Desktop: New "Now Playing View" sidebar

[MattSuda]

Spotify is introducing a new "Now Playing View" sidebar in the desktop app and Web Player to go along with the recently released "Your Library" sidebar.

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

The Now Playing View in the right sidebar shows the album art and info of the current song or podcast you are playing and also shows more information about the artist.

When you expand the album art in the bottom left corner of the app, it will no longer hover over the Your Library sidebar. Instead, the new right sidebar will open up. You can resize the Now Playing View sidebar to your preferred size.

You can open and close the Now Playing View sidebar by clicking the button in the bottom right of the desktop app.

The Now Playing View sidebar will open up on the right side of the app by default when you start playback, but you can disable this behavior under Settings ➜ Display ➜ Show the now-playing panel on click of play.

The Friend Activity feed is still accessible via the "friends" button next to your profile picture in the top right corner of the main content area. There is also an option in Settings. You can swap between showing either the Now Playing View or the Friend Activity feed in the right sidebar.

The new Now Playing View sidebar is now rolling out to all desktop users worldwide, so you should be seeing it soon.

You can read more info about the new desktop experience in the Spotify Newsroom post:

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

You can read more info and give feedback about the new Your Library sidebar here:

➜ Desktop: New Your Library sidebar

FAQ:

This section will answer your frequently asked questions and will be updated with the latest answers.

The Now Playing View sidebar keeps opening at the start of playback, how do I turn this behavior off?

• The Now Playing View sidebar will open up on the right side of the app by default when you start playback, but you can disable this behavior under Settings ➜ Display ➜ Show the now-playing panel on click of play.

How do I get the album art to expand in the bottom left corner like before? When I try to expand the album art, it opens the Now Playing View sidebar to the right.

• Unfortunately, that is no longer possible. When you expand the album art in the bottom left corner of the app, it will no longer hover over the Your Library sidebar. Instead, the new right sidebar will open up. You can resize the Now Playing View sidebar to your preferred size.

Can I hide certain sections in the Now Playing View sidebar?

• Right now it's not possible to hide sections, so you will see all of the sections. However, you can drag and resize the sidebar to your prefered size.

Feedback:

Where can I give my feedback about the new Now Playing View sidebar in the desktop app?

• We welcome your feedback about this change. The best way to share your feedback is to comment here in this thread.

Updates:

This section is to inform you of updates to the new Now Playing View sidebar such as changes and new features.

July 2023:

• Click to enlarge album art on album pages
  
  When you are viewing an album page, you can now click on the album art at the top next to the title to view it bigger in the middle of your screen.

[Grazzt]

No one wants this ridiculous stupid "Now Playing" ugly horror, we just want to make the cover art on the bottom left bigger, period.

[Edwardont]

The big album art was nice because you could click on it and it would bring you to the playlist/album/etc you're listening to. Now that little Expand arrow opens up the new now playing sidebar that hides friend activity for some reason. I'd be ok with clicking on the small album art to go to a playlist, but the expand arrow takes up a third of the box and its easy to click accidentally. 

There's a setting to disable the now playing sidebar from auto opening, but it still opens when you click the expand arrow instead of changing to the larger album art. 😓

[ImWildNotMild]

Hey @Yordan!

Thanks for the heads up about this! I can confirm the Now Playing view is available for me again and can be easily toggled on and off! Glad to see this finally is back. WOO HOO!

[unicornery]

Suggestions if the Now Playing tab is here to stay:

1. Decouple "expand album art" from enabling the Now Playing tab. We just want to see the album art bigger. That's it!
2. When exiting or toggling off the Now Playing tab, the Friend Activity view should show again without having to go to the View menu to add it back.

Thank you for your time.

[konean]

Instead of a fixed bigger cover art we get now another sidebar on the right with more useless information/ double display of information and wasted space. I have no words. All the feedback is just completely ignored and at this point I doubt something will change in the future. Clearly nobody at Spotify UX team understand Desktop Applications. 

[d-54_ewyicpkv]

I love this feature. Before I was limited to learning more about artists I really cared about, now every single time I play an album this is forced on me without question. I think by you wasting more of my time with useless sh*t I will be wealthy soon. If only I could repay you for globally wasting energy and time. Thanks again!

[mofuuji]

Adding this to my ever-expanding list of horrible UI changes from Spotify (see below):

- streamlining the old desktop app so it looks like mobile (this was ages ago now) meaning you can't ctrl+A an artist's discography.

- getting rid of the heart which makes it impossible to see if you have a song liked without clicking it.

- smart shuffle (for the love of god make it optional)

- adding the god-awful pinned system (it was bad enough on mobile and it's now on desktop as well)

- whatever the heck this now playing view is (literally who asked for this)

- new fullscreen play view on mobile where the minimise button has been moved, ruining my muscle memory.

Thanks for adding all these great 'features'! Maybe next (if you're feeling really spicy) you could let us see how many songs we have in a playlist for mobile. Or alternatively, you could give us more downgrades! Maybe the next 'feature' will be morse encoding everything on-screen.  

[jiayu_]

For some reason i simply do not have this feature. It seems to be an issue with my account as if I log into another one the feature appears. Spoke with an agent and it was of no help. Would appreciate any help here!

[IxC999]

Curious to hear what % Spotify is making off of these official merch links - must be a small fortune to feel the need to shove these down our throats with this god-awful Now Playing sidebar. Overwhelming feedback that nobody wanted this during the initial testing, yet management decides to power through with it regardless. What's craziest is that seemingly the number one request was something as simple as "make album art larger in the existing bottom left corner", and it somehow morphed into an entire new layout nobody likes. How many new community accounts do you think have recently been created just to voice their complaints on deaf ears? 

