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Spotify has long been a platform that evolves faster than our personal music tastes. In the last few months alone, we’ve updated our iconic year-end rap promo to include an AI DJ.But this week, the streaming giant announced what CEO Daniel Ek called the biggest change 10 YEARS ON A PLATFORM: Redesigning an app that started as a place for music to be a place where videos stand out.
At first glance, it looks like another attempt by a social app to cannibalize its competitors, much like Instagram imitated Snapchat and then TikTok for its own benefit. Spotify has a variety of feeds for discovering songs, podcasts, and audiobooks, boasting the endless scrolling of TikTok and half the look of Instagram Stories. They show videos paired with music and podcasts, and also show samples of audio content, some with live captions that catch your eye as they float along the screen, and audiobook previews may last for his five minutes.
Spotify may look and sound like TikTok now, but it may have different intentions. It’s built to let users preview new content they want to save, or at least sit around for longer, rather than having an endless stream of content pouring down their phone. According to Spotify’s announcement, it has data that shows listeners “become loyal fans” after previewing content. Videos used to accompany songs and podcasts on the service, but this redesign puts them in front of users faster, along with snap-like audio clips.
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Simon Dyson, Music and Digital Audio Analyst at Omdia, said: “If you can get something that can play audio right away, you’ll be hooked right away. [Spotify] If your algorithm is right, you’ll be engaged in no time. ”
Spotify playlists have long been curated for music discovery, but this new move makes it faster. You can listen to song samples by scrolling through your music feed. Perhaps that means skipping shuffled playlists less often, a move like this could help Spotify stand out in the audio streaming industry, Dyson says. And that will happen as streaming growth changes.
The market has reached a saturation point and Spotify remains the most popular service, but its market share is gradually shrinking. Still, in the last month of 2022, he added 33 million monthly active users, with podcasts leading the growth in ad revenue, which saw him grow 18% year-over-year.
Spotify is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in podcasts to stand out, including a deal with Joe Rogan reportedly worth more than $200 million. The company expects podcasts to have higher profit margins than music. So designing apps to make them accessible to more people seems like an inevitable change. But Spotify canceled several original shows in late 2022 after making ambitious investments in companies like Gimlet and Parcast.
This isn’t the only streamer looking to give some content its own space. On Thursday, Apple Music announced a standalone app for classical music that will be available at the end of March. There is a shift in how these apps package different types of content. Some of Spotify’s personalized playlists, such as Daily Drive, have decried long podcasts next to songs that don’t always play. Separate feeds may prove more agile for those looking for specific content.
Spotify’s TikTokization feels like another chaotic decision that causes Spotify to lose a solid identity, said George Howard, a professor of music business management at Berklee College of Music. They are part social enterprise, part music streamer and part podcast platform. But amid all these changes, they have failed to establish a way to sustainably pay artists for the work that powers the platform. ‘ says Howard.
Getting people to watch your videos means you have to make a difference. Music and podcasts were often played in the background, but now they’re taking center stage on your phone’s screen for a longer period of time. For those who want to stick with music, Spotify still has 100 million songs to choose from, with the new way the algorithm tries to present them all.
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