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Posts tagged "Spotify"

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Spotify finally unveils a desktop app miniplayer to end window-juggling, but there’s a catch
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Spotify Premium users rejoice – the music platform is finally adding a ‘miniplayer’ for its desktop app to improve users’ experience – a whopping three years after the web app got a similar feature.

The new miniplayer has two different designs and can be activated in the bottom right corner of the full-screen player, prompting the app to shrink into a minimized view showing media controls and song information. As I mentioned above, this isn’t the first appearance of a condensed Spotify player, but it’s the first implementation of the feature for the app's desktop version. 

The new miniplayer will be available for Windows, macOS, and ChromeOS, and looks like the miniplayers of other apps (like Apple Music) and users have been requesting this desktop feature for a long time. Some users have been so desperate for it that they’ve made their own, with a multitude of user-created apps currently available on GitHub. 

Before this addition, there was a small preview box with media controls that would appear while Spotify was minimized and users hovered their mouse over it, so combined with the existing web app miniplayer this development hasn’t come totally out of the blue. It makes me wonder why it took so long to bring it to the desktop version, considering it already existed in the web version for years. 

Man at a computer jamming out to music

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Andrey_Popov)

The benefits of this feature update are pretty obvious – many people have Spotify running in the background while doing other activities on their PCs. Before this update, you’d have to minimize your present activity (or resize your open windows) and switch to the Spotify tab, even if you wanted to do something simple like skip to the next track or episode or adjust the in-app volume – unless you have dedicated media controls on your keyboard, that is. This was outlined in a community post on Spotify's official website, with the aim being to give users better control of the player without having to interrupt their activities. 

Once users open the Spotify miniplayer, it appears as an “always on top” floating window that stays visible in front of all other opened windows on your desktop, and operates independently of whatever you’re doing in the main Spotify window. The miniplayer will also be able to play any media you can play in the main app, including music, short videos, and podcasts.

The bad news is that the feature is currently only available to Spotify Premium users, so you'll need to shell out for a subscription if you want to use it. It’ll be interesting to see if Spotify makes it available to all users in the future.

A promo shot of Spotify's new DJ feature.

AI DJ was fun, but this is a far more practical feature. (Image credit: Spotify)

To use the feature, open your Spotify desktop app, and start playing some content. Then, click the miniplayer icon: the small white square that’s in a larger white outlined square. This should open the miniplayer, and if you’re unable to see either the icon or your miniplayer doesn’t pop up when you click it, try reinstalling the Spotify app. 

Spotify is just catching up with Apple Music after a decade by giving this feature to desktop users. What makes it a little more puzzling is that there have been Spotify miniplayer features in other versions of the app (such as a Google Maps integration on Android phones) for a while now, so Spotify had already worked it out to some degree at least.

Maybe Spotify thought the demand for a widget-like feature simply wasn’t there, but how many third-party apps there are and how many users have been asking for such a feature paints a confusing picture. In any case, I’m glad it got around to giving users exactly what they’ve been asking for, and hopefully, it carries on putting in features that users explicitly tell Spotify they want to see. Fun novelty features are impressive and entertaining, like AI DJ and Spotify Wrapped, but at the end of the day, users appreciate products that work well. 

Via Digital Music News.

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You can now finally use Sonos Voice Control with Spotify tunes – here’s how
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Audio brand Sonos is expanding the reach of its Voice Control software to now support Spotify, allowing users to verbally command the streaming service.

All you have to do to control the app, according to the company, is to say the words “Hey Sonos, play Spotify” into one of the brand’s supported speakers. That’s literally it. Doing so will play one of your Spotify playlists at random. If you want the software to play a specific playlist, you’ll have to mention it by name, like “Discover Weekly,” for example. The feature does extend beyond just being a glorified play button, as it can also be used to help manage your library. 

You can instruct Sonos to add certain songs to a playlist. It can also like or dislike tracks for you with the right command. Telling it “Hey Sonos, I like this song” will make the AI save that piece of music into your account’s 'Liked Songs.' 

Additionally, Voice Control can play specific genres or subgenres of music, be it jazz or classic alternative from the 1990s. You don’t have to be super specific; Spotify’s algorithm has a good understanding of what people are looking for.

Security and availability

It’s worth mentioning commands are processed locally on your Sonos speaker to ensure “fast response times and easy follow-ups”. The company also states no audio – be it from your voice or the surrounding environment – will be saved on any cloud server or listened to by some random third-party. 

Now, there are two ways to connect a Sonos speaker to Spotify. You can either manually choose Spotify to be the default source or make the platform be the most prominent music service played through the speaker. Users won’t have to login or make any changes to the settings.

