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Spotify readying browser-based version, says report

The popular music service is preparing a Web-based version of its desktop service and is also looking to improve how users can find new music, according to a report.

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Edward Moyer is a senior editor at CNET and a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world. He enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. ¶ For nearly a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures.
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Edward Moyer
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Spotify is preparing to launch a browser-based version of its popular music service, according to a report.

It's unknown whether the new product will replace the current desktop version, which requires downloading a player, TechCrunch reports, citing unnamed sources. Spotify is currently available by way of the downloadable desktop software or by mobile app.

A browser-based version of Spotify would be available to users on any PC, rather than just the one with the downloaded player.

According to TechCrunch's sources, Spotify is also working to improve the ways users can discover new music. Spotify listeners can already subscribe to nonfriends' playlists, but TechCrunch says the service will probably start suggesting various lists to follow and "may try to recruit big name celebrities, musicians, and DJs to share playlists."

Spotify may also tweak its pricing to encourage mobile use, TechCrunch reports, with, perhaps, an $8 a month plan for ad-free and mobile service. The service is currently free on the desktop with advertisements; ad-free on the desktop for $5 a month; and ad-free on the desktop and on mobile apps -- with offline listening possible -- for $10 a month.

Spotify has recently been positioning to take on Pandora, the Web-based streaming service that lets users set up "radio stations" by choosing songs or artists they like and having the service play similar tunes. Spotify, which began as an exclusively on-demand service, where users search for particular songs and albums and play them, launched its own Pandora-like "radio" version for its desktop player in May. It then brought the "radio" model to its iOS app in June and its Android app in July.

Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is preparing its own "radio"-like service.

We'll contact Spotify for comment and update this post if we hear back.

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