Spotify will become more and more like TikTok. The Swedish company will implement a homepage that will allow listeners to navigate vertically, through content recommendations that play automatically. This and many other novelties will be presented this March at its Stream On event, according to Ashley Carman in Bloomberg. The company's goal: improve discovery and appeal to a younger demographic like Generation Z.
It will work in much the same way: Instead of selecting a long list of carousels with static covers, the interface allows users to swipe vertically through content recommendations. Those clips can include video content or looping GIFs. The new feed will try to capture some of the engagement magic of TikTok, so coveted by the rest of the social networks.
Spotify has Generation Z between their eyebrows. It recently hired YouTuber Emma Chamberlain as its exclusive podcaster and this week announced a deal with a trio of Swedish comedy podcasts for a show it calls one of the "biggest podcasts with a younger audience of Generation Z," which defines like 7 to 12 years old.
It is also a strategy to attract and retain a younger audience, which coincides with the audience segment that enjoys the paid version and is reluctant to pay for premium advances.
Spotify has not wanted to comment on possible changes to its interface. In a response to Bloomberg, a spokesperson said the company routinely performs a "series of tests in an effort to improve our user experience." “Some of them end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others just serve as important takeaways. We have no further news to share regarding future plans at this time,” he noted.
Beyond the news that will be presented at the Stream On event, one change is certain: the platform replaces the 'Like' button with a 'More' to save songs in the Library or create playlists, as confirmed by the company in a statement. This format is very similar to that offered by other services of this type, such as Apple Music.
In addition, the Swedish company has announced the launch of DJ, a functionality based on artificial intelligence (AI) that recommends and comments on some relevant or curious information about the songs, according to the tastes of the users and the songs they have previously listened to in the player. , with the aim of a greater personalization of the experience.
Spotify follows in the footsteps of YouTube, Instagram or Twitter. They all have something in common: they want to look more and more like TikTok. Instagram has already gone vertical with its Reels, just like YouTube with Shorts. In the case of the microblogging social network, Elon Musk imposed the 'For You' tab, a chronology decided by an algorithm.
