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Digital
Spotify-in-browser and Apple-streaming-service rumours resurface
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 10 September 2012
Rumours of Spotify bringing its platform to your web browser are almost as frequent as rumours that Apple is about to launch a Spotify-competing streaming service. And hey, both sets of rumours are doing the rounds again.
According to TechCrunch, the reason there have been so few innovations on the Spotify player of late is that the Swedish streaming music firm is planning an all-new experience that will play through a user’s web-browser, with lots of extra music discovery bits and bobs thrown in for good measure. Although TechCrunch isn’t saying the web-based Spotify would replace the digital music company’s bespoke player, it makes it sound like it’s definitely the priority at the moment.
Spotify hasn’t commented on the reports, although in the past execs there have been staunch defenders of their bespoke player approach, which gives the company more control over user-experience, in particular sound quality and reliability of streams, which are arguably more important than swish look and feel, and extra discovery components. There’s also the issue that when music plays through a browser window it’s very easy to accidently shut the stream down. Though most of Spotify’s competitors are either totally browser based, or offer the choice of browser or player.
The latest reports that Apple is planning, at long last, to add a streaming service to run alongside its market-leading iTunes download store originate with the Wall Street Journal. If there’s any truth in the rumours, Apple’s streaming platform would be more on the lines of Pandora, ie with less functionality that Spotify et al.
