Spotify reveals new tools to give you greater control over your music discovery journey -- and banish earworms
Spotify remains one of the most popular music streaming services currently available, but popularity does not mean perfection. There are many things that Spotify users complain about, such as the oddities of the discovery algorithms. The company is getting better at listening to feedback and is taking steps to improve things.
Spotify has just announced new tools and controls to help with music discovery, playlist curation and recommendations. There’s something for everyone to benefit from, so let’s take a look at what’s new.
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For many people, playlists are at the heart of Spotify -- and there are changes here. New mobile playlist management tools mean that options such as Add, Sort and Edit are available at the top of playlists, and custom cover art is now an option. There’s also a new way to create a playlist comprising music you know you love, as Spotify explains:
If you’re always adding to your Liked Songs, there’s good news: listeners in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, and the United States can now use this tracklist to build playlists. Try it out by filtering by genre and tapping “turn into a playlist”.
Premium subscribers have additional new tools. A redesigned Queue in the Now Play view gives easy access to Shuffle, Smart Shuffle, Repeat and Sleep Timer controls. A soon-to-be-added feature makes it possible to see which songs Spotify is recommending for when your queued tracks have finished -- and you can control which ones make it through and which ones are dropped.
There’s also a handy option for songs you’ve grown a bit tired of, but don’t want to stop listening to forever:
We’re also making it easier to shape your musical journey with an updated Hide button and the new Snooze feature. Hear a track that just doesn’t fit the vibe? The refreshed Hide button is now more intuitive, and when you tap it, the track will be hidden from that playlist across all devices, so we won’t play it again in that playlist. And if you need more of a break from a song, keep an eye out for our new 30-day Snooze feature. This option allows you to temporarily remove a track from your recommendations, so you can keep things fresh while leaving the door open for a future reunion. We’re starting to test this for Premium users and are planning to bring it to more listeners soon.
The creation of playlists -- both individual and collaborative -- has been overhauled to improve the user experience, and Premium subscribers have easier access to Jam and AI Playlist.
These features are rolling out gradually, with some countries getting access much sooner than others.