Upgrade for Spotify’s free users
LISTENING to music is a personal experience. A workout playlist, shower song on repeat, go-to track list while in transit, and a mellow playlist for relaxation in the evening are selected depending on one’s music taste.
In April, Spotify launched globally the ad-supported AllNew Free on Spotify for Android and iOS to offer users a more personalized listening experience through playlists.
According to Benjamin Chelliah, Spotify Head of Communications for Asia, Spotify has more than 180 million active monthly users globally (paying and nonpaying) and that their team has observed a trend of classifying songs into playlists among users.
“A playlist is a representation of a moment in our life,” Mr. Chelliah told the press at a Spotify event on Aug. 29, adding that users personalize the songs they listen to depending on their activities and the time of day.
“What we’ve done is we’ve always noticed what people are listening to just based on what you do on the app. We will take notice and make sure that the experience is enhanced for you. It’s seeing that people are gravitating towards playlists and realizing that a playlist today is important because it’s a representation of a moment,” he told BusinessWorld.
New users will be able to choose at least five artists upon signing in to the app through the Taste Onboarding process which will help with presenting music recommendations. The user will then be presented with 15 “personalized and curated” On-Demand playlists which are updated regularly depending on the artists and music the user frequently listens to. On-Demand playlists are streamed through Discover Weekly and Daily Mixes. Songs in the playlists are played in any order and the user is allowed unlimited skips.
Additional features such as the assisted playlisting allows the user to type song titles or song phrases then the app would begin recommending songs based on the users taste profile. Tapping the heart-shaped “like” button on songs or albums will automatically include them in the users “Your Favorites” playlist; while tapping the “hide” button will delete the song from the track selection. Spotify has also created Data Saver, a feature found on the app settings that allows the use of less mobile data.
Mr. Chelliah said that old free users need not undergo the Taste Onboarding step — instead their Spotify app will be updated and will be equipped with the All-New Free feature for the same experience.
“We take into consideration all the data (user’s activity) we’ve gotten, and we will give you the same experience of a personalized playlist,” he told BusinessWorld. —