The 15 best Spotify tips and tricks – how to master the streaming service
In 1995, the humble Swedish music company called Spotify became a reality in 8 European countries. The listening habits of the public changed completely.
In October 2008, the world of digital music was an unsettling liminal space that was a crossroads between iTunes downloads and illegal file-sharing websites like Napster or Limewire. Through the combination of the peer-to-peer platform of Napster with significant licensing agreements with major labels, Spotify managed to become streaming’s most well-known brand, and then the rest was history.
If you’re looking to dig into the early days of Spotify, We highly recommend you watch the film The Playlist on Netflix. This six-part series does an impressive job of transforming the streaming service’s dry beginning story into an engaging one to watch.
However, the day of Spotify’s milestone is also an excellent opportunity to master some new skills that could turn you into an expert user. Spotify has been rolling out new features at a speed of knots in recent times, including an offer of free audiobook perks for Premium users, which makes it easy to miss out on the helpful features hidden within the ever-growing application.
If you’re looking for ways to freshen your Spotify experience or tweak your use of the music-streaming service, there are a few lesser-known methods to achieve you…
Refine your recommendations
Are you finding your Discover Weekly and Spotify Wrapped rounds constantly slowed by the Sing-Along car songs playlist you use on your school bus? Do you want to alter your Taste Profile, which is a secret Spotify feature that powers the majority of its recommendations?
To instruct Spotify not to play the music you’ve spent listening to your favourite music for work, click the three dots on the upper right-hand side of the playlist, then select ‘Exclude from your Profile.’ Profile’.
This is only applicable to playlists. Another method to remove music and albums from your playlists is to begin a ‘private session’ by logging into your profile photo and then tapping “Privacy and Social,” after which toggle the ‘private session.’ The sessions will pause the listening session and end within six hours.
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Find old playlists from Wrapped.
The Spotify Wrap 2023 is now available to provide us with our annual update on the music that we seem to be moving towards. But what if you’re bored? Go back to your prior year’s Wrapped playlists Naturally.
For that, you can use the search bar of the app, enter “Spotify:genre:2018” (or whichever year you’d like to travel all the way back), and it’ll give you a summary of your favourite music from the year before, along with other playlists that are related to it. It’s amazing how many times you’ve travelled…
Discover goblin core and many other micro-genres
Hidden in Spotify’s “Made For You” hub is a great method to explore the edges of your most bizarre musical pleasures, known as Niche Mixes. There are playlists based on your listening, which reveal the sub-genres you never knew you liked all the way, including goblin core, funeral doom, and more (no, not actually).
To find your favourite Niche Mixes:
- Visit the Search section near the lower right of the app.
- Scroll down to ‘Made by you.’
- Tap this and scroll to the section titled “Your Niche Mixes,” in which you’ll discover 5-10 mixes from typical genres alongside Pagode, Dreamo, and more.
- Create Spotify sound better.
If you’re a Premium subscriber, you’re probably familiar with offline listening, the option to download songs for listening while on a plane or away from a signal. Did you know that you can change the quality of audio that comes with those downloads, as you do alter the quality of your streaming?
In the Settings section of the app (which is accessible by pressing your profile photo), click on the section called Audio Quality. Then go to Download, and scroll until you reach. You’ll be able to select between Normal, Low (the default), High, or Very High. At the same time, High has a bit rate of about 160kbps, and Very High increases the speed to around 320kbps.
The service is far from CD-quality lossless audio quality. However, it could eventually be on the way in the recently announced streaming service’s Supremium level (which is believed to be the name for the long-awaited Spotify High-Fi).
Take a deep dive into your listening stats.
Spotify Wrapped isn’t the only opportunity to analyse your statistics on Spotify. There’s an abundance of third-party sites that could assist in gaining similar insights throughout the year.
The most obvious one is Statistics for Spotify, which provides a complete overview of all the music you’ve listened to during your chosen time frame in the last four weeks through the last six months.
However, there are many other options (some helpful, while others are more than just enjoyment), such as the long-running Last. fm, Obscurity, and Spotify Pie. Please look at our guide to the most effective sites and apps to help you analyse what you are listening to on Spotify and get a full overview.
Generate your dream festival lineup.
You didn’t get the lineup you were hoping for this year? You can always create your lineup poster alternatively by connecting Spotify to the free Instafest application instead.
The Spotify festival app is connected directly to your accounts, analyses the music that you’ve been listening to, and produces posters that look very similar to the posters used for Coachella; however, it’s within your desired lineup.
You can modify the listening time on which the poster is based (from the final four weeks to all time) and alter the design of the posters to suit your preferences. You know what they say: make it, and the people will come…
You can unlock a music game of Snake.
Spotify isn’t known for its gaming prowess (yet); however, it has a classic game hidden in its menus – an incarnation of Snake, which eats up songs on your playlists.
To access the “Eat this playlist” feature, play the playlist (preferably one that’s at least twenty songs in length). Tap the three dots beneath the image and scroll until the very end to locate ‘Eat this playlist.’
