Spotify is launching daylist globally. It’s a personalized playlist that evolves throughout the day depending on your listening habits. This rollout comes after the company introduced it first to English-speaking markets last year. The playlist will be available to both free and premium users.
The company said it is also adding support for 14 additional languages, including Arabic, Catalan, French (Canada), French (France), German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Mexico), and Turkish.
Spotify introduced daylist in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Ireland in September 2023. In March 2024, the feature was made available in 65 more countries, and now the company is launching the feature in all the markets where Spotify is available.
Spotify noted that after the expansion in March, 70% of daylist users come back weekly to access the playlist. However, the company didn’t specify how many users overall have used this feature or how much music discovery it is driving.
Users can access daylist in the Spotify app through the “Made for You” section or on the web through this link. The playlist and its title update throughout the day with some goofy ones like “bedroom pop banger early morning” or “90s rave rainforest late night.” At the time of launch, Spotify said that it uses data of “niche music and microgenres” that you listen to at a particular time of the day to suggest tracks and update the daylist.
Users can also save a particular playlist they like by tapping on the three dot menu, selecting “Add to playlist” option, and tapping on “New Playlist” to save that exact daylist to their library.
Music, podcasts, audiobooks…emergency alerts? Spotify’s latest test has the streaming app venturing into new territory with a test of an emergency alerts system in its home market of Sweden. According to code references found within the Spotify app, the company is considering a system that would help distribute public announcements related to things like “accidents, serious events or disruptions of important services.”
The company confirmed to TechCrunch it’s testing such a system, but didn’t explain why it would be interested in providing this kind of service to its users. There’s no Swedish law requiring the app to do so and Spotify says that, for now, it’s only exploring whether or not the app could support something like an emergency alerts system.
The feature was first uncovered by technologist and reverse engineer Chris Messina, who theorized that an emergency alerts service could push Spotify users to enable their app notifications. Often, users disable alerts from non-essential apps, like those in the social networking or entertainment space, which makes it more difficult for the app to catch users’ attention and market its new features.
But more broadly, supporting emergency alerts could also solidify Spotify’s position as a more essential app to have on hand. It also steps into Meta’s territory, as the social network has for nearly a decade offered ways for users to get updates during major disasters with its Safety Check feature. Google also leveraged its app’s popularity to alert users of disasters, as with its earthquake alerts on Android. In the U.S., lawmakers have previously weighed the idea of requiring online video and streaming apps to support emergency alerts in addition to TV and radio broadcasters and cable TV systems.
Code references in Spotify’s app mention the feature across the following phrases:
“Emergency alerts in Sweden”“Receive public emergency alerts”“Important public announcement, IPA, is the system used to alert the public in Sweden in the case of accidents, serious events, or disruptions of important services”“Visit the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency site for more information”
Reached for comment, a company rep for Spotify confirmed the test in a statement, adding it was only being tested in Sweden for the time being.
“At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of tests in an effort to improve our user experience,” they said. “Some of those tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience while most serve only as an important learning.”
Spotify is expanding the way podcast listeners can engage with hosts with Tuesday’s launch of a new interactive feature: podcast comments. The addition will allow listeners to leave comments on any episode page that supports it, with the hopes of making them feel more like members of a community. Plus, creators will be able to like and respond to listeners’ comments, while still having control over which comments appear on their page.
The feature puts Spotify in more direct competition with YouTube as a place where creators can interact with their listeners. It also follows the company’s move into video podcasts, which began with tests in 2021 and a broader launch in 2022. This year, Spotify again widened its reach to include video support for non-hosted podcasters.
There are now more than 250,000 video podcasts available on the platform, the company says. Just this year, 9 million Spotify listeners have also engaged with one of the interactive features designed for podcasts, like polls or Q&As, which rolled out in 2021. That figure represents an 80% year-over-year increase.
With support for podcast comments, Spotify aims to give its creators more ways to build communities, which in turn could lead to better retention of its listener base and increased consumption of podcasts.
Image Credits: Spotify
According to the company’s internal data, listeners who engage with interactivity features on Spotify are around four times more likely to return to a show within 30 days. They also listen to two times more podcasts, on average, than those who don’t engage with these features.
