With over 70 million music tracks and more than 3 million podcast titles, it’s easy to understand why Spotify is the most listened-to streaming service. In this article, I’ll tell you 10 must-try Spotify features that will improve your overall experience using Spotify on iOS, Android, MacOS, and Windows.
What Are the Best Features on Spotify?
The best features on Spotify are the ones that help for seamless use and easier experience. They are found on both the free and paid versions.
Spotify Free Features
1. Utilize the Don’t Play Spotify Feature
If you want to stop an artist from appearing or playing on Spotify, follow these steps:
- Tap on “Search” at the bottom, then at the top, type the name of the artist that you want to skip.
- When it appears, tap on the name of the artist.
- On the main page for that artist, tap on the menu icon, then select “Don’t Play.”
If you ever change your mind, you can always go back to that artist’s main page. Open the menu and tap “Allow to Play”.
2. Use the Timestamp Spotify Feature
If you listen to podcasts on Spotify and you hear something interesting that you’d like to share with someone else, using a timestamp can be very beneficial. Follow these steps:
- If the podcast is playing, pause it at the point you want to share it.
- Tap on the share icon where it says share from, and toggle the switch on. With it turned on, select one of the sharing options listed below to send the link.
Note: This feature is only available in the mobile apps for iOS and Android.
3. Apply the Crossfade Spotify Feature
Whether you’re hosting a party or in any other situation, to keep the music playing without any gaps in between songs, you’ll want to use Spotify’s crossfade feature to blend the beginning and end of each song. Follow these steps:
On desktop
- Click on your profile in the upper right and select settings.
- Scroll down to the playback section and toggle the switch on for crossfade songs.
A slider will appear to set the crossfade from 1 to 12 seconds. Anywhere from 3 to 5 seconds works very well.
On mobile
- Tap on settings in the upper right.
- Scroll down to the playback section and adjust the crossfader slider to whatever you want.
4. Enjoy the Private Session Spotify Features
If you don’t want a certain music artist playlist or anything else you’re listening to on Spotify to mess up your recommendations or don’t want your friends who follow you to see what you’re currently listening to, you’ll want to start a private session to listen anonymously. Follow these steps:
On Desktop
It’s easy to do on the desktop app, In the upper right, click on your profile name and select private session. You’ll now see the lock icon here at the top, indicating that you’re in a private session with it active.
Nobody will know about your secret obsession with boy bands from the 90s to activate a private session.
On mobile app
It’s not as simple. Go to settings Scroll down to social; it’s about three-quarters of the way down. Tap on the switch to enable the private session. Certain music artists refuse to have their music on streaming services or maybe exclusive to another service other than Spotify.
5. Add Local Files on your Computer to the Spotify Desktop App
On desktop
To do this, click on your profile name and go to settings in local files. Switch on the toggle to show local files. If you’d like to add a source from your computer, click on add a source to select the folders that can be accessed by the Spotify app.
After being selected, they’ll be listed under “Show Songs.” When you go to your library, you’ll see the songs listed in local files. These tracks can also be added to any playlist you’ve created.
On mobile
Go to add audio files. Go to settings Scroll down to local files. Switch on the toggle next to show audio files from this device. This will add all audio tracks found on your phone or tablet into a local files folder found in your library.
What are Spotify Premium Features?
1. Pin your Favorite Artists
If you have a large amount of content in your library, it might be easier for you to pin your favorite playlists, albums, artists, or podcasts to the top of your library. You can do this in the Spotify mobile app.
Swipe right on the content that you want to be pinned, and here it is near the top. To unpin it, swipe right again. Up to four items can be pinned at a time, and strangely, this feature is not available in the desktop app.
2. Download Your Playlist for Offline Use
Downloading your playlist for offline use is useful for those times when you lose internet access. Follow these steps:
- Go to your library to see all your playlists.
- Right-click on the playlist that you’d like to access offline and select Download.
