Spotify is known for its best-in-class recommendations algorithm, but it also has a ton of features to keep users in control of their music. Yesterday, the company announced a couple of new buttons and settings that will make it even easier to keep your playlists as you want them — including a new Snooze feature that gives you a 30-day break from songs you’ve been hearing too much.
As good as Spotify’s algorithm is, we’ve all noticed those songs that get played three times in one day and keep popping back up for the rest of the week. With the new Snooze feature, Premium users can choose to take a break from songs they hear too often for a whole 30 days. During that time, it won’t appear anywhere in your recommendations — and with any luck, you’ll be happy to hear it again when the 30 days are up. If not, you can just snooze it again.
For a more permanent solution, you can also use the Hide button to stop a song from getting played in a certain playlist. If you dislike the artist in general, you can also block them so Spotify won’t recommend their music to you.
Premium users will also get more control over their Queue. Before, once your list of queued songs ended, Spotify would automatically start playing random recommendations that you couldn’t see in advance. Now, those recommendations will show at the end of your Queue so you can remove and keep whichever tracks you like. If you don’t want recommendations at all, you can turn off Autoplay in your settings. Plus, just like a normal playlist, you’ll also be able to use Shuffle, Smart Shuffle, Repeat, and Sleep Timer on the songs in your Queue.
Lastly, Spotify has reworked playlist management tools a little bit on mobile by adding Add, Sort, and Edit buttons to the top of each playlist. If you’re in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom, or South Africa, you’ll also be able to build playlists directly from your Liked Songs.
While the Snooze feature is currently only being tested with Premium users, Spotify says it plans to bring the feature to more listeners soon, so keep an eye out.
Willow Roberts has been a Computing Writer at Digital Trends for a year and has been writing for about a decade. She has a…
You can now design custom Spotify playlist cover art, right in the app
Personalizing your Spotify playlist by uploading your own covert art image is a great way to put a visual stamp on your audio mix, but now, you can design that cover art right in the app. Starting today as a beta feature in English in 65 markets, the “Create Cover Art” feature gives users the ability to pick backgrounds, create text effects, and add stickers to generate an original piece of cover art for their playlists. It’s available to both free and Spotify Premium users.
Accessing the new feature is as simple as opening a playlist you’ve created, selecting the context menu (the three dots … ) and choosing Create Cover Art. You’ll then be given the choice to change the cover image (by uploading) or to create covert art.
Read more
Concert overload? Apple Music’s new feature can help you choose
It’s a good time to have ears because there’s a lot of amazing music coming out all the time. Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter are churning out catchy earworms left and right. Old favorites like Linkin Park and Breaking Benjamin are making comebacks. If you’ve already had to choose between concerts this year, it was probably a tough choice — but Apple Music is introducing a new feature that might help you make your decision.
Apple Music will soon have a tool that musicians can use to create specific playlists based on the setlists of their current shows. If several concerts are happening at the same time, you’ll be able to look at the setlist and see what songs are being performed. If one artist is playing your favorite album and the other isn’t, well, it’s an easy choice.
Read more
Spotify’s AI Playlist creation tool lands in the U.S., Canada, and beyond
Spotify today announced that its new AI Playlist feature that allows you to use text prompts to generate personalized playlists is now available to Spotify Premium subscribers in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand.
First made available in beta form in April to Spotify Premium users in Australia and the U.K., the AI Playlist feature uses generative AI and allows users to either choose from a range of premade suggested playlist ideas or to use a text prompt to type in whatever they want.
Read more