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Spotify

2023 Stream On: That's what happened

Luan

Hey, folks!

 

Last night, Spotify took a huge step into the future at the 2023 Stream On event. The second edition of its kind focused heavily on expanding the horizons for creators and embracing them regardless of their Audio area - Music, Podcasts, or Audiobooks.
Spotify unlocked new pathways for content creators and listeners around the world at Stream On, with fresh new features announced to improve connections and build truly engaged listener communities.

I joined Ross (aka @OurPodfather, one of the Community Managers), to bring this blog to you and share some of what took place at Stream On 2023.

 

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To start, we heard about the audio market's rapid growth, and how Spotify is dedicated to becoming a real ‘home’ for curators, helping them reach more people worldwide. After all, the music industry is "healthier and more diverse than ever", said Spotify CEO, Daniel Ek. 

We heard not only about Artists and music though, but also Spotify’s heavy focus on Podcasts and Audiobooks, and why they’re so vital to the platform. Podcasts remain a fast-maturing area, and they’re becoming a favorite for users around the globe. It was so cool to hear how countries like Brazil and India are emerging as some of the biggest podcast markets, but we’ll come back to talk more about the changes to Podcasts later! 

All in all, last night truly reinforced Spotify’s continued commitment to all Audio avenues, and we’re excited to talk about it here in this blog.

 

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Starting yesterday, we’re going to see Spotify gradually updated with new features and tools to help us listeners discover the absolute best new content and to help creators get heard. Artists and listeners alike will become more intertwined than ever, and we’re getting the opportunity to get up close and personal with the Audio we love. With these changes, we’re about to have even more legendary and personalized libraries at our fingertips.
The Home screen is getting a fresh new design that will offer not one, not two, but three interactive feeds. First up, animated song canvases, audio, and music previews will mix into one for the most unique and personalized Music experience yet. You’ll actually see the artists you love, or are about to fall in love with and have everything right in front of you. On the Podcasts feed, you’ll be able to listen to Podcast previews before you commit - and even watch them if videos are available! Then last, but not least, the Audiobooks feed will also work around you, bringing you suggestions (with up to five-minute previews), and helping you to find that one title you can’t stop listening to.

 

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Next up at Stream On, we want to talk about how Xavier "X" Jernigan, the voice behind the new Spotify AI DJ feature took to the stage! “X” explained how Spotify is reimagining the way listeners interact with the music they love, through AI DJ. This was launched a few weeks ago in the U.S. and Canada, and it was pretty incredible to see “X” tell the story of how this brings Spotify to life!

 

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Having spoken a lot about discovery and being delivered the freshest new content, Spotify also recognized how we love to create our own playlists too. Spotify lovers are constantly saving their favorite Audio to playlists, and it seems we’re pretty keen on becoming curators ourselves through the Spotify experience. These home-grown self-made playlists remain one of the top choices when deciding what to play, however Spotify understands that over time tastes change and we don’t just stay in one playlist. We move on, and begin making the next playlist in our library (sometimes forgetting about the ones that came before). After all, our tastes remain dynamic with everything offered to us.
As a way to keep user-built playlists new and fresh, Spotify is introducing Smart Shuffle mode. This is a special feature if you ask me, that adds new recommended songs to your playlist, carefully considering how each song will integrate and suit the vibe just as you want something new mixed in. It's similar to the Enhance feature, but now, it's on-demand by creating a new experience to keep those listening sessions evergreen.



Going one step further again, listeners can now easily explore new feeds for discovery in the Search tab too. You'll scroll up and down to find songs, and can easily save them, share them with friends, or follow the artist all in one place. Exploring related genres is going to be easier than ever using hashtags too! Previews will arrive on Made For You playlists too, like Discover Weekly or Release Radar, introducing another unique experience.

 

 

So, what next? Spotify introduced three new tools for artists to help them with that connection element, and enable them to promote to their fan base with Spotify for Artists at the heart of it. You can read more about that here.

Countdown Pages was then presented by artists themselves, which as the name says will allow listeners to pre-save upcoming releases, and get notified first upon release. Counting down with the artist not only keeps us in the loop in realtime, but also provides another of those ‘connection’ points between the artist and listener.

More artists will also be able to interact with their fans through Video Clips on their albums page or their profiles on Spotify. "The possibilities are expansive, with Clips enabling artists to build excitement for an unreleased song, promote a new album or single, tell the story behind a song, and much more".

 

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Now, I promised you we’d come back to it, so over to Ross to tell you more about the big updates on Podcasts...

 

During the event, Spotify announced a series of exciting updates that are aimed at enhancing the experience for Podcasters and listeners. These updates include new features such as video podcasting rolling out further, interactive episodes with Q&As and polls, and educational content coming that allows users to learn and grow alongside their favorite shows. 

Spotify is also expanding its lineup of Spotify Originals and Exclusives, which will bring yet more exciting shows to the platform. Examples of these shows include The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark and video podcasts like Forbidden Fruits. Spotify is partnering with creators such as Markiplier, Collab, Creative Juice, and Karat to provide a wide range of diverse content for listeners.