Tap to play the game. It will begin as the classic Nokia game. The idea is to manoeuvre your Snake across the screen (by pressing the direction in which you wish it to travel across the display) and then eat album art without striking the walls. Naturally, the song that you are watching will be the music.
Set a timer for sleep.
One of Spotify’s greatest strengths is that it can help you fall asleep with its ever-growing white music playlists (which could also be an income-generating tool for the makers). However, whatever you choose to let drift off, you’ll need to have it end the music once you’re in blissful sleep – which is why the sleep timer on Spotify can be helpful.
To locate your sleep alarm, click the “Now Playing bar for the song or podcast that you’re currently listening to (at the lower right on the right). This will open the entire screen for ‘Now Playing. To play podcasts, click the moon icon side of the play button to display the sleep timer, whereas, for music, you’ll have to hit the three-dot menu in the top right corner. You can then scroll down until you reach the Sleep timer.
You can decide what length you would like the music to play during (from five minutes to one hour), and it’ll then confirm the timer by sending an “OK, your sleep timer is set to message.
Mixfade your playlists
Spotify isn’t able to combine all your songs with smooth transitions. However, it does provide the option of crossfading to eliminate any gaps in your playlist’s songs.
To stop those awkward silences, click your profile’s icon within the app and then select Settings and Privacy. Within this menu, click Playback, then scroll until you reach the Crossfade section. The slider in this section lets you select the length of time from the time you finish your song. Spotify will begin blending with the following song (from just one second to twelve seconds).
A middle position is usually the best option, but the songs on your playlist tend to fade slowly, so it may be necessary to use a longer crossfade time to fill in any gaps.
Create a real-time, collaborative playlist.
Sometimes, you must take a step back from the reigns of playlists and submit to the demands for a democratic music system, where everyone is able to queue up songs to play for the speaker of the party. This is why you should use the fairly recent Spotify Jam feature.
It’s similar to Blend. However, it functions in real-time and is only accessible to those who are connected to one Wi-Fi connection. To begin Jam, go to the Jam start by going to the ‘Now Playing bar that is located on the lower right of the screen. Tap the speaker icon, then tap the ‘Start a Jam button.
You can also look for the three dots menu beneath the main image of a playlist and discover the option as well. After it’s been started, you can then make it available to share the Jam in three ways: via sharing your link with others, inviting your friends to look up the QR code, or by bringing your phones close to each other (with Bluetooth turned on).
Connect Spotify to Shazam.
The app that identifies songs, Shazam, was launched in 2002, only to be purchased from Apple, and is even older than Spotify. However, it’s still among the most well-known free applications available, helping users find the 23,000 songs they listen to every minute – and integrating it with Spotify is a great method to relive songs that you’ve only heard just for a few minutes.
In the Shazam application, swipe left to open the My Music page, then press the gears icon in the upper-left. You’ll see a choice to connect the app to Spotify, and you can do so by logging into the account and then authorizing your connection. Select ‘Sync Shazam with Spotify, and all the Shazam-ed tracks are waiting for you in a synchronized My Shazam Tracks playlist.
Rediscover radio stations
If the latest Spotify AI DJ feature is too random for you, do not forget that Spotify can make an ever-changing playlist in response to any album, song, or playlist.
To begin Spotify Radio, go to one of the above locations and select the three dots located in the upper right-hand corner. After that, tap ‘Go To Radio. You’ll be presented with the playlist, which is around fifty tracks in length.
If you would like the playlist to continue all the time, make sure that you’ve turned on Autoplay (go into Settings, and then Privacy > Playback > to toggle Autoplay).
You can access Spotify through Google Maps.
If you frequently drive with Google Maps and don’t have Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, The ideal alternative is connecting Spotify to Google Maps to allow you to access its music controls along with the directions you follow.
For this step, you must open Google Maps and then tap your profile icon on the upper right. Next, click Settings, followed by Navigation. There’s a ‘Music playback control option. Here, you can join your Spotify account by logging in and agreeing to the conditions.
If you’re about to begin your journey using real-time directions, you’ll notice Spotify’s playback controls at the lower-left corner below the estimated time of your journey. From there, you can browse playlists and play your music without having to go into and out of your Spotify app.
Level up your search skills.
Similar to Google Search, Spotify has a few useful options in its search bar to aid in defining the information you’re searching for.
For instance, if you search for Bowie by using the phrase ‘year:1970-1980’ (with no spaces), you’ll be presented with only albums and songs from the time frame. Similarly, you can also refine results with a genre command (for example, ‘genre: electronica’) and combine that with the ‘year’ one above.
Make sure you have a mood-matching playlist.
Spotify isn’t just able to determine which strange sub-genres you’re interested in (see “Niche Mixes” further up the page). It also is aware of the kind of music you enjoy at various times throughout the day. This knowledge is used to create its brand-innovative Dayslist option that is available to both Premium and Free users.
The playlist is constantly changing during the day, presenting listeners with a “lush Balearic afternoon on a Friday’ before changing into a ‘chillwave early Monday.’ To locate your Daylist or to access it, visit the official website or locate it in the ‘Made by you section in the application (tap the Search button on the right and then go to the bottom).
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