Tag: UX

Spotify’s Desktop Experience Gets a Brand-New Look With Redesigned ‘Your Library’ and ‘Now Playing’ Views

June 20, 2023

Before Spotify made its way to mobile, fans streamed all their favorite songs on Desktop. Now this experience is getting one of its biggest revamps yet, with redesigned Your Library and Now Playing views, making the Spotify Desktop experience the best way to explore, curate, listen to, and organize Spotify on a computer or web browser.

We’re keeping the main content area unchanged, so it will still be your central hub to browse, discover, and find recommended songs and podcasts. But you’ll also find a few new additions to help align our Desktop experience with the mobile app.

On the left-hand side of the app window, we’re anchoring the new Your Library so you can quickly access your saved music and podcast collections. And from initial insights we’ve seen, users have found that the new Library helps them save time, provides them with a better overview, and allows them to more easily switch between playlists. 

On the right-hand side of the app, you’ll find the Now Playing view, which displays the current song or podcast you’re listening to. You can even find more information about the song and artist here, as well as information on tour dates and merch—making it easier to connect with your favorite artists and discover more about them. For select podcasts, you can even follow transcripts as you listen.

Together, the individually customizable design of these new views provides a richer experience, more context, and quicker access to personal favorites. 

Wondering where the Friend Activity feed went? Don’t worry! It’s still accessible via the “friends” icon next to your profile picture in the top-right corner of the main content area.


Take full advantage of Desktop’s redesigned features with these helpful tips:

  • Go compact: By default, you’ll see an expanded view of Your Library. But if you only want to see your playlist icons, you can simply click the “Your Library” button in the top right hand corner to collapse the library.
  • Search & filter Your Library: Previously, the only way to find playlists was through the search bar—and you had to wade through not only your own content, but results from the entire Spotify catalog. Now, when it’s expanded, our new Library design allows you to toggle through your dedicated music, podcast, and audiobook feeds and search Your Library exclusively.
  • Customize: We want this experience to fit the way you listen, which is why Your Library and Now Playing can both be resized to take up more or less of the screen. 
  • Pin, drag & drop: You can move and pin the playlists in the Library, as well as drop songs into the editable listed playlists. 

The new Your Library and Now Playing views will begin rolling out to all Desktop users worldwide starting today. Give it a try by launching one of our flagship playlists, like Today’s Top Hits, on Desktop or on your web browser.

Spotify is Launching Individual Buttons for Shuffle and Play for Spotify Premium Users So It’s Simpler to Choose the Way You Listen

August 1, 2022

image showing separation of play and shuffle buttons

Music—and how you listen to it—should be yours to control. So from the moment you hit play on Spotify, you decide the way you want to hear your favorite playlists or that new album you’re obsessed with. So to make that choice even clearer and simpler, we’re improving the listener experience and separating the Shuffle and Play Buttons for Spotify Premium users.

This new change will allow you to choose the mode you prefer at the top of playlists and albums and listen the way you want to. Whether you love the joy of the unexpected with Shuffle mode, or prefer listening to tunes in order by simply pressing Play, Spotify has you covered. 

We’re rolling out this update on iOS and Android mobile devices for Spotify Premium users worldwide over the coming weeks, so stay tuned for more. 

Welcome to the Redesigned ‘For the Record’ Newsroom

November 10, 2021

Every day, those of us behind For the Record have the pleasure and privilege of covering all things Spotify. From our newest partnerships and playlists to data deep dives, our work serves to highlight how Spotify acts as a mirror, megaphone, and incubator for culture. We connect you, our readers, with countless creators, artists, and podcasters, as well as our own employees, and we always seek to do it in the best way possible. Above all, we believe in the power and importance of being able to tell the story of our company—including our products, passions, and people—in our own words.

All this is why we’re so excited to reveal our redesign, which ushers in the next chapter of For the Record.

Spotify has an engaged following spanning geographies, generations, and interests, and For the Record is the same. You may be a fan or creator, or follow us from the financial and business communities. On For the Record, there’s something here for each of you—and we know that each time we update our communications channels, we better equip ourselves to speak to our audience directly, in the way that is most impactful to them. 

So in addition to a sleeker and more dynamic, interactive design overall, here are a few of the new elements For the Record readers can look forward to:

1. More ways to easily find the stories you’re curious about

Visitors who come to our newsroom may do so to learn how to make a collaborative playlist, read the latest interview with their favorite EQUAL artist, or find our most recent earnings statement. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll still find it here on the home page—as well as more directly in the reorganized “News” section of our site. Head straight to the news section you’re searching for—whether that’s “What’s New” or “Culture and Trends”—or hit “shuffle” to see the latest across all categories.

