The Spotify desktop application’s hasn’t seen much in the way of updates for almost a year now – since its launch, in fact. Now, the company says they’ve been working on a browser-based version of the app in order to increase usability and connectivity between devices.
The new version will launch “soon” and will be a completely overhauled version of the app many of us use daily. It will also sport even more connectivity, pulling in and sharing data between social networks faster and better than ever.
The catch?
As Peter Kafka at All Things D says.. No, this doesn’t mean Spotify is cutting its prices. So despite the upgrades and the fact that this will mean less work over time (only one app to update, not several) for Spotify’s developers, the company does not plan to lower its prices.
Why? Greedy record companies are largely to blame. For every paying subscriber who signs up to Spotify, they hand over $7 to record labels in royalties. The current $10 a month fee means they profit $3 per paying subscriber.
You can also throw some blame onto the freeloaders who use Spotify but don’t pay anything. These free accounts still cost the company in bandwidth and server use, so those costs are taken out of the profits made from paying subscribers as well.
Improvements are coming, though, so even if no price cutting announcements are being made, at least, says Ed Moyer at CNet, we can look forward to more ways to find new music on the site.
That’s good news and means that although the music app may still be pricey, at least it’s improving. There are a lot of competitors in the field, but because of licensing issues, many don’t have the same large playbook Spotify does. For now, that gives them a distinct advantage.
