Spotify's premium app gets a makeover – TechCrunch



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Spotify has profoundly transformed its application by putting the emphasis on improving the experience of its paying subscribers. The company has streamlined the app's navigation by reducing the number of buttons and reordering its search page, which now incorporates items previously found in "Browse," such as favorite genres or music based on the atmosphere . And the radio service has also been redesigned, with the addition of new easy-to-use radio artist playlists.

The most immediately noticeable change is the navigation of the application.

Spotify has always felt a bit crowded, with its five navigation buttons – Home, Browse, Search, Radio and My Library. The new application has reduced the number of buttons to three buttons: Home, Search and My Library.

The recommendations will appear on the home page, after the update, while the discovery is optimized by the search.

The search page allows you to search for artists, albums and podcasts by typing in queries, as before. But the page is also now personalized, displaying your own "Top Genres" under the search bar – such as R & B, Rock, Hip-Hop, Kids and Family – or whatever you listen to. This is useful because the tastes of users may change over time, or they may share their Spotify account with others (instead of opting for a Family plan), which can blur their recommendations.

The "Browse" section has been moved to this search page in the new design and points to items such as the best graphics, Spotify's programmed playlists, your own custom playlists, as well as mood music, kind, activity, etc.

The radio section has also been reviewed.

With the update, you can search for a favorite artist or song, and then immediately start listing one of the brand new Artist Radio Playlists. These are personalized, endless feeds based on your own tastes – and they are updated regularly to stay fresh, Spotify notes.

This latest feature seems to respond to a recent challenge from Pandora, who has tapped into his musical genome to create dozens of custom playlists for his users. Spotify actually turns its radio stations into custom playlists now. Instead of asking users to increase or decrease their selections, it will simply create stations that you like, based on the data it already has. These radio playlists also work offline, the company says.

The updated application for Premium users follows an overhaul of the app for its free clients announced in April. This redesign allowed free users to more easily access a dozen playlists containing songs on demand, which also included the ability to skip tracks. It also reduced the number of tabs in the bottom navigation.

This week, the company also rolled out a new Android Wear app. In addition, third-party maker Mighty has launched a new version of its Spotify player, which is essentially an iPod Shuffle-like device that works with Spotify instead of Apple Music or iTunes.

The changes to the Spotify application come at a time when the company is losing ground in North America to Apple. Sirius XM has seized Pandora for $ 3.5 billion, which could also boost competition in the United States.

Spotify's premium subscriber base reached 83 million euros in the second quarter of 2018 and has 180 million active assets per month, including free customers, which still places it ahead of the competition in terms of size. of the user park.

Spotify announced that the redesign of Spotify Premium would now be available to all Premium subscribers on iOS and Android.

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