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.

Spotify is a digital music service that gives you access to millions of songs. Spotify is all the music you’ll ever need. Listening is everything - Spotify. Spotify's free tier limits user to stream Spotify music at 192kbps or lower audio quality and plays adverts every few songs, and excludes users from using other features such as being able to use it with Sonos and Spotify Connect. While Spotify paid tier allows users to listen to tracks offline, enjoy up to 320kbps audio quality and plays music with full features without any ads. Playlists are a great way to save collections of music, either for your own listening or to share. To create one: Tap Your Library. Tap CREATE.; Give your playlist a name.

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.

How Pandora and Spotify Work

When a user visits Pandora and creates a radio station based on, for example, his or her favorite artist, Pandora searches for similar artists and songs using the complex algorithms of the Music Genome Project, a music database that Pandora has patented. The Music Genome Project compiles information on songs, first categorizing each one by genre. A musician then analyzes every song for up to 30 minutes at a time, finding unique characteristics with which to further categorize the music by (e.g., types of instruments used, gender of lead vocalist, rhythm, tonality, etc.). Most songs have hundreds of attributes that help Pandora determine the similarities and differences between one song and another.

Pandora users can further customize their personal radio stations by giving a thumbs up or thumbs down to songs that are recommended to them. They can also share their stations with friends; however, linking to specific songs directly is impossible due to licensing restrictions.

Spotify is less about new music discovery than it is about replacing traditional music players, like iTunes or Windows Media Player, with streamable music. Spotify depends on a large catalogue of roughly 20 million songs to accomplish this—a sticking point in some countries when major record labels have not wanted to make deals with the company. In theory, users should be able to create an account on Spotify, search for any song or artist that they like, and begin streaming that music with Spotify's online player.

Playlists

On Pandora, radio stations are really just playlists (and vice versa) and come with the same limitations that all Pandora stations come with. Users can build their own stations/playlists based on their favorite music, use friends' shared playlists, or take advantage of one of many public Pandora stations that are based on genre. However, manually adding individual songs or albums is not supported.

Playlists on Spotify work in the same way that playlists in traditional media players work. Music is manually added or removed by the user. The only difference between Spotify's playlists and traditional media players' playlists is that Spotify's can be easily shared (and even co-edited). This has made Spotify a popular choice among those searching for a free or cheap and legal way to share their favorite artists and songs. It has even led to the creation of full websites (e.g., Playlists.net) dedicated to sharing and rating spotify playlists.

Pandora allows users to create up to 100 unique stations/playlists, while Spotify puts no limit on the number of playlists a user can create.

Phone Apps

Pandora has mobile phone apps for Android and iOS, as well as some limited support among Windows Mobile devices and Blackberries. On the iPhone, the Pandora app can only be installed using a U.S., Australian, or New Zealand iTunes account.

Spotify has apps available on a wide variety of mobile devices around the globe. Android, iOS, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile and Windows Phone are all supported.

Free vs Paid Subscriptions

Relatively few restrictions are placed on non-paying Pandora and Spotify members. The most jarring difference between free and paid memberships on both services is the presence of ads; paying members experience no audio ads on Pandora or Spotify.

Pandora's premium membership is known as Pandora One and costs $4.99 a month. Spotify's subscription is known as Spotify Premium; at $9.99 a month, it is more expensive than Pandora One.

As of 2014, students can subscribe to Spotify Premium for $4.99 a month provided they have a .edu email address from an accredited college or university in the U.S. that they can prove they are enrolled in. This reduced pricing is available to students for three years.

Restrictions on Free Membership

Both Pandora and Spotify put restrictions on non-paying users. The restrictions have changed numerous times over the years as both companies have tried out different pricing models and been affected by changing licensing fees or laws.

At present, Pandora's restrictions on its free members are as follows:

• Audio advertisements that last for 15 to 30 seconds periodically interrupt music. The number of ads served up in an hour varies depending on the operating device (i.e., whether listening to Pandora via computer, mobile, or car).

• Restrictions on how many songs can be skipped in a day. Six skips are allowed, per hour and per station; only 30 skips are permitted across all stations in a 24-hour period. Clicking the 'next' play button, selecting 'I'm tired of this track,' or downvoting (giving a thumbs down to) a song while it plays all count as a skip.

