Spotify Newsletter #255

Your Weekly Dose of Spotify News

May 14, 2025

⭐️ Spotify's AI DJ now takes song requests

Spotify’s DJ is getting more interactive with the ability to serve up songs based on genre, mood, and vibe.

⭐️ Backstage access: Spotify’s dev tools side-hustle is growing legs

Spotify generates the vast bulk of its income from ads and subscriptions, but for the past few years the music-streaming giant has also been quietly building out a developer tooling business. Backstage, a project it open sourced in 2020, has been adopted by more than 2 million developers across 3,400 organizations, including Airbnb, LinkedIn, Twilio, and American Airlines.

⭐️ Spotify's latest update gives users more control over their listening experience

The changes help to balance out an app that often leans heavily on algorithmic recommendations to suggest and play music and instead give users the power to shape what’s played, when, and how often.

⭐️ Spotify’s iPhone app now lets you pay how you want

The update, rolling out now, allows Spotify to advertise cheaper prices to US users outside the app.

⭐️ Spotify’s new ‘snooze’ button will let you blacklist unwanted songs for a month

While Spotify's music algorithm is one of the things that's kept me with the music streaming service for over a decade, it also has infuriating blind spots, like continually recommending the same song across automated playlists like Discover Weekly or Smart Shuffle.