If you’re a Spotify subscriber – or even a Spotify freeloader – you may be surprised to hear you don’t need to download an app to access the service. There is a Spotify web player that is accessible from pretty much any web browser and is almost as fully featured as the Spotify apps.
Here’s how to find it and what it does.
What’s the address of the Spotify web player?
You’ll find the Spotify web player at open.spotify.com.
Note, this is distinct from the main Spotify website at Spotify.com, although you should also find prominent links to the web player from there.
What does the Spotify web player do?
The Spotify web player used to be horribly basic. It could play songs at a pretty scratchy audio quality and little else.
However, it has gradually improved to the point where it’s virtually indistinguishable from the dedicated desktop app. It has full access to all the main Spotify features, including your playlists and saved albums, podcasts and the auto-generated, personalised content such as Your Daily Mixes.
The Spotify web player is also now compatible with Spotify Connect, meaning you can pick your songs on your laptop and play them through your Amazon Alexa speaker or a Google Chromecast device on the same home network, for example.
The only thing missing from the Spotify web player is the ability to fiddle with your Spotify settings.
Why would you want to use the web player when the Spotify apps are free and offer the full range of features? Well, you might be at a friend’s house who doesn’t have Spotify and want to let them listen to one of your playlists. Or you might want to listen at work, where you’re prevented from installing your own software.
Bear in mind that all of the above refers to accessing the web player on a laptop or desktop computer browser. On smartphones, the web player is very basic indeed. It’s basically just a search facility – you can’t even access your playlists. Stick to the mobile app instead.
Now read this: How do I get the best Spotify sound quality?
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