It’s unknown if Voice Control will learn your listening habits. That is, if a Sonos device notices you frequently access Spotify, will it automatically adjust music sources? 

Spotify’s new support on Sonos Voice Control is available right now to both Premium subscribers as well as free users. Simply download the latest patch on your devices.

While we have you, check out TechRadar's roundup of the best soundbars for 2024. Spoiler alert: Sonos makes an appearance on the list.

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Spotify for Windows 11’s annoying new update shoves one of the app’s most important features to the side
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Spotify recently released the new “Jam” feature for its Windows 11 and 10 app, which allows users to listen to the same playlist or album at the same time on different devices. So you and a friend or coworker can enjoy the same tunes while you work, study, or just jam out (hence the name). However, with this new feature, the queue list has been booted to a small space on the right side of the app's UI. 

Please, please change it back. This is the opposite of an improvement.

foryoublue94 via Spotify Forum

This change has proven to be rather unfavorable among Spotify users, who’ve taken to Reddit to voice their complaints. The official blog post that announces the arrival of Jam dubs this change as the “new Queue experience”, explaining that the right sidebar now allows you to browse content in the app and keep an eye on what's currently playing. 

The official post has several disgruntled comments from users dismayed by the change, with one user saying “Why on earth has Queue and Recently Played been moved and is now cramped into the small right-hand column? This is just horrible, and a pain to look at. It makes zero sense from a usability standpoint.

Thanks, I hate it 

You may be thinking something along the lines of what an odd little change for people to be riled up about! Pre-update, you could have your library on the left, your queue in the center, and your Now Playing view on the right. In other words, you could boot up the app and have everything you need all in one place. Now, you can only have one or two of these views open at once because of the new layout. 

If you’re someone who’s a fan of the Jam feature and plans to use it quite often with your mates, you’re probably not as upset as other users. But, as a person who will probably never use the Jam feature, I feel robbed of a pretty decent app layout with nothing in return. Now, I am no longer able to see how long the current song is or the album name in the queue.

It seems like Spotify users live in fear of every new update that is implemented. A common notion that’s shared on Spotify Reddit and in the blog post comments is ‘another Spotify update, another change no one asked for.’ I use Spotify every day, and I can’t remember a single update implemented to the app on mobile and desktop that didn’t make me mad. Hopefully, we can convince Spotify to change everything back to how it was – or we'll just end up waiting until another update comes around and knocks everything out of place again. 

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Apple Vision Pro won’t have Netflix, Spotify, or YouTube at launch – is the headset already doomed as a media player?
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Although excitement is building for the release of the Apple Vision Pro mixed-reality headset (pre-orders are now live), potential users will have to do without not just YouTube or Spotify, but Netflix as well. While Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus (obviously) are guaranteed to be available right out of the box, we do have to question if you’ll be able to take advantage of the headset's cinematic qualities without these three media giants.

While some streaming competitors are rushing to embrace the Apple Vision Pro (including Peacock, ESPN, and Paramount Plus), Netflix and YouTube seem to be playing the waiting game, and when the headset launches Apple Vision Pro users will have to access their respective services through the Safari browser (which has it's own Vision Pro version) rather than via dedicated apps. According to a report from Bloomberg, Netflix is the latest to confirm that it won’t be offering a visionOS app.

YouTube in particular is quite the omission considering that it is probably the best place to find immersive content, especially videos tailored to the VR experience capabilities of the Vision Pro. The videos available on the platform may not be as refined and curated as the content you can find on Netflix or Disney Plus, but it’s a media platform used by many people almost daily and leaves the headset feeling somewhat empty without it – more so now that Netflix is joining in abstaining from visionOS.

All work and no play? 

It’s a troubling start for Apple’s big foray into mixed reality. After all, if you’re sitting down to use a headset that cost you $ 3,499 but you have to pull up Safari and start typing away on your connected MacBook just to watch a video or an episode of your favourite Netflix show, is it really worth the money? Using Safari is a clunky workaround at best.

There are almost certainly multiple factors at play behind the scenes here. Netflix and Apple do have a rather strained relationship at the best of times. Netflix has historically had issues with Apple’s App Store revenue sharing, with this contention definitely not helped by the arrival of Apple TV. Another likely reason we aren’t seeing Netflix jump at the opportunity to produce a visionOS app is simply that it has little faith in Apple’s headset. 

