Spotify revamps app with TikTok-style discovery feed, smart playlist shuffling and more

Image credit: Spotify

At Spotify’s Stream On event in Los Angeles today, the company announced a major redesign of its app. It leverages investments in personalization technology while adopting short-form video feeds similar to those popularized by TikTok. The updated Spotify mobile app gives users and subscribers access to several new features, including a vertically scrolling “Discovery” feed, a new “Smart Shuffle” mode for playlist recommendations, and a new podcast autoplay feature. increase.

Some features, like Smart Shuffle, are only available to subscribers, while others (like the new TikTok-inspired feed) are rolling out to everyone. However, feature availability hits some markets before others and comes at varying intervals.

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Spotify says the change is aimed at making the user interface feel more lively and interactive. However, the move could serve other purposes as well. Most notably, the company will introduce a new surface to the app that can later introduce ads, much like Instagram did with the addition of reels. Officially, Spotify has nothing to announce in this area today.

Another benefit of the revamp is that it can be a way to address customer complaints that the app is cluttered, hard to use, and limited in discovery.

The new design builds on the update that shipped in August 2022, separating music and podcasts into their own feeds. The main page (the app’s home tab) will be refreshed with new features, so you’ll notice it immediately when you first launch the updated app.

Thankfully, you won’t be dropped directly into the new TikTok-like experience without warning.

Instead, you’ll still see shortcuts to your personalized playlists and mixes at the top of the screen in your music feed. Since then, it has a long history of leveraging personalization technology to attract and retain users. We have a wide variety of music tastes and interests, along with playlists centered around activities like commuting and working out.

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After first highlighting these playlists and mixes, the app displays the recently released AI DJ feature. Currently only available to premium subscribers in the US and Canada. DJs use generative AI and natural-sounding AI voices to present music selections and provide background information about artists, songs, albums, and more. (See here for more information on DJ functions.)

Image credit: Spotify

Scroll down and you’ll see an option to start scrolling music previews. These are displayed as full-screen videos leveraging the artist’s existing canvas video. A short looping video clip is already playing when the app is currently streaming music. Spotify claims the format is already a success, with more streams, shares, saves and additions.

Canvas also gave Spotify the chance to experiment with a TikTok-like feed. (TechCrunch reports on various tests of vertical app feeds in 2021 and 2022. At the time, Spotify dismissed those tests as just one of its ongoing experiments. , a TikTok-like video feed was discovered for testing on Spotify’s mobile app, distributed to TestFlight testers (you can watch it on YouTube here).

Image credit: Spotify

The design Spotify decided on based on previous tests shows a snippet of the track’s audio combined with the video. The feature will allow users to preview albums, playlists or singles, the company said. In playlists and albums, you can preview up to 5 tracks by tapping the preview card. In some cases, the user also receives contextualized instructions as to why these items are recommended.

The interesting thing about this format is that Spotify lets you listen to music while scrolling through your recommendations feed when you’re muted. When you find something you like, you can tap the card to go to the full album or playlist view, or stop your music and start listening to suggestions instead. You can also add recommendations to your favorite songs and other playlists to listen to later.

Similar to the music feed, the podcast feed has also been updated with a vertical scrolling user interface. Other than that, the user never previews the looping video — unless it’s from a video podcast, of course. A real-time transcription is displayed.

Image credit: Spotify

Similar to the music feed, users can also scroll vertically through podcast recommendations and mute the audio. When you find something you like, you can unmute it and start listening. Tap Continue Listening to pick up where the preview left off. You can also tap the plus (+) button. This is Spotify’s recently updated button that combines the “Like” heart icon and the “Add” functionality into one. With a tap, users will be able to add episodes to a playlist of saved episodes to listen to later, Spotify said.

The company also notes that the audiobook feed will be structured similarly to these new music and podcast feeds. Audiobooks are a new service, and in the end he had over 300,000 books available.

Spotify says the Discovery Feed can only be accessed from music and podcast pages.Also, for the app[検索]Also integrated into tabs. From here, users can jump to personalized feeds such as genres and moods.

The company says the algorithm behind these feeds ranks suggestions based on individual user preferences and preferences, rather than general popularity.

Outside of the new feed, another change also focuses on discovery, but it’s a more minor tweak.

In 2021, the company launched a feature called “Enhance” that recommends songs you can add to playlists you create. can be automated. This is done by turning on the new “Smart Shuffle” option, which adds Spotify suggestions to the queue when streaming playlists. (A glowing icon indicates which tracks are recommended). If you like the track, you can add it to your playlist by tapping the plus button. If not, you can tap the minus button to remove it.

Image credit: Spotify

Spotify co-president and CTO Gustav Söderström said at the event: “It’s already rolling out around the world. Next time you’re ready to update your playlist, tap the shuffle his icon and the appropriate new songs will be added to the mix.”

Additionally, podcast listeners can take advantage of a new feature that automatically starts playing a recommended episode when another show’s episode finishes streaming. Spotify claims that features like this are in high demand among users and encourage discovery of new shows. However, for those who don’t enjoy the autoplay experience, you can turn it off in settings (Settings -> Playback -> Toggle Autoplay).

Combined with the recently released AI DJ, the new features are focused on addressing one of the biggest complaints from both fans, artists and creators: discovering new content. With the radio model dead, artists are relying on services like Spotify to put their tracks on editorial playlists or insert songs into users’ Discover Weekly. In theory, these updates could open up new windows for finding fans.

But make no mistake, this update can be pretty controversial: Fed up with the TikTokification of every app from Netflix to Reddit to Amazon to even more direct competitors like Snap, Instagram and YouTube. There are people who do

But Spotify says recommendations are key to the experience.

“Spotify recommendations drive nearly half of all users’ streams. Plus, every time your music is played in a program playlist like Release Radar, you’ll see more from that listener over the next six months. Streams average 3x.” Speaking at the event.

Spotify’s redesign at launch is mobile-only, but we plan to support more devices in the future. This will be rolled out in stages to the company’s more than 500 million monthly active users. That is, it may not appear immediately, but it should appear soon.