Spotify For Mac

Spotify takes much of the credit for changing the face of the music landscape and paving the way for streaming services to take over the market. It now has some pretty fierce competition, but it's safe to say that it is still the top dog, and it's easy to see why.

With a huge music library, possibly the best recommendation algorithm, cross-platform support, and an accessible pricing plan, Spotify has a lot going for it. While the macOS app isn't quite as impressive, as it's essentially a wrapper around the web player, the recent visual redesign does give it a more modern look and feel.

While Apple Music is still in the lead when it comes to the sheer size of its music library, Spotify isn't far behind. And one advantage it has over Apple's service is how easy it is for users to find music they like. Spotify's algorithm for providing song suggestions has been widely praised, and for good reason. If you aren't really sure what kind of music you like, you'll figure it out soon enough.

Once you've finished listening to a playlist, for instance, the service will continue playing similar songs. New playlists are generated for you all the time based on your listening habits, and Spotify even creates a weekly mixtape of fresh songs that might be to your liking.

Spotify has recently updated the web player's UI, and I have to say that I really like the new look. It seems to take some inspiration from Big Sur's rounded corner design, and everything just feels more modern.

However, you can never shake the feeling that you're using a browser camouflaged as a desktop app, because that's exactly what the macOS app is. It relies on the Chromium Embedded Framework to essentially pack the web player into a desktop app, the core of which is mostly C++. And while it does work well, a fully native application is always best.

One of the main reasons for Spotify's huge popularity is the fact that you can use the app without paying a cent. The free version does come with some caveats, namely audio ads and the inability to save songs offline or use the Connect feature. On desktop, these limitations aren't really that bad. However, if you plan on using the mobile app, the 6 skips per hour limit will prove quite annoying.

It's been over 10 years since Spotify became available to the public, and the service's user base has been growing steadily ever since, with no sign of slowing down. Given what you get for a small monthly subscription, or even for free, it's no surprise that music piracy has dropped significantly in the past decade. Spotify is simply too good to pass up.