Spotify redesigns its app's core homescreen with album and playlist covers and a TikTok-like vertical scroll of playlists, video podcasts, and more

Spotify is redesigning the core homescreen of its app, trying to make it easier for users to find new stuff to listen to — and watch.

The Verge 2023-03-09 David Pierce

Context & Ripple Effects

Spotify had already made personalized discovery central to its free tier through on-demand listening in personalized discovery playlists and tested a vertical Discover feed built around music videos on iOS. The homescreen redesign moves that feed-style discovery approach into the app’s primary entry point and broadens it to playlists and video podcasts.

Later redesigns of Spotify’s desktop and TV apps were described as aligning with its mobile experience, making the mobile homescreen a meaningful reference point for how Spotify presents content across devices.

First-order effects

Spotify users encounter album and playlist art plus a vertical stream of playlists and video podcasts directly from the homescreen, rather than relying solely on conventional navigation.
Video podcasts receive a prominent discovery surface alongside music playlists, giving Spotify a unified presentation layer for listening and watching.

Second-order effects

Spotify’s desktop and TV interfaces are pushed toward the mobile design language reflected in the later desktop Library and Now Playing refresh and TV-app homepage redesign.
TikTok’s vertical-feed interaction model becomes a direct design reference for Spotify’s music and video discovery experience, increasing overlap in the attention users devote to short-form browsing.

Third-order effects

If Spotify continues applying the same homescreen logic across devices, its product structure shifts from a library-first player toward an access layer where recommendation and visual presentation determine what users open.
The inclusion of video podcasts suggests that music-streaming interfaces will increasingly treat audio and video as competing formats within the same discovery feed, rather than as separate destinations.

The trend: Streaming services are turning the homescreen into a visual, recommendation-led access layer that blends music, playlists, and video.