All the songs from that playlist will now be downloaded to your computer to access at any time using the Spotify desktop app.
Downloading your playlist is especially handy on mobile using the iOS and Android apps. For example, if you’re on a recent road trip, you might travel through areas that have no cell service at all, but with this feature, you will still be able to listen to music.
3. Change the Album Cover Art
You change the playlist cover art using an image saved to your computer. Follow these steps:
- Go to your library and select a playlist that you created. Hover your mouse cursor over the cover image and select “Choose Photo”.
- Go find the image on your computer. Select it, click on “Open”, and then click on “Save”. This will give you a new cover image for that playlist in the mobile app.
To change the cover image of the playlist you created. Follow these steps:
- Go to your library and tap on the “Playlist”.
- Select the menu icon and tap on “Edit Playlist”.
- Just below the image, tap on “Change Image”, then select Photo. Go find the image on your device, tap on it to change the playlist cover image, and then select “Use Photo” at the bottom.
Note: This tip is only available on the Android and iOS apps.
5. Using The Sleep Time
If you’re the type of person who enjoys listening to music as you fall asleep, you can set the audio to stop at a specific period you selected, available on iOS and Android, only to set a sleep timer.
Tap on the now playing bar, then in the upper right, select the three-dot icon, scroll down, and tap on the “Sleep timer.” You can set it from five minutes up to one hour, or end of track.
6. Create More Folders
If you have a lot of playlists using the desktop app for Windows and Mac only, you can create folders to help keep your content more organized.
In the left pane, right-click on any playlist and select “Create Folder”.
Right-click on that folder and select “Rename”. Also, from the left pane, left-click and drag the associated playlist into the new folder. While you can’t create folders on mobile, they’ll show up in your library in the Spotify app.
Apart from these aforementioned features, there are a couple of other hidden Spotify features. For example the Summer Rewind which picks your best songs played in the summer, the Time Capsule which picks all the songs in your library which you love but that are older than 10 years, and the Discover Weekly Playlist which are recommendations on what to listen to next.
Also Read: What is Car Mode on Spotify?
What are the Benefits of having Spotify Premium?
The benefits of having Spotify include:
- Ad Free Listening
- High-Quality Audio
- Unlimited Skips
- Offline Listening
- On-Demand Playback
- Music Discovery
- Playlist Sharing
- Multi-Platform Availability
- Large Music Library
These features make Spotify a versatile and user-friendly music streaming service.
What is the New Spotify Feature in 2024?
The new feature of Spotify in 2024 is the AI Playlist and it released on 7th April, 2024, which allows Premium users to create personalized playlists using text prompts. Additionally, there’s a leak about an upcoming tier called Supremium or Enhanced Listening. Let’s discuss a little bit more about Spotify AI feature;
Spotify AI Features
Image by master1305 on Freepik
Make your way over to your Spotify application. Now what you want to do is, in the top left, there’s a little music icon. Tap on music, and it’s going to show you a little DJ option. Click on the three dots, and it will automatically open up the DJ AI within Spotify.
At this point, you’re pretty much good to go. This is pretty much how it’s done. You can skip whatever you want to, so it’s going to go ahead and basically show you the songs and whatever you already have, but it’s also going to give you new curated songs that you may not already know about.
It’s quite a pretty cool thing, and from then on, you’ll see that little DJ icon at the very bottom. You can click there, and it’ll go and bring up the little DJ thing again.
The Bottom Line
Here’s a bonus tip for you: There are advanced search terms you can use on both the desktop and mobile apps. Go to search and find music from an artist for a specific period type the artist colon in quotes the name of the artist followed by the year, colon, and in quotes, then period.
Go over to songs and select “See All” or if you just wanted music for some time including all artists type the following year colon and it quotes the period. Thanks for reading. If this article is useful for you, give it a comment below and share it with others. If you have a tip or trick for Spotify that has not been mentioned, let us know about it in the comments.