• Reduced audio quality. Music for free members plays at 64 kilobits per second in an AAC+ format. Built-in apps for televisions and other non-mobile devices, like Roku, may receive a slightly higher quality of 128 kbps.

• Timeouts. To avoid paying royalties on songs that users might not be listening to, Pandora periodically times out if the player has not been used in a while.

Spotify places similar restrictions on its free members:

• 15- to 30-second audio ads.

• Reduced audio quality. However, at 160 kbps in the Ogg format Spotify's free version offers a higher quality sound than Pandora does.

Premium Membership Benefits

Pandora One's benefits include the following:

• No ads.

• Higher audio quality of 192 kbps.

• Downloadable desktop application. Users are no longer limited to using Pandora on their mobile devices or in the browser.

• Custom skins for the web application.

• Fewer timeouts, allowing users to listen for longer periods of time without having to interact with the player.

Spotify Premium benefits include the following:

• No ads.

• Ability to download music for offline listening.

• Higher audio quality of 320 kbps for some songs.

• Use of Spotify Connect, which allows users to hook up other hardware to Spotify's mobile app.

Library Size

Spotify Free Vs Pay

In 2011, Tim Westergren, a founder of Pandora, stated that the service had over 900,000 songs in its library catalogue at the time. More recent statistics are difficult to find, but it is likely Pandora has well over a million songs in its database as of 2014. Pandora has a good track record of finding and adding obscure independent artists, which aids users in discovering new music.

Because Spotify depends on having songs available on demand, the company has been more aggressive about making deals with major labels as well as well known independent labels. In 2012, its catalogue was said to hold about 20 million songs; however, the size of the catalogue varies by region due to licensing restrictions.

Social Features

Pandora and Spotify provide users with several ways to share music, but Spotify has more widespread, general sharing capabilities than Pandora does.

On Pandora, users can share links to stations via email, Facebook, or Twitter. Users can also share links to individual tracks, but the web address points to general song information—lyrics, purchase info, and a link to create a station based on the song, not listen to it directly (see an example).

With Spotify, users can share individual songs, full albums, and playlists. This is done via special links that target the Spotify application itself. This flexibility has led many third-party websites to adopt Spotify links as a method to legally share music. And as of 2014, Spotify has teamed up with Last.fm, an online music statistics and recommendation service, to try to compete with Pandora.

Parental Controls

For parents who are concerned about the music their children might listen to, Pandora is the better option, as it offers parental control options that will play censored versions of songs and exclude others entirely. Because every song is analyzed by real people, Pandora's parental controls are very reliable and do not simply rely on 'Parental Advisory' labels.

In contrast to Pandora's rigorous parental control system, Spotify offers no such capabilities. This means that explicit, uncensored music is available to anyone who signs up to Spotify.

Other Features

Spotify Free Vs Premium Version

While Spotify's flexibility may make it more universal on the web in some respects, Pandora is found a lot more frequently beyond computers and mobile devices. Not only do many audio-video receives, media players, and HDTVs carry default support for Pandora, but so too do many modern automobiles that have digital radio systems.

Spotify can be found on or downloaded for many mobile devices and media players, but it is rarer on HDTVs and is not built in to any vehicle's digital radio systems by default. In some cases, Spotify Connect can be used to join Spotify with a device or set of speakers, which are controlled via the Spotify mobile app, but Connect requires a premium membership.

Availability and Popularity

Pandora has more users than Spotify does, but Spotify's service is available to more users around the world. Whereas Pandora only serves users in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand, due to licensing issues, Spotify reaches dozens of countries and territories (click here for a full list). This has made Spotify popular outside of the U.S., but Americans remain loyal to Pandora according to statistics.

In 2014, Pandora reached 200 million users, with nearly 70 million active each month. By comparison, Spotify has about 40 million users as of 2014, 10 million of them premium subscribers.

Both Pandora and Spotify depend on banner advertisements, music-interrupting ads, and premium member subscriptions for funding. However, as of 2014, both companies operate at a net loss.

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