Spotify

The Spotify Kids iOS and Android app has now launched in the US after its debut in Ireland and gradual rollout to selected other countries.

This is a standalone app, but linked to a Spotify Premium Family account. The idea is that kids get a protected environment, and parents don’t have their own music recommendations influenced by stuff their kids listen to …

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Over the years, I’ve dabbled with using Spotify instead of Apple Music. Both platforms offer users access to millions of songs and offer a wealth of personalization options. The one thing that has always kept me coming back and sticking with Apple Music is iCloud Music Library. iCloud Music Library is a feature that allows you to upload your own music and have it live right alongside your Apple Music content. It’s a feature that I use frequently, and it’s something Spotify can’t match
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Spotify subscribers rose 29% year-on-year during the final quarter of 2019, reports the company. It now has 124M premium members, compared to Apple Music’s last reported number of 60M.

Spotify expects to be somewhere in the 126M to 131M range by the end of the current quarter. While price promotions have played a role, podcasts are also an increasingly important factor…

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The decade has come and gone, and if there is one thing that was a massive change for me over the past decade, it was how much time I spent listening to podcasts. I change podcast apps like I change my socks. I subscribe to new shows like other people read magazine articles. As we close out the decade, I wanted to take a look at my favorite shows from 2010 to now. During that time, I’ve seen my friends start new shows, friends start new companies, and have seen major media companies open their eyes to the opportunities that exist in the space. If I don’t list links to subscribe, it means the show is retired.

So let’s get to it. Here are my favorite shows from the 2010s. I’ve left out all 9to5 shows on purpose, but I highly recommend our entire network. My list is mostly tech/Apple focused, but I’d love to hear your favorite shows in the comments.
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Spotify appears to be replicating Apple Music’s ‘Friends are listening to’ feature under the label Spotify Tastebuds.

Now you can discover music through friends whose taste you trust…

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As 2019 comes to a close, Apple Music and Spotify have both debuted year in review tools for subscribers. Spotify Wrapped and Apple Music Replay are available now, and allow you to view your most listened to songs, artists, albums, and more. Here’s how it works.

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Spotify has launched Your Daily Podcast, a playlist of shows it thinks you’ll enjoy. These include surfacing shows you already follow, as well as others algorithmically recommended on the basis of your listening history.

The company says the feature has been positively received in testing, and it is now rolling out to nine countries…

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Apple Music and Spotify are set to face new competition from Chinese company, ByteDance – owner of TikTok, an app for sharing short video clips.

According to a report today, ByteDance aims to agree global deals with music labels, and to undercut existing streaming music services …

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Spotify has been working with podcasts for a number of years now, and they have been investing more and more in this area that Apple used to dominate. Spotify has spent millions of dollars to acquire original content and also improve their platform for users and creators.

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Spotify has reported a surprise return to profit, only the second quarter in which it has made one during its 13-year history. The news saw the stock jump 7% in pre-market trading.

Spotify revealed that it now has 113M paid subscribers, up five million during Q3. Including free members on its ad-supported tier, it has 248M monthly active users. The company cited one particular factor at play and says that it expects even better things ahead…

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As Apple Music, Amazon Music and others provide greater competition in the streaming music business, Spotify is ‘one fail away from becoming less relevant.’ The statement was made by a music industry exec close to the company…

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A few months ago, I wrote about The Athletic, and I thought it would make a great acquisition target for Apple. When I originally wrote that article, I mentioned that the Athletic had recently launched a podcast section, but they were only available inside of their app and not dedicated podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or Pocket Casts. In recent weeks, they’ve reversed that stance and started submitting their shows to Apple Podcasts and Spotify, but only including some of the episodes as a free download.
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Spotify is currently beta testing integration with the new SiriKit audio APIs introduced in iOS 13. As demonstrated by The Verge’s Tom Warren, the current Spotify beta build lets you ask Siri to play music on Spotify.

This OS-level support has not been possible until iOS 13, a point which Spotify previously brought up to the European Union. It’s nice to see that Spotify is moving relatively quickly to adopt the new functionality.

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Spotify has attempted to curb abuse of its family plan in the past, and faced backlash for doing so. Now, Spotify is renewing its efforts to prevent abuse of its family plan by requiring that users occasionally provide access to their location data.

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