In fact, you could argue that the streaming service has so little faith in the Vision Pro that it’s not even willing to modify a version of the Netflix iPadOS app to work on the new platform (not unlike how Instagram on iPadOS is just a scaled-up version of the iOS app). Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify are likely waiting to see how the headset is received before they any dedicate time and money to developing apps for it.  As someone who’s been skeptical of the headset since it was announced, I can’t help but feel more than a little vindicated by this – it’s not just me observing from the sidelines with very little confidence in Apple’s big plans. 

I mean, the Nintendo Switch came out in 2017 and that has a dedicated YouTube app (the Nintendo 3DS had one as well!) so if a nearly seven-year-old console can have a dedicated app for the world’s biggest video-streaming platform but this futuristic headset can’t, that really doesn’t look good for Apple. 

Ultimately, we can only speculate as to why exactly these big media companies are so hesitant, but one reason may be the way the headset has been marketed. Apple has from the jump advertised the Vision Pro as this incredibly immersive media experience device that will put you right in the middle of the action, but the fact that it’s called a Vision Pro – and the sky-high price tag – does give off the impression it's more for enterprise users. Could this case of confused identity be the reason behind this very visible display of hesitancy? 

As of yet, there’s no sign of when, if ever, we could expect a dedicated visionOS app to come from Netflix, YouTube, or Spotify. It’s likely we’ll have to wait and see how well the Vision Pro sells when it launches to have an idea of whether or not we actually will get these apps – if it does prove successful, they won’t have a choice but to commit.

If this hasn’t completely dampened your excitement for the Apple Vision Pro, there’s still quite a lot to look forward to regardless. While it’s mostly still on the more business-focused side of things, we now have a clear list of apps confirmed for the Vision Pro – including Slack, Display Plus, Zoom, Microsoft 365, Safari, and many more to come. And after all, if it truly is meant to be an enterprise device, would it even need a Netflix app?

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Strava’s Year in Sport is rolling out now – it’s like Spotify Wrapped for your activities
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It's not just the music streaming services that offer users an annual recap these days, because Strava has pushed out its own Year in Sport – a recap of everything you've been logging on the app throughout the course of 2023.

The caveat is that you have to be a paying subscriber to see your highlights for the entire year (prices start at $ 11.99 / £8.99 / AU$ 14.99). Full details of the recap are here (via 9to5Google), and you need to open up the Strava app for Android or iOS app to get to your recap. You can also scan this QR code.

“The Year In Sport summary is a highly personalized report for Strava athletes that highlights fun data insights, meaningful social engagements, and stand-out moments from this past year,” says Strava.

Strava has posted on Instagram to give you some idea of what you can expect from your Year in Sport: the total time you spent doing activities, for example, the total distance you covered, and more along those lines.

Year in Sport Awards 2023

Strava has also announced the winners of its Year in Sport Awards for 2023, recognition for the athletes, creators and clubs that have “stood out from the crowd and motivated us to keep moving” during the course of the year.

Those recognized include cyclist Demi Vollering, who triumphed at the Tour de France Femmes, the Ardennes classics, and the Dutch National Road Race Championships. Another female cyclist, Teniel Campbell, gets Trailblazer of the Year.

The fastest known time on Mont Blanc, logged by runner and 'skyracer' Hillary Gerardi, gets Activity of the Year 2023. According to Strava, it may never be bettered: 20 miles (32.6 kilometers) covered in 7 hours, 25 minutes, and 28 seconds.

There's also a nod to Strava user Frédéric de Lanouvelle and his daughter Mathilde in the Artist of the Year category: they drew a giant heart across France via their cycling activities, GPS, and the location recording tools inside Strava.

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Apple Books just got a Spotify Wrapped-style recap for readers – and it beats Apple Music Replay
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Apple has just launched Year in Review, a Spotify Wrapped-style round-up for its Books app, where you’ll be able to see personalized stats covering all the books you read in the app over the past year. If you’re curious about who your most-read author is and how long you spent leafing through literature in 2023, you’ll want to take a look.

You’ll need to open the Books app and select the Read Now tab in the bottom-left corner, then find the 'Your Year in Review' card under the Top Picks header. Tap that and you’ll find a bunch of fascinating facts about your reading habits from the last 12 months. Note that you’ll need to have marked at least three books as completed to get your reading summary.

For example, Apple has created six ‘reader types’ that are defined by the way you read or listen to literature. These types include 'The Completionist' for readers who consume multiple books in a series, and 'The Contemporary' for people who love trending titles.

Apple has also published several lists of the most-read books across all Books users – Spare by Prince Harry took the top spot for a non-fiction title, while Only the Dead by Jack Carr was the top fiction audiobook. The company did something similar for its Podcasts app, where you can see all the top-ranked shows among listeners.

Better than Apple Music Replay

Three iPhones side-by-side showing the Apple Books Year in Review feature.

