Goodbye, funky hacks: you'll soon be able to download albums on the Spotify desktop app

© Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Spotify's desktop app refresh seems to be rolling out to users, and it brings with it a very handy feature: album downloads. The app has supported downloading playlists to your computer for quite a while. The update should make it easier to keep your library managed if you want to keep the music going even when you're offline. It is worth noting that this feature is limited to Premium subscribers - according to Spotify's documentation, free users are only able to download podcasts.

Downloading an album works similarly to downloading a playlist: just navigate to the album's page and press the download button. It should then be available the next time you go into Offline mode. This should make it easier to manage your offline library if you're the type of person who's very particular about what you want to listen to. (For example, I had a carefully curated playlist called "Downloads" that I would dump songs and albums into as a workaround to not being able to save individual things for offline listening.)

Now I can download individual albums and set my Downloads playlist free.

The update also features tweaks to the look of the desktop and web player, as well as how playlist management works. It appears to be currently rolling out - some Verge staff got it yesterday, others today. So if you're not seeing it, just hang tight. You should see a screen letting you know that you've got the update.

Who doesn't love offline use?