Spotify changes completely. The streaming audio platform has presented the new design of its interface, with which it incorporates new features such as ‘Smart Shuffle’ or the ‘Previews’ of playlists, albums and podcasts. The Swedish company defines it as its “greatest evolution so far”, but they are relatively new changes, because it has only opted to follow the successful TikTok formula.
“Today’s world pushes us in a million different directions,” acknowledged the co-chairman and director of products and technology, Gustav Söderström, during his speech at the Stream On 2023 event, which took place this Thursday in Los Angeles and brought together artists, songwriters, podcasters and content creators “from around the world” to introduce new tools.
Faced with this reality, Spotify has had no choice but to renew itself: “The most important thing we can do for creators is reduce the distance between their art and the people who love it… or who would love it as soon as they discovered it.”
Starting now, users will be met with a dynamic new mobile interface built for deeper discovery and “more meaningful connections between artists and fans.”
More participation and more possibilities, following the TikTok model. Listeners will no longer be mere spectators, but will take a more active role in the audio discovery process, as well as giving creators more space to share their work.
We will watch videos on TikTok. Artists will be able to add a short looping image to each of their tracks on the platform. Spotify defines it as “album art, for the streaming age.” And it could eventually include in-video ads, Instagram Reel-style.
Spotify makes these changes with young people in mind. “We found that the next generation of listeners are craving better ways to sample audio before fully diving in. So get ready for a more active experience with advanced recommendations, a focus on visual canvases, and an all-new, interactive design—all to make discovering new audio easier than ever and help introduce users to your next favorite artist, podcast, or book. ”, says the platform in a statement.
The platform has added the ‘Smart Shuffle’ function or intelligent random playback. It’s a new experience that keeps listening sessions fresh with personalized recommendations “that blend perfectly with the vibe of an original user-generated playlist.” It also adds autoplay for podcasts, so when you finish one, another relevant episode will automatically play to your liking.
Continuing in this line of personalization of the experience, Spotify has presented another of its great novelties to society: DJ, a tool based on artificial intelligence (AI) that recommends and comments on some relevant or curious information about the songs, according to the tastes of users and tracks they have previously heard on the player. At the moment, it can only be enjoyed by premium users in the US and Canada.
The response in these countries is being positive, they say from the platform. “On days when users tune in, fans spend 25% of their listening time with the DJ, and keep coming back for more, with more than half of first-time listeners returning to hear the DJ the next day” , based on mobile device data collected from February 22 to March 1.
