Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Spotify now lets you mix tunes and talk with podcast playlists

Simon Cohen
By

Playlists are the lifeblood of the Spotify service. How popular are they? There are more than 3 billion user-generated playlists, according to the company. Well, get ready for that number to grow considerably: Spotify has added the ability to create new playlists of podcasts, as well as the option of adding podcasts to existing music-only playlists.

Given Spotify’s huge focus on podcasts, the move isn’t surprising. Getting its subscribers to listen to more podcasts is clearly a part of its strategy here, and Spotify has previously said that it wants to be about more than just music. “Over time, more than 20% of all Spotify listening will be non-music content.” But the company also says its customers have been asking for this feature.

Recommended Videos

It’s not the first time Spotify has experimented with the idea of mixing podcasts with music. Earlier this year, the company created a limited-availability playlist called Your Daily Drive, which did just that, as a way of mimicking the morning format that is so popular among listeners of terrestrial radio. With the ability to add podcasts to playlists, users can make their own Daily Drive experiences — perfect for road trips, as Spotify correctly points out.

Related

The new feature also helps to keep Spotify one step ahead of the competition. In September 2019, YouTube Music cloned one of Spotify’s most popular playlists with its version of Discover Weekly. Copying music-based features that Spotify has popularized is low-hanging fruit, relatively speaking, but podcast-based playlists could be a lot harder to duplicate — especially if the podcasts in question are owned by Spotify.

The new playlist feature is mobile-only for now, at least in terms of playlist creation. Once a new podcast-based playlist has been created, it can be streamed on any Spotify-compatible device. Here’s how it works:

  1. Navigate to a podcast episode you want to add to a playlist.
  2. Tap the three dots to the right of the track or episode.
  3. Tap “Add to playlist.”
  4. Select a playlist you’ve already created you like to add it to, or, tap to create a new playlist from scratch.

Once you’re happy with your creation, you can share it with all of the usual folks, just as you would with any other playlist, and if you are a Spotify user, you should not miss out on the Premium version.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like…
Spotify Wrapped 2022 is here: What’s your ‘listening personality’?
Spotify Wrapped 2022's new Music Personality feature.

The much-anticipated 2022 edition of Spotify Wrapped is here, with a detailed, data dive into all the most listened-to music, podcasts, artists, albums, and more for the year, as well as offering you a look at your own listening data from 2022. It's always a fun way to discover some of your own listening stats (like how many hours you logged, or the songs you played on repeat), all presented in a cool slideshow-style presentation on your phone or tablet. Apple Music has its own version of it, as does YouTube Music, but Spotify's is easily the standard. And this year, as usual, they've added a few new tricks.

Spotify Wrapped is a shareable social media goldmine for the company, and this year the music streamer has added a couple of new features, including "Your Listening Personality," which uses your listening habits throughout the year to slot you into one of 16 personality types, including The Specialist, The Adventurer, The Fanclubber, and The Replayer. The feature uses metrics to look at how you tend to listen to music -- do you listen to the same tracks or artists on repeat, are you the first to jump on new releases, or are you a wanderer of the Spotify catalog looking for something new?

Read more
How much is Apple Music, and how can you get it for free?
Someone using Apple Music's app on an Android smartphone.

For iPhone or Mac owners, it’s only natural to be curious about Apple Music. In comparison to music streaming sites like Spotify or Pandora, Apple Music can feel a bit mysterious.

There are some limited-time "free" options and a free trial to check out Apple Music, but if you stick with the service long enough, you will end up paying. Anyone who signs up will have to pay a monthly fee to use the service. Considering that Apple Music offers live radio shows and interesting exclusives, this fee may be well worth it to the right buyers. Let's take a closer look at how much Apple music is.
Apple Music plans

Read more
YouTube TV now lets you subscribe to some add-ons without a base plan
YouTube TV on Apple TV.

À la carte TV is a myth. The idea that you can subscribe to -- and pay for -- channels individually is just something that the money folks will never let happen. The closest we're going to get is with something like Sling TV, which sports smaller packages with a plethora of add-ons that you can mix and match.

But YouTube TV is now doing something a little different, giving you the opportunity to subscribe to a number of networks on their own without also subscribing to the $65-a-month base YouTube TV plan.

Read more