Spotify for Windows

Overview

The Spotify desktop client is a large catalogue with a small interface in front of it, and for most people the client is the whole product: search, a queue, playlists, and the algorithmic radio that keeps a session going after the queue runs dry. The desktop version does several things the phone app does not, notably gapless playback with a proper crossfade control, local file playback mixed into the same library, and a normalisation setting with three levels rather than a single toggle.

This build is the standard client with the modules that interrupt playback removed and the quality selector left enabled at every step including the highest one. Nothing else about the program is altered. The library, the recommendations, the playlist syncing and the connect handoff to other devices behave exactly as they do in the unmodified client, because they run against the same service.

Playback and audio settings

Crossfade is a slider from zero to twelve seconds and applies across the whole queue rather than per playlist. Gapless is separate and stays on for albums that were mastered as a continuous piece, which is the setting people notice missing when they move from a local library to streaming. The equaliser is a simple graphic band set with a handful of presets, adequate rather than impressive, and most listeners get better results leaving it flat and fixing the output chain instead.

Normalisation has three levels. Quiet is the one to use on good headphones in a quiet room, since it applies the least gain and preserves the most dynamic range. Loud is for a noisy environment and compresses hard. Normal sits between them and is the default. The setting applies to the whole session and takes effect on the next track rather than mid playback.

Library, local files and offline

Local audio files can be added as folders and appear in the library alongside streamed tracks, which is how anything not in the catalogue, live recordings, unreleased mixes, a friend's album, ends up in the same queue as everything else. Matching is by tags, so files with clean metadata slot in properly and files without it end up in a heap named after the folder.

Offline caching keeps whole playlists on disk for playback without a connection, with a cache size limit you can set rather than letting it consume the drive. The cache location can be moved, which matters on a laptop with a small system disk and a larger secondary one.

Connect, search and the rest of the interface

Connect hands playback to another device on the same network without restarting the track, so a session started at a desk continues on a speaker in another room at the same position. The device list refreshes on its own and remembers the last target. This is unchanged in this build and works with the ordinary devices you already have on the network.

Search covers tracks, albums, artists, playlists and podcasts in one field with filters, and supports the field prefixes that most people never learn, year ranges, genre and label among them. Playlists can be collaborative, folders can nest, and the queue can be reordered by dragging without losing the source context that feeds the radio afterwards.

What you get

• Continuous queue playback with the interruption modules removed
• Quality selector available at every step including the highest tier
• Crossfade up to twelve seconds plus separate gapless album playback
• Three level volume normalisation with a graphic equaliser
• Local file folders merged into the same library and queue
• Offline caching with a configurable size limit and relocatable cache folder
• Connect handoff to other devices on the network mid track
• Search filters including year range, genre and label prefixes
• Collaborative playlists, nested folders and drag reordering of the queue

Inside the archive

• Modified Spotify desktop client, offline installer
• Blocklist component that keeps the client from restoring removed modules
• Language files for the interface list shown above
• Notes on disabling the automatic updater

System requirements

Installing it

1. Close any existing Spotify client and make sure it is not running in the tray.
2. Unpack the archive and run the installer.
3. When it finishes, do not let the client update itself. Follow the notes to disable the updater before the first launch.
4. Open the client and sign in with whatever account you normally use.
5. Check the audio quality dropdown in settings. Every step should be selectable.

Mirrors

Release history

Questions about this release

Comments

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