About eight months after the first M1 Macs came out, Spotify is finally rolling out an M1 version of its desktop app — kind of. While the M1 version of Spotify is still limited to a beta release, interested users can download it relatively easily and start using it now.
Apple's M1 chip was (and still is) widely regarded as a huge step forward for the Mac. It's faster than Intel chips that were previously being used, is much more efficient in laptops, and even has fairly good graphics performance. The only catch to M1 is that it's an ARM-based chip where Intel processors are built on an x86 design. Apple released its Rosetta 2 application to allow x86 apps to run on M1 Macs with minimal performance issues, but apps that run natively on M1 are still the end goal for developers.
Following the public launch of M1 Macs in November 2020, Spotify is finally ready to roll out an updated version of its Mac app with proper M1 support. Per an update on the Spotify Community site, "We have been working hard backstage on this and are happy to announce that we now have a Beta version of our app available. It features many compatibility improvements and optimizations for the new Apple architecture." Spotify hasn't provided a timeline for when M1 support will be available with the regular version of the app, but any update in this regard is great to see.
How To Install The Spotify M1 Mac Beta
For users who want to start using the M1 Spotify app right now, downloading the beta is easy. Click the download link on Spotify's website, click 'Allow' on the pop-up, and wait for the download to finish. Once it's done, double-click the .dmg file that's been downloaded, drag that the file to the Applications folder, and it'll replace the Spotify app currently installed on the computer. Users can revert to the regular Spotify app at any time by visiting the Spotify website and re-downloading the public Mac app that's available.
Given that this is a beta and not a public release, it's possible some bugs are still present. If certain features aren't working or if the app randomly shuts down, don't be all that surprised. If someone is willing to overlook any wonkiness, this version of the Spotify app should run faster and more efficiently on M1 machines than running the x86 app through Rosetta 2. With the beta now here, fingers crossed M1 support is added to the public release in the near future.
Source: Spotify