Thoughts on Spotify’s Premium Mobile App Refresh
“ Spotify’s ‘Your Library’ Refresh” As Quoted by their blog post
Spotify's 'Your Library' Refresh: What You Need to Know - Spotify
I’ve been a Spotify user since my freshman year in high school which is running up to 8 years now. Didn’t become a premium user until 2017. I had Apple Music prior as an iOS user but I’ve moved over to Android. I found the Apple Music platform inferior in design, mobile app features, third party partnerships and new music discovery.
Yesterday, Spotify revamped their mobile app’s main library screen, as a music solution the application had it all covered. You could easily find trending music, different genres and access some social features pretty easily. Not to mention the awesome multi-device flow allowing you to control the music being played through a different device or carry it over from my PS4 → Smartphone → Alexa without interruption. But as a Podcast solution it was flawed.
The issue was the ‘Library’ tab which for users who do all audio on Spotify probably struggled to easily access their Podcasts. As I so did. I found myself turning to dedicated Podcast apps like Google Podcast, Podcast Addict, etc. since the app prioritized the music experience. Podcast felt second hand on mobile. Spotify has been getting real serious into Podcast in the past 18 months to note. According to the Verge, they acquired 2 companies this past February paying around $230M for one alone (Gimlet, reportedly). The company notes mention they’re willing to spend $500M this year on the podcast business. So we might see some more micro acquisitions throughout 2019.
Now That Spotify has addressed this issue (clear navigation between Music/Podcast). I’m sure with lots of user research and internal testing. I can use it as my all things audio solution. The refresh of the ‘Library’ tab now has two top sections: ‘Music’ & ‘Podcast’. In the Music section you pretty much have all the options available prior, except for stations which I never personally used. You could also just launch a station from a song you’re playing or an artist page.
The main addition is the Podcast section as you can see on the left in the image above. It includes ‘Episodes’, ‘Downloads’, and ‘Shows’. This directly solves my issue with finding the shows easily that I was subscribed to or discovering new pods that I might enjoy.
What can improve?
Specifically, content availability. Sometimes depending on the Podcast there might be a delay on episodes being available on the platform in contrast to Google, Apple or other podcast apps. We do live in a society where users want their content as soon as its available. I don’t know if Spotify was looked at as a Podcast platform prior to this update but I hope as I turn to it for my main audio needs those content developers also prioritize it. With the amount of paid and active users combined and Spotify’s recent push in the Podcast business I expect to see content developers prioritizing the platform.