Spotify is adding a human touch to its most popular discovery playlist by adding short editor-led videos directly inside the New Music Friday playlist for US listeners. The move aims to give listeners a look at the people who actually pick the tracks.
Curators step into the spotlight
The videos appear alongside songs as you scroll through the playlist in the Spotify mobile app. In the videos, editors share their takes on standout releases, rising artists, and the stories behind tracks gaining traction.
Spotify says this implementation merges New Music Friday with the format it introduced through The Drop Weekly, a short-form editorial video series it launched in September 2025. That show apparently landed well with users, with the streaming service claiming it generated more than double the engagement in saves and likes compared to the standard playlist experience.
John Stein, Spotify’s Head of North America Editorial, said the goal is to give listeners a closer connection to the people behind the playlist and more context around the artists and songs shaping culture right now.
How to find it
The feature is available to both Free and Premium users in the US. You can check it out in the Spotify mobile app by searching for “New Music Friday” and scrolling through the playlist. Spotify recommends updating the app to the latest version to make sure the experience loads correctly. The rollout is limited to the US for now, and Spotify has not said when it plans to expand the feature to other countries.
Music streaming services have spent years trying to make algorithmic discovery feel less cold. Putting human editors on screen is Spotify’s bet that a recognizable face and a 30-second recommendation can do something a personalized algorithm cannot.
