun I’ve had all day.  I don’t typically like re-creating my preferences from scratch on a new service, but for some reason, I don’t mind so much when it comes to Spotify.

The easiest way I’ve found to gather up new music is to “star” an entire album from a favorite artist.  Click on an artist’s name and you’ll see their profile, complete with their discography, biography, and related artists.  It’s a basic discovery tool at this level, but very easy to use.  Once you begin adding music to various playlists, you can also sync tracks for offline access, if you’ve got the unlimited account.

One of the biggest perks of Spotify is mobile access, which comes with iPhone and Android apps.  Both versions have pretty similar interfaces, so you get the same experience across platforms.  From the mobile apps, you can access everything you need for your account–namely the music.  This level of integration certainly extends Spotify’s points of access, but it doesn’t stop there.  Several other services, including Sonos and Klout, have partnered with Spotify for their U.S. launch, initiating the music service as a well-established one even on its first day state-side.

Sharing is pretty easy on Spotify as well, with Facebook integration, buttons to send tracks or artist info to another user, Twitter or Facebook, and ready access to content shared through your Facebook friends. There’s a feed directly within Spotify’s desktop app, so you can stay caught up with everything your friends are doing within the music “network.”  If you’re already anxious to learn of more ways to enjoy Spotify, read on.

I also came across this article written by Giles Turnbull who had the luxury of using Spotify while in Europe.  He stated some cool ways to better enjoy your Spotify experience.  And these are Spotimy – which helps you in finding new stuff, New Releases on Spotify- with chunks being uploaded, it’s hard to keep track of what new, so this one helps you with that.  Then there’s Biblify – this will you with album reviews and the best from the rest saving you time.  There’s also Playlistify – instead of literally adding songs to a playlist, you just have to click on the ‘Subscribe’ button and you can create a playlist with the whole album content or from different genres of your choice.  Lastly there’s Tubufy – Spotify playlist-turned-YouTube service.

But of course only a few have experienced the power of Spotify due to its limited invite slots.  So, with everyone wanting a piece of the Spotify pie, Klout, the social media ranking service, offered to give the public an invite for the free version of Spotify if they sign up for their service.  How’s that for increasing their user base?

With the masses almost reaching hysteria over Spotify, how’s it looking for their competitors?  Well, Spotify’s still in its beta phase, and it’s too early to tell how it will fare against the likes of Pandora, iTunes or even Amazon’s cloud-based music service. But soon enough, we’ll have a better idea of the long-term effects of Spotify-cation.

Mellisa Tolentino also contributed to this post.