So, you’ve just unboxed your new Chromebook, set it up, and you’re ready to go. You go to install Spotify, and realize that you can’t – Chromebooks only work with web apps, and Spotify’s site even tells you that it’s only compatible with Windows and Mac. Or maybe you’re at work, where you don’t have permission to install new software. Pandora just doesn’t cut it for you, and you’ve already built up some pretty sweet playlists in Spotify at home – but from the looks of it, Spotify doesn’t have a web player yet.
Don’t give up; there’s hope. And yes, Spotify actually does have a web player, but it’s hidden very well and not available on all accounts yet. Luckily, it’s fairly easy to get it up and running pretty quickly – after a long time of trying to figure it out for myself, I finally did, and here’s how.
- First, log in to your account online, and then go to play.spotify.com. If you’re redirected to spotify.com/us, then the web player is not yet activated on your account. Proceed to step 2.
- Click your user name in the upper right hand corner of the screen, and select Account. Click the link to manually enable Facebook on the right hand side of the screen, and follow the instructions to link your Spotify and Facebook accounts. Once you’re done with this, or if your account is already linked to Facebook, proceed to step 3.
- Activate the beta web player using this Facebook link, which will automatically redirect you to the web player.
- Bookmark play.spotify.com. As long as you’re signed in, this URL will take you directly to the Spotify web player, where you can listen to all of your music without having to download a desktop client.
And that’s all there is to it. I’ve personally been playing around with Spotify on my Samsung Chromebook for a while now, and it runs perfectly – even better than Google Play Music. Now, all we need is a Skype web app, and I will officially have no need for my Windows laptop anymore.