 

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Spotify's Audience Network has seen significant growth since its launch in 2021, with the number of podcasters participating increasing eightfold, and the monthly payout to opted-in publishers growing by nearly 50%. The company's acquisition of Megaphone has also given Spotify a new hosting, insights, and monetization solution for enterprise publishers such as The Wall Street Journal, Paramount, and ESPN. This service will be uniquely integrated into Spotify for Podcasters in the future.
Spotify has also partnered with Patreon to enable creators to publish patron-only content on the platform. This integration powered by Spotify Open Access allows patrons to easily link their Patreon account to their Spotify account and access exclusive content.

It’s also going to be easier for Podcasters, as all their tools are being consolidated into one platform called Spotify for Podcasters. This new platform means that creators can now access everything they need to make, manage, and level up their show all in one place. Plus, they're offering free hosting and advanced analytics to track a show’s growth, which is pretty cool. But it's not just for creators who are already on Spotify - all Spotify for Podcasters users, even those who aren't hosting their content with Spotify, will have access to interactive features like Q&A and Polls in their dashboards. And if that's not enough, access to video podcasts is being opened up to more creators too.

 

 

In addition to the new capabilities, features for listeners to better discover and engage with creators' work like podcast previews mentioned before, and Podcast Chapters are the icing on the cake.

 

Wow, this article was becoming so big that we needed to feature just some of our favorite parts of the 2023 Stream On, but there is more, and you can find it here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DXcYuyJA5EXtX?si=f610672a2e3a48a5

 

Spotify is always full of new things, and if you don't want to lose it, stay tuned on Spotify For the Record. There you can find even more information about Stream On and some exclusive articles for you, no matter if you're a listener, a creator, or both.

 

Big thanks to @OurPodfather and the Stream On team for helping with this article.

See you at the next one!

57 Comments
thinkful

Undo it. Please, please undo it. Nobody wants this, nobody asked for it, nobody needs it, and it's the worst thing that's happened to this app, maybe ever. We don't need all of our mobile apps to be the homogenous scroller. Leave the curated promotion to the other social media apps that artists use to promote their music. Don't turn Spotify into something it's not, just let it be what people have loved for so long. Maybe instead of investing resources into this comically terrible UI update you could fix your mess of a desktop app.

GrumpySasquatch

Turned on Spotify today and found horrible new home screen and music would not play without skipping. Contacted tech support and was told there is no way to revert back to old homepage. So I cancelled premium service after years of use and I am really kind of sad about it. Spotify was my favorite app because I love music. Over last few years too much pod cast garbage on there and this new update the last straw. Cancelled service and signed up for Tidal because of this awful update. Whoever greenlight this new update should be fired. Even if old format gets brought back, it is too little too late for me. 

 

Elocing

Cool to hear about what is planned for the podcasters who publish to spotify, but I hope that there's work to implement the basic necessary functions of a podcast player at some point too. The way listeners have to take so many steps to choose which episodes they'll listen to next, that there's no way to save settings per show, that filters might as well not exist with how limited they are, with how often I have realized autoplay features (that I didn't choose to turn on) is replaying an already played podcast. If I could just get an auto updating feed of the unplayed episodes of the specific podcasts I've chosen it would be great. 

 

I decided to give spotify a six month trial as my podcatcher, to see if it's really that bad or if it's just not what I'm used to. I don't know if I'm going to make it six months the way it is. I really hope it gets better soon. It still feels like the devs don't listen to podcasts and don't know what a fully functional podcatcher even does. It's like a car manufacturer who doesn't drive. 

 

The home screen is busier and harder to use. And why are there videos in my audio app? None of this is what this app is for. 

Ssnas

How do I opt out of this?

I appreciate the forward thinking of the app but it shouldn't have been the home screen and it should not have just been thrown on all the users like this slow the users into the idea next time.

I want my old home screen back please.

ArturPolitanski

Spotify - do you research what people want from your service or just mindlessly "follow trends"?

You shot your own foot big time.

Kindly submitting my expectations: i)revert home screen changes, ii)appologize, iii)fire your head of UX team.

Meanwhile, moving to competition.

telhye

and yet no hi-fi, musixmatch lyrics 80% of the time are wrong, reports for wrong lyrics take forever. but hey, u just gave us a dj that nobody asked for.

jamestt

Please refer to my comments on the (+) idea update, I had a couple statements there referring to features, visual updates and some stuff I think would benefit the app. 

 

The (+) idea has flopped, and you can clearly imagine why. It’s not a UX positive move at all, for obvious reasons. Ironic.

Cocopopshotep

No. Just please, stop. I do not think ANYONE that loves music/audio asked for this. April 1st is a week too early or something. We would like a more fine-tuned algorithm based on our listening experiences. For example: Music based on a minor key, music at a certain BPM based on our selections and likes. How about that HIFI, lossless mumbo-jumbo I was excited for? 

