Though Spotify no longer offers 30-day (or 60-day) free trials, it does offer users a 3-month trial of Spotify Premium for a 99₵ flat fee. It only works if you’ve never used Spotify Premium before, though, either through a free trial or some other promotion. Spotify vs iTunes. So what music streaming service to choose in 2020? When it comes to compare between Spotify and iTunes, we are recommending Spotify for most of the users, as Spotify delivers the finest quality music at a relatively cheaper cost. Moreover, Spotify is the only lossless music streaming provider among the streaming giants.
Since 2008 Spotify has grown to be one of the most popular digital audio streaming platforms with over 96 million paying subscribers today. It is undeniably one of the best music streaming services in the world with over 40 million tracks accessible from your phone, tablet or personal computer. You can play your favorite music either through Spotify Web Browser or on Spotify Desktop Client. Apart from being a favorite platform for music lovers, the 'Spotify web player vs desktop client' discussion or rather argument have loomed the internet for some time. Lots of Spotify users prefer web player to access the music library. Equally, quite a significant number of users are of the second option, the desktop client.
To get the better of the two platforms, Spotify desktop app, and mobile app, we first need to know what distinguishes them from one another. The desktop application is the Spotify platform that is compatible with your desktop and is downloadable from Spotify's site and other download sites. It is compatible with all computers and saves you a lot of hustles that may come with using the website version. Google Play Music vs Spotify. Google play music is without a doubt an exceptional music player that has been on the web for more than 8 years. It is a popular online music streaming site and millions of people around the world tend to use it. Spotify on the other end, is another popular streaming app and is one of the competitors of Google Music since it came in 2008.
The fact remains that both options are entirely different. Well, this review will profoundly attempt to compare Spotify web player and desktop app using the various pro and cons. Here are the aspects that form the notable differences between Spotify desktop and web player. Scroll right down!
Spotify Web Player vs Desktop Client: Portability
It is for a fact that the current generation is obsessed with controlling and accessing very thing from their palms. At the comfort of your room or working desk, you can easily access the Spotify track library just by clicking the Spotify icon on your desktop. Alternatively, you directly browse Spotify and play songs from the web. Both ways are convenient; however, for the desktop client option, you must have a PC at your disposal.
Using a web player only requires you to have the logins. You access songs from anywhere at any time you feel like. You even borrow a friend's phone and operate your account from there. Unlike using a desktop player which requires you to carry a PC along which is inconveniencing. Basing on this perspective, Web player is more portable and available compared to a desktop client.
Spotify Web Player vs Desktop Client: Music Quality
The current generation of music lovers is susceptible to the quality of music they listen to. Most people can tell the difference in music quality when using the two option, and others will not even notice it. Usually, the Spotify web player offers a lower bitrate compare to the desktop client. For free web players, clients get 128kbps bitrate while premium users get 256kbps bitrate. On the hand, desktop client free accounts can only access up to 160kbps while paying users access double the quality, 320kbps.
This is the main reason why people prefer using desktop client over web player. Even a free account has fairly good quality music.
Spotify Web Player vs Desktop Client: Offline Listening
Considering this aspect, desktop client is more convenient. Desktop client users can easily save tracks to listen when they are offline. On the contrary, the opposite is true for web player user. Both free and paid accounts do not enjoy this feature. It has for a long time been a point of concern for Spotify users across the globe. Probably, they will consider this in the near future.
To save Spotify songs offline, you are required to sign up the premium account of Spotify. Otherwise you cannot download the track from Spotify even if you are using the desktop client. But if you are not willing to pay for the premium plan, the alternative way is using dedicated Spotify music downloader such as TunesKit Spotify Music Converter to download and convert the Spotify songs/playlists to common MP3s. In this way, no matter you are free or premium user, you can enjoy Spotify music offline on any device without limit.
- See Also: How to Download Spotify Offline without Premium
Spotify Web Player vs Desktop Client: Space
Installing Spotify software on your, PC requires that have enough storage capacity to run the software. It also tends to create log files and hence not a favorite for a computer with little storage capacity. It will definitely affect the entire performance of the PC. On the other hand, operating a web player does not require space. You just need a browser, and from there you can bookmark the Spotify website for easy access
Spotify Web Player vs Desktop Client: Hotkeys
Generally, hotkeys are paramount for any software. However, desktop clients do not have hotkeys. Hotkeys facilitate navigation movements. They are more useful when busy at work. Spotify web player provides for hotkeys; however, you will have to install the Spotify Hotkeys add-on on Firefox or Chrome browsers. Here are some Hotkeys for both browsers.
