Spotify is working on an iPad app, and the highly-anticipated release is on the near horizon. According to Spotify UK managing director Chris Maples, the company is making its official iPad app “a priority” and it is “absolutely in the pipeline.”

Spotify is already available on most devices, and the iPad will be a welcomed companion to the service’s iPhone app.

In an interview with Pocket-lint, UK MD Chris Maples said:

“We launched recently on Virgin Media’s TiVo platform and our fundamental philosophy is anytime, anywhere,” he said. “Consumers make no differentiation between devices and we want our service to be available on any device that people want it on.

Maples hinted that Spotify is considering making its own hardware, but that idea is nothing more than a possible option that the company is considering.

“At the moment we’re absolutely not a manufacturing business but if consumers demand something cool that we should create ourselves and we think we could do it better than anyone else, who knows?”

Spotify has opened its API to third-party developers for integrating its streaming service in other apps, and the company is committed to keeping its service open. This doesn’t mean that Spotify plans to go the route of Android with thousands of worthless clones polluting its brand value, however. Maples noted that, “We’ve launched with services that are naturally intuitive to our business and work seamlessly hand in hand.”

Like Apple, if you’re going to work with Spotify, you better have a nice app. Hopefully the company’s own iPad app will set the bar high.

Update: Spotify’s PR department got in contact with us to clarify that the company has no plans to enter hardware production.