I keep trying to wrap my mind around the nuances of Spotify’s decision to require a Facebook login for new accounts…

Spotify Blog – Spotify: “Having free access to music on Facebook also gives us an opportunity to express ourselves in a new way. We’re proud to share pictures of our lives. Now we can say something about ourselves through music. “Hi I’m Daniel – here’s some Daft Punk.”

Go read the whole post before you continue here.

I love Spotify’s service. The day it rolled out in the US (not that long ago), I canceled my Rdio subscription and immediately went the paid route option for Spotify. I was hoping, at long last, my dream of music-in-the-cloud and on demand was coming to fruition. For the most part, it did.

I continue to use Spotify on a daily basis (that’s a link to what I’m listening to there and on iTunes via my Twitter music account).

However, this decision by Spotify raises serious questions about how the company views music, consumption, culture and expression. Let’s face it, Facebook is the “social face of the web” but it is not the place that I want to lift up as the pinnacle of human expression, which to me, music represents.

I love music. I love music much more than I do Spotify (and especially Facebook). I recognize what Facebook is good for in terms of connections, social gestures and interactions. However, connecting my individual perceptions of human expression with what is basically a glorified shopping cart of social data gleaning scares the daylights out of me.

Doc Searls says it best (as always):

For independence on the Net and the Web, we need cars, pickup trucks, bikes and motorcycles. Not just shopping carts — which are what browsers have become.

I would substitute “browsers” here with “music” and it has even more affect. Go read his whole post. It’s quite amazing.

So where does this leave me?

I’m not sure.

I don’t necessarily want to kill my Facebook account as I do find meaning and value there in some sense, but I can definitely do without that space since I would much rather have this space as the cornerstone of “digital sam” and my online expressions (better to own than rent!).

However, I don’t like this unholy marriage of human expression, discovery and consumerism one bit.

Hand-wringing tonight.