Spotify Adds Apps for Desktop Client to Discover Music, Get Lyrics

Spotify has made the big announcement that it's been building up to and it seems that some of the rumors were, partially correct. Spotify has indeed revealed something related to apps, but it's not what everyone was expecting, an extended API.

Rather, Spotify is now enabling third party developers, that it chooses, to create applications that live inside the desktop Spotify app. The idea makes sense since the apps expand on functionality that is missing or not very developed in Spotify.

"We’re introducing a new world inside Spotify. It’s a world where there’s even more music for you to discover and a ton of new experiences to be enjoyed. Spotify Apps are here!," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote.

"Spotify Apps are a bunch of cool, exciting and integrated apps inside Spotify, created by some of the best and brightest in the world. Each app brings you a new music experience tailored to you," he said.

For now, Spotify has partnered with some big names to create apps that add discovery, recommendations and other enhanced functionality.

For example, users can get recommendations from the likes of Last.fm or We Are Hunted to discover new music to listen to, based on the things they already like. There are also curated lists and recommendations from Rolling Stones, The Guardian and Pitchfork.

The TuneWiki app adds lyrics, synced to the music, to Spotify while the Songkick app tries to find concerts from your favorite bands and artists near you.

Spotify plans to add more apps in time, but each new one has to be approved before becoming available on the platform. The apps are built with HTML5 and run via a JavaScript library that Spotify has built for the platform.

It's a bold idea and it should make Spotify better and more interesting. The only question is whether Spotify will be able to convince that many people to create apps since there don't seem to be too many incentives for the developers.