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.

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!

Run the Spotify app on your computer or mobile devices, and the whole main interface of Spotify will appear. Now click to 'Down-arrow' button to enter the Settings page. On the Settings page, scroll down to 'Music Quality'. Under the Music Quality, there is ' Streaming quality'. Lots of people will tell you “Oh yes, the difference is huge”. There are many answers right here using words like “massive” and “crisper” and “depth”. But confirmation bias is a powerful, powerful thing. There are also a (depressingly large) numbe. Generally, the higher the bitrate of a track, the better the quality of sound is, but the more space it will take up on disc. Until now, Spotify offers low, high and extreme sound quality settings. The normal Spotify bitrate setting is 96 kbps, the high bitrate is 160 kbps and extreme is 320kbps.

Spotify is the world’s biggest music streaming platform by number of subscribers. Users of the service simply need to register to have access to one of the biggest-ever collections of music in history, plus podcasts, and other audio content. It operates on a freemium model. Free Spotify access comes with lower sound quality, and advertisements, and requires an internet connection.

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.

You can now go ahead and download and install Spotify in 2020 on your iOS it and start using it. /spotify-premium-with-download-free.html.

• See Also: How to Download Spotify Offline without Premium

What Is Spotify Audio Quality

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

My Question or Issue. Where is the album art in the bottom left corner on the desktop app? It only shows the song and artist, now there's no good way to easily click to the playlist or page it is playing from. /spotify-not-displaying-album-art-in-some-resolutions-mac.html.

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.

Download Spotify Playlist For Free

• 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.