Comments will add a new type of interactive feature for these active listeners to engage with, as more than 70% of podcast listeners said they wanted more ways to engage with their favorite hosts.
However, the feature itself will be optional for podcast hosts.
“We’re taking a very deliberately slow and cautious approach with this one,” says VP of Podcast Product Maya Prohovnik, who joined the company with its acquisition of Anchor. “I think it’s a really important balance between sort of creative expression and keeping people safe and making sure that there are high-quality conversations happening.”
Image Credits: Spotify
The feature will roll out slowly, starting this week on the consumer side (on podcasts that have opted into showing comments on their pages). Over the next month, the option to comment will expand to all Spotify users.
Meanwhile, creators who choose to allow comments will be in control of the experience; they’ll be able to enable or disable the feature on a per-episode basis and will be able to approve which comments go through.
Creators will also be able to like and reply to comments, get alerts when new comments are added or milestones are achieved, and access other insights and analytics about their audience through the Spotify for Podcasters app, which is now available to both hosted and non-hosted creators.
“We want to work with creators and iterate based on their feedback, but [Spotify is] really trying to over-index on creative control, and making sure the creators can choose what shows up alongside their content,” Prohovnik notes.
Image Credits: Spotify
Of course, approving comments one by one can be time-consuming, which is why Spotify is beginning to test other options that would allow comments to flow more freely, but with guardrails in place. The company says that Spotify is already testing systems that would allow comments to scale with creators, without the hassles of manual moderation.
Currently, creators can block commenters, and Spotify will check for comments that violate its policies automatically.
The commenting feature has been in beta testing ahead of this launch, and Spotify says the feedback was positive, which is why it’s now going public with the option. Creators who previously added support for polls and Q&As will be among the first to have the option to enable comments.
Image Credits: Spotify
The launch comes as Spotify’s podcasting strategy has shifted, moving from heavy investment in exclusives to one where Spotify serves as a platform for all podcasters, including those who stream their shows on video. As a result, Spotify is now becoming profitable on podcasts, Prohovnik says.
The new feature doesn’t immediately have a monetization element, though Prohovnik says that Spotify is working toward ways to identify a show’s super fans in the comments. The company didn’t commit to any specific plans to offer paid-for fan badges, as YouTube offers with Super Chat and Super Stickers, but that seems a reasonable next step for the streamer to take.
In the meantime, comments could engage Spotify users by way of push notifications, drawing listeners back into the app to participate in the social networking elements, even if not actively streaming.
“Just like with video podcasts, it’s clear to us there’s a need. People want that deeper engagement on Spotify, and that’s really our goal,” Prohovnik says.
Updated, 9:05 a.m. ET to clarify comments will be opt-out for creators, though they are optional.
Spotify’s AI DJ feature, an AI guide that introduces personalized song selections, is now available in its first language outside of English. On Tuesday, Spotify announced the launch of an AI DJ that speaks Spanish, confirming TechCrunch’s earlier reports of the feature under development. Like the original AI DJ “X,” whose voice was based on an existing Spotify employee (Xavier “X” Jernigan), the Spanish-language voice is also based on a real person — in this case, Olivia “Livi” Quiroz Roa, a senior music editor at Spotify who resides in Mexico City.
Spotify’s AI DJ, which was first launched last year, is meant to serve as a smart audio guide that introduces music using a convincingly realistic voice. For Spotify, the feature isn’t just a way for it to dabble around with new AI technology, it’s also a way to increase the consumption of music on its app. According to its internal data, DJ users listen to a lot of music, and the use of the feature has continued to grow with an increase of more than 200% over the last year.
The AI DJ itself is built using technologies from both OpenAI and Sonantic, an AI voice platform Spotify acquired in 2022. DJ X was initially picked to model his voice for the AI, which uses the same slang terms and expressions as Jernigan does, in addition to duping the sound of his voice.
