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Spotify - Chrome Web Store

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31–40 of 51 posts

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#31

Note that it is still US only though, if you are based in a different country it will just forward you to the Spotify homepage. On a different note, does anybody know why they started with native clients instead of one web client? I can think of some advantages of native clients (P2P streaming as the have it, better OS integration etc.) but when compared to the big disadvantage of having to maintain two codebases (Wi…

> Note that it is still US only though

I don't know about this specific extension, but if what another commenter said is right (that it's just a bookmark for play.spotify.com), then I've been able to use that site from here in Southern Europe since I found out about it (not that it wasn't a hassle to find or get going in the first place though).

I don't know why it would start out being US-only, as the native application seems to have arrived relatively late in the US.

PS: The Spotify home page is god-awful these days: a splash page plus auto-play music, I thought we as a species were over that stage...

EDIT: the fact that I can use it might have to do with that I have Premium.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#32
post #5

Isn't this just a bookmark for http://play.spotify.com/ ?

I has always bothered me that Google is branding a bookmark with an icon as an "app". Current app counts: Apple app store ~= 800K, Google Play ~= 900K, Chrome apps = number of URLs on the internet.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#33
post #5

Isn't this just a bookmark for http://play.spotify.com/ ?

I has always bothered me that Google is branding a bookmark with an icon as an "app". Current app counts: Apple app store ~= 800K, Google Play ~= 900K, Chrome apps = number of URLs on the internet.

What exactly should they do, disallow all apps that don't use a chrome.* API?

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#34
post #5

Isn't this just a bookmark for http://play.spotify.com/ ?

I has always bothered me that Google is branding a bookmark with an icon as an "app". Current app counts: Apple app store ~= 800K, Google Play ~= 900K, Chrome apps = number of URLs on the internet.

There is a bunch of functionality that you can do with Chrome apps, such as desktray alerts, background music streaming, etc. Most of the "apps" in the store do not do this and are mostly just links to sites, but there are plenty of things you can do with Chrome as an app that go beyond regular browser capabilities.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#35
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were leveraging p2p streaming to reduce their costs.

So the web version definitely doesn't do p2p? This would be good for work where there are usage agreements that specifically prohibit p2p

I don't see how they could do that with a regular site, given they would need to access the files on your computer, or cache an insane amount of music. But perhaps that's one of the things their Chrome app does that their regular web destination does not.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#36
Am I the only one that actually prefers to use a desktop app for listening to music?

I mean, media keys integration, faster UI... The biggest selling point for Spotify to me was how _fast_ it would play songs...

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#37
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps a better way to look at it is this- when I have a great job doing web development and see job listings all over the place for other rewarding web roles, where is my incentive to do desktop development- even if it's close to the (much more booming) mobile app space? The web is in no danger of dying or getting less popular any time too soon. Running a full fledged browser, with the resulting poor application UX…

> Perhaps a better way to look at it is this- when I have a great job doing web development and see job listings all over the place for other rewarding web roles, where is my incentive to do desktop development- even if it's close to the (much more booming) mobile app space? The web is in no danger of dying or getting less popular any time too soon. Because it would provide a better product for your users, which is t…

I like how you're talking about good user experiences and then use that as an example.

Furthermore, that wouldn't as easily transfer to Windows since taskbar notification icons are routinely hidden.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#38
Seems really dumb to not mention that a) you need to be signed up to the web player beta and b) although they mention Collections, the collections feature still isn't live, and in fact is just a poor choice of wording on the chromestore page.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I has always bothered me that Google is branding a bookmark with an icon as an "app". Current app counts: Apple app store ~= 800K, Google Play ~= 900K, Chrome apps = number of URLs on the internet.

There is a bunch of functionality that you can do with Chrome apps, such as desktray alerts, background music streaming, etc. Most of the "apps" in the store do not do this and are mostly just links to sites, but there are plenty of things you can do with Chrome as an app that go beyond regular browser capabilities.

It would be very useful if the bookmark ones were a separate category, just like there's a distinction between extensions and apps.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I has always bothered me that Google is branding a bookmark with an icon as an "app". Current app counts: Apple app store ~= 800K, Google Play ~= 900K, Chrome apps = number of URLs on the internet.

There is a bunch of functionality that you can do with Chrome apps, such as desktray alerts, background music streaming, etc. Most of the "apps" in the store do not do this and are mostly just links to sites, but there are plenty of things you can do with Chrome as an app that go beyond regular browser capabilities.

Those are features of Chrome and not really an "app". It is not new for web developers to target specific features of a web browser. I have not qualms about calling Chrome apps that can be ran offline apps. Perhaps I am looking at this from the wrong perspective. For Chrome OS, a link that is acting like an app that you can "Alt+Tab" to would play better into the idea of an app than another tab in your Chrome browser. Almost every "app" on the chrome store I have interacted with has been an app-like icon that is a link to a URL that functions identically in Firefox or other browsers.
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