Spotifast is a new Spotify alternative desktop app that doesn’t consume all your RAM and contains the nostalgia of Winamp skins.
- Spotifast is a native Spotify desktop app that doesn’t consume all your RAM
- Stores all your playlists, allowing you to browse, search and play music.
- You need Spotify Premium for it to work
I love using the Spotify desktop app for a few reasons, but mainly because it’s a much easier way for me to create and manage my playlists; I’ve always preferred to browse on larger screens to get the best music streaming services.
Despite this, one of the biggest disadvantages of using Spotify in its desktop version instead of its mobile app is the substantial amount of RAM it consumes (it can use anywhere from 600 MB to over 1 GB). That’s where Spotifast comes to save the day.
Spotifast is a new, lightweight, native desktop app that connects to your Spotify account and imports all your music. As its name suggests, it is designed to decrease RAM consumption without compromising fast performance, which according to its developer loads “in less than a second and typically uses between 100 and 250 MB of memory” on Spotifast’s information page.
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To get started, you’ll need to be a Spotify Premium subscriber and you’ll need to grant two approvals; one to access your library and the other to play music on your computer. Free accounts can only browse and search. The app is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, but how similar or different is it to the official Spotify app?
Design-wise, it’s not too far off from what you already get with the standard Spotify desktop app. Your main home and search page are in the center, while your library and playlists form the left sidebar and your queue is on the right; both are foldable. But there is more emphasis on design.
The play bar, located horizontally at the bottom of the page, features animated equalizer displays while a song is playing, which you can easily turn on and off. With Spotifast, you also have the freedom to customize the look of your app, giving you the choice between light and dark modes, as well as a selection of custom themes that allow you to personalize the app.
There’s also a strong element of nostalgia in Spotifast thanks to its support for the Milkdrop viewer which, if you grew up mesmerized by Windows XP’s musical animations, might be the reason you abandon the standard Spotify app. Additionally, the app supports classic Winamp Miniplayer 2 skins, giving the listening experience another nostalgic touch.
Missing?
The Spotifast developers are proud to have created a faster alternative to the standard Spotify app, and it already has the seal of approval from users on Reddit, but there’s a reason it’s so much faster: it’s sacrificed a lot of native Spotify tools.
For starters, you won’t receive support for lossless audio. Instead, Spotifast supports up to 320 kbps, which for some users is not a deal breaker (the difference between lossless and high resolution is minimal). The app is also completely stripped of social features.
While you can still create playlists within Spotifast, it takes them back to the basics. There are no AI-powered playlist creation tools, which means no requested playlists, mixed playlists, mixes, or collaborative playlists. The plus side is that this encourages you to create playlists on your own initiative, rather than relying on an AI to do the work for you.
So far, those who have migrated to Spotifast for a smoother experience have been overwhelmingly positive about its fast performance, but it all comes with a small caveat, as the developers point out on the Spotifast information page:
“Spotify limits how often apps can request information. Spotifast typically shares this allocation with other listeners and several other music players. When that shared connection is busy, your library and search results may take longer to load. The top bar displays a spinning wheel while you wait.”
You should also note that Spotifast is an unofficial app and any changes made to the standard Spotify app may temporarily break features until Spotifast is updated.
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