Meanwhile, Roa was chosen to be the newest voice for the AI DJ feature after an extensive casting call, Spotify said, during which the company found that her voice resonated the most with listeners. Listeners said the voice sounded relatable and as if they were listening to music recommendations from a friend, the company noted. X will not be going away with “Livi’s” launch, but rather customers will be able to pick which AI DJ they prefer, according to Spotify.
Image Credits: Spotify DJ "Livi"
“We have millions of Spanish-speaking listeners on Spotify, many of whom have been taking to social media to ask about DJ,” according to Spotify’s announcement. “In fact, over the last few months, we’ve seen an over 215% increase in social conversation around DJ in Spanish,” the company said.
In May, TechCrunch reported on the Spanish-speaking AI DJ feature, when new text referencing DJ “Livi” was added to the app’s code, alongside indications that the feature would become available in Mexico. However, Spotify’s announcement indicates “Livi” will become available to Premium listeners in markets where DJ X is already offered and other markets across Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
“Livi” is considered a “beta” test, for the time being.
To use “Livi,” Spotify Premium subscribers can access the feature from the Search tab on the app. From there, they must search for the term “DJ” and press play to begin using the DJ. To switch languages from an existing DJ, users must tap the three-dot menu within the DJ card, then pick between English and Spanish.
Back in May, Spotify quietly started putting lyrics behind a paywall, limiting free users to lyrics for three songs per month. The move was a bid to push more users to pay for the service.
After receiving numerous complaints, the company is now expanding the monthly limit. Starting today, Spotify is raising the limit on the number of lyrics free users can view. Users worldwide will begin seeing the change.
A company spokesperson told TechCrunch, “At Spotify, we’re always testing and iterating. This means the availability of our features can vary across tiers and between markets and devices. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be expanding lyrics availability for Spotify Free users so more people can enjoy viewing more lyrics, globally.”
Spotify declined to disclose the exact number of lyrics per month for free users, but it will likely be significantly higher than the previous limit of three songs. Many users on X/Twitter are celebrating the change.
lyrics on spotify are…BACK???
— Nova !! || bbokari enthusiest ! || ATE 🥠 (@yongbokkies_) July 30, 2024
Spotify began testing a paywall for lyrics in September 2023. It’s uncertain whether the paywalling of lyrics contributed to an increase in paid subscribers. Since the company decided to remove the restriction, however, any impact was likely insignificant.
In the second quarter of 2024, the company reported having 626 million monthly active users, including 246 million premium subscribers.
After much back-and-forth earlier this year, Spotify on Wednesday said it’s received approval from Apple to display pricing information in its iOS app for users in the EU. The company is not opting into Apple’s new business rules under the EU’s Digital Markets Act but rather is taking advantage of new antitrust guidelines imposed by the EU specifically for music streaming apps.
Apple in March was fined €1.84 billion (nearly $2 billion) by European regulators for breaching antitrust rules in the market. Spotify and Apple have also gone back and forth over an update to Spotify’s app that would allow the music streamer to share pricing information with EU users.
Now Spotify’s opting in to the music streaming entitlement has been approved by Apple, and the language is live in the Spotify app. That means the company will be able to display the pricing for things like Spotify subscriptions and digital goods, including Spotify’s more recently added collection of audiobooks.
The latter includes the ability to show the pricing for subscription plans that include audiobook streaming, as well as “top off” hours users can buy to complete their audiobook listening and a la carte audiobook prices.
However, what Spotify won’t be able to share is a link to its website, as doing so would require the company to pay Apple a 27% commission on those sales, which the company does not intend to do. Instead, the text in the app will only be able to refer users to Spotify’s website, without spelling out the domain name and its .com address. Spotify said Apple wouldn’t permit it to include the text “spotify.com” even if it wasn’t hyperlinked, to avoid paying commissions.
Image Credits: Spotify (screenshot)
Along with the launch of the pricing information, Spotify will run a promotion in the EU to encourage users to upgrade their subscription plans via its website — information it’s always been able to show on Android without issues.
The current promotion will involve offering the first three months of the service for free before the subscription kicks in, Spotify says.
The move is a small step toward achieving Spotify’s agenda to service its customers through its own commission-free payments platform. However, the streamer intends to keep fighting for what it actually wants: a way to link from its iOS app to its website for purchases without paying a commission to Apple.