2. Every episode from our three company news podcasts in one place

We recently expanded Spotify: For the Record from one company podcast to three that are better tailored to our audiences. And now, you can find each episode of Spotify: For the Record, Spotify: Mic Check, and Spotify: Discover This within the newsroom itself. Find all of them listed in the header navigation under “Podcasts.”

3. A jumping-off point into resources from across Spotify

We know that our visitors may be artists, podcasters, or advertisers looking for information that’s more meaningful to them. So our brand new Spotlight and Spotify Communities sections on the For the Record home page better caters to our visitors, no matter who they are. These new, dynamic sections allow us to showcase the incredible work happening across the business and ensure that creators, fans, and partners are directed to the resources best suited for them—perhaps even by playing the latest company podcast episode right in the browser. What’s more, For the Record’s dynamic integration with the Spotify app and Spotify Greenroom also helps send visitors exactly where they want to go.

Here’s what hasn’t changed: You’ll continue to find breaking Spotify news, exclusive company insights, and stories of all the innovation in audio taking place within our company every day. 

Millions of people around the world—including fans, creators, prospective employees, partners, advertisers, and more—turn to Spotify for an always-on, tuned-in experience. As you explore the redesigned For the Record, you’ll find the same. Enjoy!

Introducing a New Spotify Experience Across Desktop App and Web Player

March 25, 2021

At Spotify, we’re always looking for ways to provide the best possible experience so our listeners can consistently discover and enjoy music and podcasts—and that includes look, feel, and functionality. We constantly test, develop, and launch new features, optimize for new devices, and look to expand our content offering. Yet along the way, we felt that our desktop app experience hadn’t kept up, and that it was time for a change.

That’s why, starting today, we’re rolling out a new improved look and feel for the Spotify app for desktop and web—aligning the experience and making both easier to use than ever before.

Since the desktop experience served as the original window to the world for Spotify, this was not a task we took lightly. It took months of tests and research, talking to users, and gathering feedback. Now, we’re pleased to deliver a new, clean design, more controls, and a great new foundation for our listeners to use Spotify across our desktop app and web player for the years to come.

With this redesign, we’re combining the technical opportunity of a modern and scalable web player together with a cohesive Spotify design and the features that you’ve all come to expect across the desktop app. Ultimately, we’re making this change because we believe in the future of both platforms, and we want to make sure it can continue to serve the needs of our users now and in the future.

 

Read on for the update highlights:

A new, improved look and feel, with easier access to the content you love

By aligning the experience across both platforms, we’ve not only been able to present a cohesive look and feel, but also refine navigation to help people quickly find what they’re looking for. First, “Search” can now be found on the left side of the navigation page. Second, our refresh of listeners’ profile pages now includes top artists and tracks. And finally, listeners can now start a radio session for any song or artist radio by simply clicking the “…” menu.

Simpler playlist creation and more control

We’re also introducing more ways for listeners to easily tailor their playlists, including the ability to write descriptions, upload images, drag and drop tracks into existing playlists, and even use a new embedded search bar to find and add new songs and podcast episodes to new and existing playlists. Listeners will also be able to edit Queue and view Recently played via the desktop app, and apply new sorting options to “Your Library” via a new dropdown menu in the top-right corner, giving them more control for their next listening sessions.

Save bandwidth with Offline

Premium subscribers can download their favorite music and podcasts to play them back, even while offline. So whether you’re prepping for that next presentation, need some tunes for your exercise session, or are heading on a new quest in your favorite game, save your much-needed bandwidth simply by hitting the download button (icon) in the desktop app.

Tip! We’ve added new keyboard shortcuts to assist with many more tasks. PC users can press Control + ? and Mac users Command + ? within the desktop app to see a full list of all commands available.

The redesigned experience for desktop and web makes the features you already know and love simpler and easier to use. We’ll continue to improve the experience, and we want to know your thoughts, so head over to our Community and share your feedback.

The new redesign for the Spotify app on desktop and web is rolling out to all users globally over the coming weeks. PC users can download the new Spotify Desktop App on the Windows Store and Epic Game Store. Mac users can download it here. Or, use Spotify on your browser by visiting open.spotify.com.