FireFox:
- Play/Pause: Ctrl + Alt + P
- Previous Track: Ctrl + Alt +
- Next Track: Ctrl + Alt +.
Chrome:
- Play/Pause: Alt + Shift + P
- Previous Track: Alt + Shift +
- Next Track: Alt + Shift +.
Spotify Web Player vs Desktop Client: Lyrics
If song lyrics are a top priority for you, then it is sorry to say that none of the options has that feature. Often, you have to download and install Musixmatch software and run it concurrently with the Spotify software. For Spotify web player users you need to install Lyrics Here by Rob W extension for both Chrome and Firefox browsers.
- See Also: Tips to Get Lyrics on Spotify How to Stream Apple Music Web Player without Subscription
The Final Words: Which Is Better
With regard to the above differences between Spotify desktop and web player, I can comfortably recommend Spotify web player considering the portability, space saving, and availability. You do not have to carry your PC everywhere you go to listen to your favorite tracks on Spotify. What do you think? Give me your comment right here.
Adam Gorden is an experienced writer of TunesKit who is obsessed about tech, movie and software.
Is Spotify free?
Spotify is sort of free. Spotify app play history app. It is what is commonly referred to as a “freemium” service. This means that you don’t have to pay any money to sign up for the service or use it. However, the service has several features that are locked unless you purchase and maintain a paid subscription, known as Spotify Premium.
For instance, if you only have the free version of Spotify:
- You will see advertisements in the Spotify application, and hear them between songs.
- You can only skip songs a certain number of times over a certain length of time.
- You cannot download songs to be able to listen to them when not connected to the Internet.
- You will not be able to customize the order in which certain songs play (on a mobile device).
- Your audio quality will be somewhat limited.
How much does Spotify Premium cost?
Spotify Premium costs $9.99 per month (plus tax) in both the United States and Canada, charged at the beginning of each month. If you cancel your subscription in the middle of the month, you will not get a refund for your fee for that month, but you will avoid paying more fees until you renew your subscription.
Are there ways to get discounts for Spotify?
Absolutely! Can u download songs from spotify. Though Spotify no longer offers 30-day (or 60-day) free trials, it does offer users a 3-month trial of Spotify Premium for a 99₵ flat fee. It only works if you’ve never used Spotify Premium before, though, either through a free trial or some other promotion. We’ll show you how to get it at the end of this tutorial.
Spotify Download Vs Windows App
(NOTE: after the time period for this trial has expired, if you haven’t cancelled your subscription, you will continue at the usual monthly rate of $9.99 plus tax.)
Spotify Windows App Vs Desktop
There are also other discounts that you can get. For instance, with the Spotify Family promotion, you can have up to 5 family members (yourself plus four others) use the same paid subscription. Instructions for how to set it up can be found at this link.
You can also get 50% off your subscription if you are a student at an American college. We’ll tell you more in our Spotify Student Discount article.
How to get a Spotify (almost) free trial
Spotify App Vs Web App
- Go to www.spotify.com in your web browser. In the top-right corner, click Upgrade.
- On the next screen, click Get 3 Months for 99₵.
- You’ll be prompted to log into Spotify. If you don’t have an account yet, visit our How to Sign Up for Spotify tutorial to learn how to make one. Otherwise, just enter your user name and password for Spotify, and click Log In.
- On the next screen, click in the highlighted boxes and type in or select your credit card number, the month and year that your credit card expires, your credit card’s security code (move your mouse cursor over the “?” to learn where to find this number), and your mailing code. Then click the box labelled “I’m Not a Robot” and complete the activity that appears.You can also click PayPal to pay for your subscription with a PayPal account, if you have one.
- When you’ve filled in all of your information, scroll down and click Start Premium.
You will receive a confirmation email of your order. Enjoy Spotify Premium! Also, if you ever want to cancel your subscription to Spotify Premium, our How to Delete Your Spotify Account tutorial will show you how to do so.