Anyway, Spotify Team tried something to hook all them young whippersnappers with their tik-tiks and Fartnights or whatever the **bleep** they are into these days.

 

Back when I was introduced to Spotify, I discovered so many artists and songs that I never knew existed, and I appreciate the Discover Weekly and Release Radar. Now I hardly am getting anything that suits my taste all because I listened to Stranger Things intro and liked it. Now I'm getting 80s Synths nearly every single week on Discover Weekly and Release Radar. But I still enjoy the other playlist based on the artists that's where Spotify shines for me. 

 

Please listen to your audience, your customers, your supporters. Listen to US. Not corporate that only thinks of the bottom line. A risk was taken, it failed. Dust off. It wasn't broken before, tweak it, not fix it.

 

 

Prague

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Oniluchador

This is a horrible update. The previous home screen was great and didn't autoplay. If you're going to keep this change please turn off autoplay. I don't want this app to decide which of my podcast I'm going to listen to. This is the whole reason I don't use TikTok or whatever app you're copying.

shukudai

Why Spotify keeps pushing these kinds of updates nobody wants/asks for?  They said gen Z likes this kind of TikTok UI; did they really make survey to gen Z (aged under 25)? If so, did they make similar survey to other gens if they were against this?  How did they weight opinions from different gens?  If it is meant for gen Z, will they come up with satisfaction survey if this gen Z really satisfies with TikTok UI?

 

Today, I just saw a new UI for desktop with thumbnail playlist sidebar.  Don't we remember playlists by names?

 

Why bother with something that works so well?

Honeybee2023

Whoever suggested this play on feature needs to be sacked without compensation! This feature is an abuse of position of trust. How can Spotify force its service users to listen to “forced suggestions” at their expense????????

 

Can this be immediately rectified please!!!!!!!

 

 

demandtheworst

It's terrible, and I have canceled my premium. It was going to take something pretty major for me to spend the time to migrate all my stuff to a new service, but here we are. Spotify may find its subscriber base might have been vast, but it's not that loyal when looking at the forums six-months of negative feedback for the betas have just been ignored.

jacqwallin

As many of the previous comments, the rollout of the new UI is extremely frustrating. I don't want my music to be another social media app. That was the things that separated it from other music apps, and now it's equally as terrible as the rest of them (mostly Apple Music and Amazon, though I realize there are better ones, and I'm currently looking into Tidal). Without the option to return to a UI that is less like social media and more like an easy navigable music site, I probably won't be using Spotify as much. It's nice to see I'm not the only one experiencing this in the community, but disheartening to see that many folks have been complying and Spotify doesn't seem to be listening.

Annlee02

Worst UI ever. Remove this TikTok UI, usually I have lists and artist that are interesting in the flow now its big, unwieldy and uninteresting with a lot of music I have no interest in.  

TN13

If I wanted TikTok, I would have installed TikTok. Please allow users who don't want this "feature" a way to turn it off.

ohpetune

The latest update is so so so so so so so so bad. The last thing I want is my music interrupted by something I didn't choose if I happen to hit the home button. Let us mute it permanently or revert back to the previous version. Y'all are insane if you think this isn't a complete flop

vaajy

I opened my app today, and by accident clicked, music tab.

It was a show for sure. Fast moving canvases all over, scroll after scroll. Impossible to look and what about people with eye problems?

I don't like it at all. This is not Tiktok for teens. Gladly my main page on phone is still normal.

If you force at me this show to main page of app, I will be looking for Tidal when my prepaid subscription ends.

It hurts my eyes to look at this Tiktok show on these tabs, I can't even scroll it. It's just a show of colours and movement.

Video also poor quality and just like colours it keeps moving fast. I can not look at it without eyes getting in pain.

Who approved this? Do they know that for some people seeing fast movement and colours hurts and can activate headaches?

Headache and pain from using Spotify Premium? This is unbelievable!

graham8ball

I've registered here just to post that the new home design is awful. I'd rather see lots of options at once than slow scroll through the last albums I listened to. Please update or even roll back to the previous design.

 

Also, while we're at it, I've never listened to a single podcast. So thanks for giving me an option to turn them off at least, but I'd prefer to have an option to turn them on or browse to podcasts if I want to listen to them.

 

Looking at the feedback here, I'm optimistic that you'll listen and make some changes. Thanks!

Stofil

I'm baffled by Spotify's call to introduce this new UI. Is there some brilliant business scheme here I'm too thick to comprehend or is it just sheer anxious minded stupidity? It has gotta tell something that I've been a paying premium user since 2011, but left Spotify for Deezer and was infuriated enough to get an account here just to take part of the general outrage.

 

How on earth can this be profitable for Spotify? The older generations (like me) who pays for premium accounts are gonna make a mass exodus to your competitors. The younger will stick to Tiktok and whatever platforms they won't have to pay for.

 

Is it that you've calculated and realised there's more profits to be made from sponsored autoplayed content? Or that you count on that Tiktok will soon get banned in the western world? Or have you just made a terrible, terrible mistake?