“While this is progress, it’s only a small step in the long march towards giving iPhone consumers basic product experiences they expect and deserve in their apps — experiences that users of other phones already enjoy,” the company said in a statement announcing the changes. “Unfortunately, Spotify and all music streaming services in the EU are still not able to freely give consumers a simple opportunity to click a link to purchase in the app because of the illegal and predatory taxes Apple continues to demand, despite the Commission’s ruling,” it said.
Image Credits: Meta / Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Connect 2023
Meta and Spotify are once again teaming up — this time, on the matter of open source (or to be precise, open-weight) AI which the companies claim are being hampered by regulations. In joint statements published to both companies’ respective websites on Friday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek complain that EU privacy regulations around AI are holding back innovation. Meta, for instance, points out that it has been prevented from being able to train its AI models on public data across Facebook and Instagram because regulators haven’t crafted legislation to address how this should be handled as of yet.
“In the short term, delaying the use of data that is routinely used in other regions means the most powerful AI models won’t reflect the collective knowledge, culture, and languages of Europe—and Europeans won’t get to use the latest AI products,” Meta’s blog post warns. It also stresses that Europeans won’t be able to access the latest open source technology and instead will be left with AI “built for someone else.”
The post additionally confirmed previous reports that Meta would withhold its next multimodel AI model from customers in the European Union due to a lack of clarity from regulators. Notes Meta, it will not be able to release upcoming AI models like Llama multimodel, which has the ability to understand images because of this.
Meanwhile, Spotify points to its early investment in AI technology as a reason its streaming service became so successful in the first place, as it developed a personalized experience for each individual user.
“As we look to the future of streaming, we see tremendous potential to use open-source AI to benefit the industry. This is especially important when it comes to how AI can help more artists get discovered. A simplified regulatory structure would not only accelerate the growth of open-source AI but also provide crucial support to European developers and the broader creator ecosystem that contributes to and thrives on these innovations,” its post reads.
Reading between the lines, it’s not a stretch to assume that Spotify would like to use Meta’s AI technology to improve its products but is similarly impacted by the lack of clarity around AI regulations in the EU.
Of course, neither of these companies are against regulation when it works to their advantage.
For instance, the two share a common enemy in Apple — specifically, its App Store monopoly, which saw EU regulators dubbing the iPhone maker a Big Tech “gatekeeper” before forcing it to open up to alternative app stores, app distribution methods and payment systems, among other things. Meta and Spotify didn’t criticize the regulation itself, only how Apple had responded. In this case, Zuckerberg joined Ek in criticizing Apple’s new business rules for EU developers under the region’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) — as being so onerous that he doubted any developer would opt in. Spotify had also called Apple’s compliance plan “extortion” and a “complete and total farce.”
Meta and Spotify have a history of working together in recent years, having earlier teamed up on music initiatives that included a miniplayer on Facebook that streamed Spotify directly from the app.
After much back and forth earlier this year, Spotify on Wednesday says it’s now received approval from Apple to display pricing information in its iOS app for users in the EU. The company is not opting into Apple’s new business rules under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, but rather is taking advantage of new antitrust guidelines imposed by the EU specifically for music streaming apps.
Apple in March was fined by European regulators €1.84 billion (nearly $2 billion USD) for breaching antitrust rules in the market. Spotify and Apple have also gone back and forth over an update to Spotify’s app that would allow the music streamer to share pricing information with EU users.
Now, Spotify says its app update has been approved, and it will be able to display the pricing for things like Spotify subscriptions and digital goods, including Spotify’s more recently added collection of audiobooks.
The latter includes the ability to show the pricing for subscription plans that include audiobook streaming, as well as “top off” hours users can buy to complete their audiobook listening and a la carte audiobook prices.
However, what Spotify won’t be able to share is a link to its website, as doing so would require the company to pay Apple a 27% commission on those sales, which the company does not intend to do. Instead, the text in the ap will only be able to refer users to Spotify’s website, without spelling out the domain name and its .com address. Spotify said Apple wouldn’t permit it to include the text “spotify.com” even if it wasn’t hyperlinked, to avoid paying commissions.
ScreenshotImage Credits: Spotify
Along with the launch of the pricing information, Spotify will run a promotion in the EU to encourage users to upgrade their subscription plans via its website — information it’s always been able to show on Android without issues.
The current promotion will involve offering the first three months of the service for free before the subscription kicks in, Spotify says.
The move is a small step toward achieving Spotify’s agenda to service its own customers through its own commission-free payments platform. However, the streamer intends to keep fighting for what it actually wants: a way to link from its iOS app to its website for purchases without paying a commission to Apple.
“While this is progress, it’s only a small step in the long march towards giving iPhone consumers basic product experiences they expect and deserve in their apps — experiences that users of other phones already enjoy,” the company wrote in a blog post announcing the changes. “Unfortunately, Spotify and all music streaming services in the EU are still not able to freely give consumers a simple opportunity to click a link to purchase in app because of the illegal and predatory taxes Apple continues to demand, despite the Commission’s ruling,” it said.
Back in May, Spotify quietly started putting lyrics behind a paywall, limiting free users to lyrics for three songs per month. The move was a bid to push more users to pay for the service.
After receiving numerous complaints, the company is now expanding the monthly limit. Starting today, Spotify is raising the limit on the number of lyrics free users can view. Users worldwide will begin seeing the change.
A company spokesperson told TechCrunch, “At Spotify, we’re always testing and iterating. This means the availability of our features can vary across tiers and between markets and devices. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be expanding lyrics availability for Spotify Free users so more people can enjoy viewing more lyrics, globally.”
Spotify declined to disclose the exact number of lyrics per month for free users, but it will likely be significantly higher than the previous limit of three songs. Many users on X/Twitter are celebrating the change.
lyrics on spotify are…BACK???
— Nova !! || bbokari enthusiest ! || ATE 🥠 (@yongbokkies_) July 30, 2024
Spotify began testing a paywall for lyrics in September 2023. It’s uncertain whether the paywalling of lyrics contributed to an increase in paid subscribers. Since the company decided to remove the restriction, however, any impact was likely insignificant.
In the second quarter of 2024, the company reported having 626 million monthly active users, including 246 million premium subscribers.
Music, podcasts, audiobooks…emergency alerts? Spotify’s latest test has the streaming app venturing into new territory with a test of an emergency alerts system in its home market of Sweden. According to code references found within the Spotify app, the company is considering a system that would help distribute public announcements related to things like “accidents, serious events or disruptions of important services.”
The company confirmed to TechCrunch it’s testing such a system, but didn’t explain why it would be interested in providing this kind of service to its users. There’s no Swedish law requiring the app to do so and Spotify says that, for now, it’s only exploring whether or not the app could support something like an emergency alerts system.
The feature was first uncovered by technologist and reverse engineer Chris Messina, who theorized that an emergency alerts service could push Spotify users to enable their app notifications. Often, users disable alerts from non-essential apps, like those in the social networking or entertainment space, which makes it more difficult for the app to catch users’ attention and market its new features.
But more broadly, supporting emergency alerts could also solidify Spotify’s position as a more essential app to have on hand. It also steps into Meta’s territory, as the social network has for nearly a decade offered ways for users to get updates during major disasters with its Safety Check feature. Google also leveraged its app’s popularity to alert users of disasters, as with its earthquake alerts on Android. In the U.S., lawmakers have previously weighed the idea of requiring online video and streaming apps to support emergency alerts in addition to TV and radio broadcasters and cable TV systems.
Code references in Spotify’s app mention the feature across the following phrases:
“Emergency alerts in Sweden”“Receive public emergency alerts”“Important public announcement, IPA, is the system used to alert the public in Sweden in the case of accidents, serious events, or disruptions of important services”“Visit the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency site for more information”
Reached for comment, a company rep for Spotify confirmed the test in a statement, adding it was only being tested in Sweden for the time being.
“At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of tests in an effort to improve our user experience,” they said. “Some of those tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience while most serve only as an important learning.”