(Image credit: Apple)

Apple has put an emphasis on sharing this year, with book cover collages, graphs and statistics to send to your friends. All of this reading info is contained within Apple’s Books app, which makes it easy to catch up with your year-end review in between reading a novel or listening to an audiobook.

That makes it very different from Apple Music Replay. This is Apple Music’s take on Spotify Wrapped and, like Books’ Year in Review, gives you a deep dive into your music tastes in 2023.

The difference, though, is that Apple Music Replay is hosted on Apple’s website, not in the Apple Music app. You can still see all the same stats and figures as you’d expect, but there’s an extra degree of friction in the process. Compare that to Spotify, where its Wrapped round-up is right there at your fingertips in the app.

Why Apple built the Year in Review into its Books app but still refrains from making Apple Music Replay an app-based feature is a mystery. Regardless, head over to Apple’s Books app if you want to get the lowdown on your reading habits in 2023.

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Spotify could soon let you turn off personalized recommendations
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While we're patiently waiting for Spotify Wrapped 2023 to drop, it seems as though a tweak is on the way in terms of how recommendations are served up: Spotify would appear to be testing the option to turn off personalized recommendations.

This comes from code spotted in a beta version of one of Spotify's apps, by a MacRumors source. At the moment though, we don't know much else about this potential new feature or how it might work if it rolls out to users.

Personalized recommendations are of course based on listening history and habits, so presumably most people will want to keep them switched on to see more music that matches their tastes. Without the personalization, presumably the recommendations would be what's trending and popular, or picked out by Spotify staff.

It does seem that this will be an optional extra for users, so personalized recommendations are by no means going away. It might also be useful if someone else (like your kids) are using your Spotify account – though the Taste Profile features do help you modify the way your recommendations work, to some extent.

Keep on tracking

By default, Spotify does of course keep tabs on everything you do in the app, to make sure you're never short of something to listen to – you can have playlists automatically continue with related music, for example. These algorithm-driven recommendations apply to Spotify audiobooks and podcasts too.

There's a possibility that some people just don't want to be driven by algorithms and AI, or don't want Spotify keeping tabs on every playlist they put on, or both. Until we get an official word on what this new setting might mean, we can only speculate about why it would be implemented.

This built-in tracking is what makes features such as Spotify Wrapped 2023 work, giving you a deep dive into all the tracks you've played over the years – and perhaps surfacing some listening trends that you wouldn't otherwise have noted.

We will of course keep you posted if we hear anything else about what might be happening with Spotify and personalized recommendations. In the meantime, check out our Spotify tips and tricks guide to get more out of the music streaming service.

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Spotify is finally ready to save you when you forget to download a playlist
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Spotify is currently working on a new playlist that will automatically download recently played songs to your device for when the internet connection is spotty.

This information comes from the platform’s own CEO, Daniel Ek, who posted a screenshot of the upcoming feature called Offline Mix to his Twitter account. Details are slim as Ek doesn’t mention any other specifics about the playlist, but there are a couple of clues. First, one of the intended use cases of Offline Mix seems to be on flights where phone signals are basically nonexistent. Secondly, you'll be able to download hours of music onto smartphones. The image Ek provided shows the service can store up to three and a half hours of offline content.

It is already possible to download songs from Spotify for offline listening. The main difference between the two is the current method requires you to manually get tracks one by one whereas this new method removes all the busy work. Basically, Offline Mix is Spotify’s version of smart downloads on YouTube Music. That tool allows the YouTube Music app to “automatically download up to 500 songs” that can then be listened to anywhere with or without a connection.  

Speculation

Much of Offline Mix’s capabilities remain a mystery. We don’t know how many songs people will be able to download and whether or not a Spotify Premium subscription is required. It is worth noting that a couple of Twitter users claim to have received the feature. One person even complains Spotify failed to download most of the songs on their playlist. Although it’s possible the platform is rolling out Offline Mix to a select few as part of its tests, we urge you to take these claims with several grains of salt. There hasn't been any official confirmation of any public tests.

We reached out to Spotify to see if the company was willing to make a statement or perhaps share some details about the feature like its launch date. Hopefully, it's soon as the playlist has been in the works for some time now. Notable industry insider Jane Manchun Wong on Twitter was among the first to mention Offline Mix to the public in 2020, back when it was called Offline User Mix. This story will be updated if we hear back from Spotify.

In the meantime, be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best music streaming services for 2023.  

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Microsoft has finally fixed a cool Windows 11 Spotify feature – so what took so long?
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Microsoft has just fixed one of Windows 11’s neatest features – one that Chief Product Officer Panos Panay called a ‘game-changer’ when it was first introduced back in 2021.

