Spotify is every bit a modern music service except for one thing: in order to use it on a PC or Mac, you have to download an application. That may be no big deal for users of smartphones or tablets (who seem to enjoy Spotify’s mobile apps), but it’s still a little weird on a desktop or laptop, and so a report that Spotify plans to release a browser-based version of its service makes a fair amount of sense.
Techcrunch reported Saturday that Spotify–the brainchild of Sean Parker and Daniel Elk–will release a web service in the near future that would allow users to log into their Spotify accounts from any PC or Mac and stream music. The report said that the service will likely add a few new music-discovery features as well.
While the apps-vs.-web question may still be an ongoing debate in mobile development (with apps leading the way in most cases), web-delivered experiences have come to define most of what we do on PCs and Macs these days. Going to a browser-oriented version could help Spotify sign up more users and could also make for a more interesting experience when playlists can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection.