Your new Spotify homepage is a radical mix of TikTok and Netflix
It looks like Spotify, the music streaming services giant, is planning to change its user interface in a bold and exciting new way.
Forward Spotifys ‘Stream On’ event in Los Angeles (last in 2021), Bloomberg (opens in new tab) reported on a leak that the event would launch an all-new redesign of the homepage feed. “Instead of choosing from a long list of carousels of static cover art, the interface allows listeners to swipe vertically through content recommendations that play automatically.” This can be video content or looping GIFs.
And now that the announcement has finally been fleshed out during the ‘Steam On’ event, we have a fuller understanding of how this change will work. According to Musical (opens in new tab)Spotify’s mobile app will “replace its existing carousels of music, podcast, and playlist suggestions with a vertical feed of TikTok-style recommendations.”
Below is a video of it Stuart Bagger (opens in new tab) showcasing the new homepage feed design.
So anyway, this new Spotify vertical discovery feed to be announced tomorrow has… already appeared on my phone 👀 pic.twitter.com/CbGoiIplvkMarch 7, 2023
But unlike TikTok, Spotify doesn’t have to use an algorithm to keep your eyes on the feed, because the ultimate goal is to get you away from the feed and listen to an artist’s song in full. So it seems Spotify is combining some of TikTok’s laser-focused algorithm techniques with Netflix’s use of video clips to entice users to click on songs. This could be interesting to see in practice.
Spotify has revealed a host of other features it would add to the service, including an AI DJ that helps create a personalized playlist for listeners, Smart Shuffle, Marquee, a full-screen sponsored recommendation of a new release, the Discovery Mode tool that allows artists to highlight songs that are then added to the algorithm, and Showcase, which creates a music from the artist to likely listeners.
There are also Spotify Clips and Countdown Pages that allow artists to customize their pages with video. Finally, Spotify will also offer concerts and merchandise for the first time, giving artists (and the service) a new way to monetize.
This complete overhaul of the entire feed, as well as the addition of so many new features, could be the result lost income and resulting layoffs. As well as a way to justify the impending price increase of the service despite the layoffs.