Spotify held its second annual Stream On event for creators today, and while the streamer didn’t announce the coming of its hi-res music tier, it took the opportunity to lift the veil off its biggest redesign in a decade. The revamp not only brings a new scrolling, image-heavy, interactive visual look reminiscent of TikTok and Instagram to the mobile app’s Home page, but there are several new discovery-based features for music, podcasts, and audiobooks.
While the Stream On event had a major focus on new tools and resources for music artists, podcasters, and audiobook creators, the beginning of the presentation was big on the new look and features for users — some that will be available to everyone and some to subscribers only. The biggest change comes to the Home screen, which takes the old layout of album artwork and static images and brings it to life with video clips, audio previews of songs, playlists, albums, podcast episodes, and more.
Everything can be tapped and swiped to explore further, or saved for later. Everything, of course, is based on your usage, which helps what Spotify find what you might like. The new feed-style design will be evident across the app, in sections like Discovery Weekly, Release Radar, and New Music Friday. Spotify says it will encourage a “more active experience” that helps creators to “grow, engage, and monetize.”
Other features announced at the event include a new “Smart Shuffle” that Spotify says will breathe new life into playlists by recommending songs based on your playlist’s “feeling.” There’s also “Autoplay for Podcasts,” which will automatically start a new podcast based on what you like when a podcast ends. Smart Shuffle, however, will only be available to subscribers.
These new features complement Spotify’s recently announced DJ feature that adds AI-generated commentary in the form of a DJ’s voice (it’s actually the voice of Xavier “X” Jernigan, Spotify’s head of cultural partnerships) to help personalize the curated selections of radio station-like music Spotify creates for you.
Spotify also announced some new tools and features for artists, including “Spotify Clips,” a way for artists to interact with fans, a new “Spotify for Podcasters” suite of tools that streamline the process and gives data and analytics on each creator’s podcasts, and a new “Countdown Pages” feature (introduced by the Jonas Brothers) that, yep, counts down the months, days, and hours until a new album release.
Spotify didn’t give a launch date for the redesign features, but they are “beginning to roll out to Premium and Free users globally across iOS and Android.” It added that features will start to appear over the coming weeks and months.
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