Spotify updates its mobile app with previews of music, podcasts and audiobooks on its Home page together with search tools to aid discovery. Announced at this year’s Stream On event the updated interface takes its cues from Tik-Tok and Instagram and has received a mixed reaction from industry pundits. New feature updates include:
- Music, Podcasts & Shows, and Audiobook previews on Home – Simply tap into the Music, Podcasts & Shows, or Audiobooks feed to explore visual and audio previews of playlists, albums, podcast episodes, and audiobooks personalized to you. Then, tap to save or share, go deeper into the artist or podcast pages, play from the start, or continue listening from where the preview ended.
- New feeds for discovery in Search – Scroll up or down to explore short Canvas clips from tracks from some of your favourite genres. Then save the song to a playlist, follow the artist, or share it with friends – all from one place. You can also explore related genres using the hashtags within the feed for easy discovery of new favourites. You can even preview tracks on some of your favourite playlists like Discover Weekly, Release Radar, New Music Friday, and RapCaviar.
- Favourites including Your shortcuts, or most recently played, will still appear at the top of your Home feed. Spotify are also adding previews to the top of your music, podcasts & shows, and audiobooks feeds for the first time.
- DJ is the new personalized AI guide for Premium users in the US and Canada that knows you and your music taste so well that it can choose what to play for you. Released in beta in February this year it has proved popular with users. On days when users tune in, fans spend 25% of their listening time with the DJ – and they keep coming back for more, with more than half of first-time listeners coming back to listen to DJ the very next day.
- Smart Shuffle – This new experience keeps listening sessions fresh with personalized recommendations that match the vibe of an original user-generated playlist. It enhances carefully curated user-generated playlists, shuffling tracks and adding new tailored suggestions.
- Autoplay for Podcasts – Spotify is now serving Autoplay for Podcasts as well as for music. When a podcast ends, another relevant episode will automatically play.
