Spotify has lengthy been a platform that evolves extra shortly than our private music tastes would possibly. It has up to date its iconic year-end Wrapped promotion and added an AI DJ up to now few months alone. But this week, the streaming large introduced what its CEO, Daniel Ek, referred to as the most important change to the platform in a decade: a redesign to make the app that began as a spot for music one which prominently options video.

At first look, it seems like one other try by a social app to cannibalize its rivals in the way in which that Instagram has mimicked Snapchat after which TikTok for its personal good points. Spotify now has totally different feeds for locating songs, podcasts, and audiobooks, sporting a glance that’s half TikTok’s countless scroll and half Instagram tales. They present video paired with music or podcasts and likewise pattern audio content material. Some have dwell captions that catch the attention as they float alongside the display screen, and audiobook previews could final so long as 5 minutes.

Although Spotify could look and sound extra like TikTok now, it possible has totally different intentions. Instead of funneling an countless stream of content material onto customers’ telephones, it’s constructed with the aim of permitting them to preview new content material they are going to wish to save—or at the least sit with for longer. According to Spotify’s announcement, it has knowledge exhibiting that listeners “become committed fans” after previewing content material. Videos have beforehand accompanied songs and podcasts on the service, however this redesign places them in entrance of customers quicker, together with snappy audio clips.

“An audio service needs to get people engaged with audio straight away,” says Simon Dyson, music and digital audio analyst at Omdia. “If they can get something to play audio instantly, then you’re instantly taken by it. If [Spotify] got its algorithm right, you will be engaged instantly.”

Spotify’s playlists have lengthy been curated for music discovery, however this new transfer makes that extra quick; scroll by way of the music feed and you’ll hear samples of songs. Perhaps which means much less skipping by way of shuffled playlists. A transfer like this will likely assist Spotify stand out within the audio streaming trade, Dyson says. And it comes as streaming progress is altering. 

The market has reached a degree of saturation, and Spotify has seen its market share slowly shrink, though it stays the preferred service. Still, it added 33 million month-to-month energetic customers within the final months of 2022 and noticed its income develop 18 p.c 12 months over 12 months, with podcasts main its advert income good points. 

Spotify has tried to face out by investing lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} on podcasts, together with a deal with Joe Rogan reportedly value greater than $200 million. The firm expects podcasts to have a higher profit margin than music. So designing the app in a manner that may direct extra individuals to them appears an inevitable shift. But Spotify canceled a number of unique exhibits in late 2022 after making formidable investments in corporations like Gimlet and Parcast.