With millions of songs available in its huge database, Spotify has something for pretty much everyone. But if your tastes are among the most niche, then you’ve historically not been able to play local copies of your beloved tunes. In those cases, you’ll need to dive out of your premium streaming service and use a different music player to listen to whatever it is you’re into. That could hopefully be coming to an end though, as Spotify is apparently testing the ability to add locally stored songs to the Spotify app.
The news comes courtesy of Jane Manchun Wong, an accomplished seeker of new app features, who spotted a new Import feature in a beta version of Spotify’s Android app. According to a screenshot posted by Wong, the feature allows users to access local files from their Android device, making them able to be played through Spotify’s player. While details are scarce at this moment, it’s likely the feature will work similarly to the local files feature on Spotify’s desktop app, so while you’ll be able to access those files locally, you won’t be able to stream them from another device without the local files. You’ll need to use something like Google Play Music if you want to keep your music in the cloud.
That’s not the only feature being worked on either — according to more digging, Spotify is also working on polishing up its Podcasts support. New features include being able to download and save podcasts for later (saving on mobile data, or for use in places without reliable internet), and decluttering podcasts by moving descriptions to a different screen. Also possible in the bag are changes to the Favorite Songs list, turning it into a separate playlist.
But before you rush off to pile songs onto your phone, keep in mind that these changes may not come until later, or not at all. It’s just testing for now. However, if these changes do come in, then it might go a long way to making Spotify a unified hub for music streaming and playing. With plenty of strong competitors around, Spotify needs to consistently improve to stay atop the pile.
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