Discussion

@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
I'm at a Spotify event where CEO @eldsjal just announced what he calls the “biggest change” to the app since launch of mobile over a decade ago. It's a TikTok-like visual feed with clips of music and other stuff, replacing the main tab. Thoughts? https://twitter.com/...
@villainmorris @villainmorris on x
I'm dead fucking serious I'm wanna go back to ripping CDs onto MP3 players. It's not enough that we're paying to curate collections of media we don't actually own, but also shit like this keeps cropping up, undermining simple/easy enjoyment by adding complexity and noise. https:/…
@frankmcrae Francis McRae on x
What if instead of using spotify to listen to some of the greatest music ever recorded you used it to scroll mindless garbage like every other social media app https://twitter.com/...
@westofmain_ @westofmain_ on x
Opening your phone to browse your 28 different tiktok equivalents https://twitter.com/...
@thejasonkirk @thejasonkirk on x
Every app must eventually look exactly the same. We cannot rest until Gmail is one trillion videos of people pointing at screenshots of emails https://twitter.com/...
@gamoid Matt Weinberger on x
Ball is now in Apple's court. You don't get many chances like this to win a major victory over a rival by doing absolutely nothing. https://twitter.com/...
@spiritnght2 Dylan on x
sounds like one more stupid rich asshole with a bad idea https://twitter.com/...
@zacbowden Zac Bowden on x
Bring back Groove Music https://twitter.com/...
@chaykak Kyle Chayka on x
“Spotify has been on a seemingly relentless quest to nudge people toward content that's more differentiated and more profitable, which often meant making it harder to listen to music.” https://www.theverge.com/...
@benedicttown Benedict Townsend on x
I've said it before but the fruitless quest for exponential growth at any cost ruins every company eventually. They can't just succeed they have to succeed MORE, EVERY year FOREVER https://twitter.com/...
@krazyfrog @krazyfrog on x
Let me get this straight. Your company is bleeding money while your competitors grow. Your long term subscribers are losing patience as you hard pivot from music to shoving podcasts down their throats, and your plan is to piss them off further? https://twitter.com/... https://twi…
@christinatasty Christina Tasty on x
How do Spotify not know that they're a music player https://twitter.com/...
@asagikurosagi @asagikurosagi on x
just installed sporify on my watch instead https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@dada_drummer Damon K on x
Today, Spotify announced more payola and no more pay than before ($0.0030 a stream). It will also now look more like TikTok - meaning without bribing them for placement in the algorithm's vertical feed, artists will have even less of a chance of making this platform work for them
@kdc @kdc on x
everything going picture and video focused SUCKS for me as a blurry-visioned person. i wish someone working at these places would understand there are plenty of us who are actively turned off by this https://twitter.com/...
@popbase @popbase on x
The new Spotify design includes full-screen images and videos in the homescreen. https://twitter.com/...
@mehedih_ Mehedi on x
Spotify used to be one of my favourite apps but their obsession with becoming anything but a music player has been so sad to see as someone who just wants to listen to music on the platform https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@mcwm Mike Murphy on x
I hate that every app thinks it needs to be TikTok now https://techcrunch.com/...
@sdw Sebastiaan de With on x
Watching the Spotify event. Hope: A redesign that finally shows your time and battery status when playing music Reality: A TikTok style feed of videos. in a music streaming app. without your time or battery status showing https://twitter.com/...
@popcrave @popcrave on x
Spotify reveals a more in-depth look at their new interface. #SpotifyStreamOn. https://twitter.com/...
@lucas_shaw Lucas Shaw on x
Spotify has spent years talking about the huge opportunity in audio while simultaneously trying (and mostly failing) to break into video. https://twitter.com/...
@gavinbwilde Gavin Wilde on x
I believe @doctorow calls this the “enshittification” of apps... https://www.theverge.com/...
@broderick Ryan Broderick on x
It's wild watching tech companies tear their user interfaces and business models apart trying to compete with TIkTok because they can't do the one thing that makes TikTok work which is the AI that powers it. https://twitter.com/...
@popcrave @popcrave on x
Spotify introduces “previews,” as you scroll down you will get video and audio previews of recommendations. #SpotifyStreamOn https://twitter.com/...
@pkafka Peter Kafka on x
@Lucas_Shaw 💯 understand why they want me to stare at my phone when I'm using Spotify. Problem (for them) is I have zero interest in that.
@saeeddicaprio @saeeddicaprio on x
the tiktokification of every app needs to stop I'm begging https://twitter.com/...
@anshelsag Anshel Sag on x
I'm tired of every app trying to be whatever is the most popular social app at that time. It's popular because it's not what you have and turning yourself into that app won't suddenly get people to ditch that app for your copy cat https://twitter.com/...
@joelongballs @joelongballs on x
There's a guy out there who's still enjoying his playlist of YouTube to mp3 converts where you can hear sound effects from the music video in them, and for him, every day is beautiful https://twitter.com/...
@ow Owen Williams on x
spotify already ruined its app with the overly aggressive push into podcasting and now it's going to make it worse by pivoting to video? pls stop https://twitter.com/...
@eldsjal Daniel Ek on x
Spotify has always been built to prioritize discovery, but with this new UX, we're taking it to another level - bringing creators closer to their fans, helping them more deeply engage and monetize their art. https://newsroom.spotify.com/ ...
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
Spotify's head of product @GustavS says the company is not optimizing for time spent with this new feed, but instead content you save to listen to later: “Our goal is not to steal time. It's to help users save time.” Seems antithetical to an endless feed design though?
@kerrymflynn Kerry Flynn on x
Yesterday Reddit added a “TikTok style feature” aka a separate video feed: https://techcrunch.com/... Today it's Spotify's turn. We can't escape... except on here... for now... https://twitter.com/...
@parkerortolani Parker Ortolani on x
It's all over the place. But it's interesting. Curious to see how this goes for them. Not sure people want *more* feeds. https://twitter.com/...
@hayatohuseman Hayato Huseman on x
Increasingly glad I switched to Apple Music 😬 https://twitter.com/...
@tomwarren Tom Warren on x
this is Spotify's new homescreen. It's like a mix of TikTok and Instagram with vertical scrolling for albums, video podcasts, and more. What do you think? https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@ashleyrcarman Ashley Carman on x
also BIG news: patreon and spotify are partnering, so patreon subscribers can listen to episodes on spotify. (another major pain point for listeners and one that gave apple podcasts a leg up on spotify bc they could listen there)
@ogrover Owen Grover on x
I had several conversations when I was at @PocketCasts with the Patreon team about better B2C integrations into our app for podcast patrons. They never prioritized the necessary API work. Glad to see they've finally seen the light, although not crazy about $SPOT as beneficiary...…
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
@ashleyrcarman thank god, this was literally why i still use apple pods
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
this took way too long to happen but im glad it did because the lack of integration made me use Spotify for music and apple for the few pods that I pay for on Patreon https://twitter.com/...

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