The pre-loaded Clock application in Windows 11 has long included a feature that allows you to link up your Spotify account and set it to play specific productivity-focused playlists while you’re employing the nifty Focus Assist feature.

However, as previously noted by Neowin, the functionality had been broken for months (since at least February 2023, potentially longer), and despite Spotify trying to rectify the issue, it turned out to be an expired certificate on Microsoft’s end breaking the feature. Users attempting to link their Spotify account to Windows Clock would be met with a blank screen and an endless “Connecting to a service” message.

Thankfully, it looks like the problem is now resolved – in part, it seems, due to Neowin’s diligent reporting. When Spotify confirmed that the bug was Microsoft’s fault, Neowin reached out to the Windows creator to report the issue. Lo and behold, a few weeks later, the problem has been fixed; you can now hook up your Spotify account to the Clock app with no difficulties.

Microsoft, please love all your children equally

However, it looks like the problem is still lingering in Windows 10 – when I tried to connect my Clock app to Spotify on my personal desktop PC (after checking for system updates), I got the same empty white window.

Microsoft has been getting more and more aggressive in its efforts to push users to upgrade to Windows 11, but this feels like a spectacular low point. If the problem is something as simple as an expired certificate for Spotify’s API access, why not fix it for both Windows 10 and 11?

Look, I don’t hate Windows 11 (although Microsoft’s recent boo-boo over ads in the Weather app did make me chuckle). I use it on my work laptop and it’s fine – in fact, it’s steadily improving, gradually adding great features and gathering pace among users. It’s been on the rise for a while in terms of adoption – a quick look at the OS section of the Steam Hardware and Software Survey shows that Windows 11 is now eating into its predecessor’s share of the PC gaming space with impressive speed.

But as my colleague Darren recently said, Microsoft should be using the carrot, not the stick, to boost Windows 11 adoption. I love Windows 10 – why don’t you, Microsoft? It’s one of the best operating systems ever made, and I don’t want to feel forced to abandon it because you’re not willing to fix simple bugs that can be fixed in its successor.

It’s also frankly not a good look that it took more than three months – and a direct complaint from a tech news site – to fix such a simple problem. Come on, Microsoft. Oh, and you can stop with all the Bing AI nonsense. If I wanted an AI on my desktop, I’d just use ChatGPT.

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The Spotify HiFi dream is still alive, as platform plans to do something “unique” someday
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No one can blame you if you've given up on Spotify HiFi ever becoming a thing. It’s been two years since the initial announcement. However, all hope is not lost as the streaming service recently confirmed that it’s still working on the high-res audio tier.

This news comes from Spotify co-president Gustav Söderström who sat down for an interview on TheVerge’s podcast, Decoder. Confirming HiFi’s existence was pretty much the only straight answer he gave as the rest of the responses were vague at best. According to Söderström, the reason why the tier is taking so long is that the “industry changed and [Spotify] had to adapt”, but doesn’t elaborate any further. He does hint at the cost of HiFi and deals with music labels as being two major factors to the delay, and again, doesn't elaborate any further.

Söderström goes on to say Spotify wants to do something “unique” with HiFi and not “unnecessarily commoditize” itself by “[doing] what everyone else does”. When asked about an expected launch date and support for spatial audio, Söderström remained tight-lipped. There will be a “Spotify HiFi lossless-type experience at some point” in the future, however, that’s all the co-president was willing to divulge.

Söderström’s comment on needing to adapt to a changing industry is arguably the most telling in that whole exchange because it’s emblematic of the company’s recent moves. Pinning the delay of Spotify HiFi on not wanting to copy other platforms is rather ironic if you think about it. For starters, the streaming service is currently rolling out a redesign for its mobile app taking clear inspiration from TikTok. It now sports a vertical discovery feed as a way to encourage people to check out the latest songs or popular podcasts. You even have Spotify incorporating tech from OpenAI in its new DJ feature to simulate a real-life radio DJ. While these additions are great and everything, do users really want the TikTok experience and generative AI? From what we’ve seen, not really.

It appears the platform is more interested in growing its media library over providing HiFi. Spotify has grown its podcast content exponentially alongside real-time transcriptions. Also, the audiobook feed has a new preview feature where users can listen to a book for five minutes before purchasing. All this and still no high-res audio, at least any time soon. We asked Spotify if it could tell us more about its HiFi tier – anything at all. This story will be updated at a later time.

If you want to get high-res audio, there’s a way to do it with the right set of devices. Be sure to check out TechRadar’s guide on how to buy into high-res audio without the high prices. 

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