[Peter]

Nice one, @MattSuda! Looking forward to the new experience - the hovering cover art will not be missed 😄

[Squeezeboxer]

This is such a mess. I don't want to see that ads mess in the right sidebar. So I close it. And you know what? NO WHERE is any information about what's currently playing. This is a joke. Do you ever asked an UX expert on designing a good player? Even the 27 year old Winamp player was able to show the TITLE and ARTIST, that is currently playing. Even my 20 year old AV receiver is able to do that. And because that is the information the user wants to know!! wth? Am I really paying money for this? Stop it and have an open ear for the community. Please.

[brtmzr]

Queue section could use "smart populate" feature. Based on the song/queue I'm listening to, using ML, add suggestions I might like and song that fit. Basically start song's radio 

[wiseguy70]

I'm a little late to this thread, but I agree with most of the comments. I have been using Spotify since 2014, and I have never had a problem resizing the overlay for tracks. The new sidebar takes the place of the Freind Activbity on the Desktop app and it overall makes the UI look more cluttered. The process of switching from friend activity and the new sidebar can also get really tiring. I think this new sidebar is a mistake and I hope Spotify listens to other people's feedback regarding this issue. 

Thanks

[betonowyzolw]

This is the last time I ever update Spotify app, with every update it's getting worse and worse. I don't mind your play now view, it's ok, but why it has to close friends activity? I want to see it all the time. Also why did you disable expanding album cover on the left? I don't want to use-up a half of my screen with your new panel (+close friends activity) just to see a bigger album cover. Why you touch things that aren't broken? Do you really have too many users?

[Knightlok]

Absolute trash update no one asked for. @MattSuda why do you guys keep shoving changes to UI down peoples throat that no one asks for and the refuse to acknowledge it was a horrible change that no one wanted and completely ignore the back lash? 

"How do I get the album art to expand in the bottom left corner like before? When I try to expand the album art, it opens the Now Playing View sidebar to the right.

• Unfortunately, that is no longer possible. When you expand the album art in the bottom left corner of the app, it will no longer hover over the Your Library sidebar. Instead, the new right sidebar will open up. You can resize the Now Playing View sidebar to your preferred size.""

Enlarged album on the left has been there always. Always. You guys just randomly decide to remove it and make an absolutely UI destroying change. You guys are not slick, either. It adds ZERO information. 

1. Album cover now on the left. This only serves to add more clutter. Now I got playlists on my right, songs in the middle and now another panel on the left? You didn't remove the album on the left either, so now I have the album showing up twice on my interface and if I want to remove the left side cover, I have to use the compact display which also removes them from my playlists?! 
2. The name of the song is also on the right. Same point as above. You are now showing me the same information, TWICE. Insane waste of space.
3. Verified Artist and their monthly users? In what way shape or form is this information useful to me for songs/bands I already listen to? It adds zero value to my streaming experience, and if I was really curious enough, I would go search that band, not sacrifice my space UI, permanently, so I have information displayed that I have zero interest in...
4. Next in que... Like... What? So let me get this straight, I can still go to my queue list and see what is coming up next, but now Now Playing also shows it? So I can open Now Playing and have it show me THREE REDUNDANT ITEMS!? Album cover, song/band name AND the next queued song are shown TWICE.

Which leads me to my main point. The only information that could be of use to anyone is the On Tour information, which surprise surprise, leads you to an area where you can buy concert tickets, which ill go on a limb and assume you guys get some sort of compensation if its done via your platform. 

If you ask me? The only reason why this utterly useless, absolutely redundant and clutter inducing update was released was so Spotify could shove another area were you guys can make money off your already subscribed user base. The simple fact that it appears every time you play a song and the only added info it gives are tour dates tell me this update was never to facilitate anything except you guys routing us to buy concert tickets via Spotify.

Completely shameless that you guys remove a beloved feature for this. Would not be surprised if you guys did this on purpose, using the negative reception as a means to bring attention and traffic to the area, fully well knowing you will never revert the change and people will slowly accept it. 

All in all? Keep the Now Play but for the love of god... Let use maximize our album covers on the left hand side....

[iasky]

Plan

Premium

Device

MacBook Pro 2021 16-inch

Operating System

MacOS Sonoma Beta

I already hated the new UI update but decided to just live with it, but now this new so called 'now-playing' sidebar feature is the worst update I've seen since I started using Spotify. Is there a way to turn it off completely and just have the expanded album cover in the bottom left like before?

If you're going to add significant features like these you should also add the option to turn them completely off and not just have the 'turn off on click of play'.

[ZnoopTree]

I really want the large cover art back. The Spotify Desktop App always seems to get changes, which are making the user experience worse. I do think the new panel concept looks good, the playlist panel is a big mess. I was relieved the cover art could still be enlarged, but now that is gone too.

Instead of removing features, give these a toggle and make the interface as modular as possible. Maybe make it possible to switch over the left and right sidebars. Make the panels splittable, like the interface of Blender 3D.

Give control back to your users, instead of pretending to (misguidedly) know what is best for your users.

[tinooo0]

i prefer the old layout.. this seems heavily unnecessary and cluttered.

[kidnamedjosh]

Again, what a HORRIBLE update. No one wants the huge tab with useless information. If I want to see that info, I'd seek it out myself. STOP CLUTTERING THE DESKTOP APP WITH USELESS UPDATES. IT'S BECOME VISUALLY UNAPPEALING AND COMPLICATED TO THE MAX. Bring back the normal artwork display immediately, please. 

[Peter]

Hey @jiyau_ - the feature is being gradually rolled out to all users, so it's possible that it is showing on one account but not on another - for example, I only just got it this morning. It should be rolled out to your account soon!