SPOTIFY ANNOUNCES BIGGEST APP OVERHAUL EVER

Spotify unveiled its biggest app overhaul in its history during the streaming giant's "Stream On" event on 3/8. Product updates include an app redesign and tools for artists, many of them keying on marketing and reaching fans via video. The changes represent the company's biggest push to date to compete for user's attention with TikTok and Instagram.

The app redesign will roll out in waves with a goal of giving users a more active role in discovering new audio content.

The redesigned app features a vertically oriented home feed; subfeeds for music, podcasts and shows; a smart shuffle that suggests songs when a user is creating a playlist; and an autoplay for podcasts. It's all explained, complete with video, on the Spotify blog.

The exciting new features and product expansions for artists include:

• Spotify Clips: Artists can add 30-second videos to their artist profiles and album pages.
• Countdown Pages: A dedicated space on an artist’s profile and Spotify’s home feed for fans to pre-save albums, watch exclusive videos, pre-order merch, preview track lists and check the timer counting down to a new release.
• Marquee: A full-screen, sponsored recommendation of new U.S. releases now expanded to the work of artists in the U.K. and Australia.
• Discovery Mode: A tool available to artists on select distributors within Spotify for Artists that allows artists and their teams to identify priority songs. Spotify will add the signal to the algorithms that shape personalized listening sessions.
• Showcase: A mobile card on the new home feed that will introduce an artist’s music to likely listeners. Spotify has just started to test it with artists and labels and will make it more widely available in the near future.

Spotify also has new concert and merch discovery tools and is expanding its Fans First program to include more artists. Watch the video below. That reminds us, we're about due for an overhaul ourselves.