Spotify Newsletter #284

Your Weekly Dose of Spotify News

★ SPOTlight

⭐️ Spotify Launches Music Videos For Subscribers In U.S. And Canada

Premium subscribers can open Spotify on TV, desktop, iOS, and Android devices, select a supported track, and tap “Switch to video.” The music video will start playing right where the song left off. To return to background listening, users press “Switch to audio.”

⭐️ Spotify tests more personalized, AI-powered 'Prompted Playlists'

Spotify announced on Wednesday that, for the first time, it’s giving users more control over the streaming service’s algorithm. That’s at least how the company is framing the launch of its new “Promoted Playlists,” a feature that will initially be available to Premium subscribers in New Zealand.

⭐️ The marketing genius of Spotify Wrapped

Spotify Wrapped works because it nails the balance between competing needs: the desire to belong and the desire to stand out.

⭐️ Spotify Wrapped 2025: a design inspired by mixtapes and CDs

After facing critique last year for an ‘AI slop’ aesthetic, this year’s Wrapped took inspiration from physical media like mixtapes, CDs, and scrapbooks.

⭐️ Spotify Wrapped 2025 was biggest ever with 200 million engaged users

Spotify has reported that its 2025 Wrapped launch was its biggest ever with 200 million users engaging within the first 24 hours.

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🗣 Podcasts

• The Year in Podcasting: From Award Shows Uncensored to the Louvre Heist, Here’s What Shaped Culture

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▶️ Playlists

• Celebrate Taylor Swift’s Record-Breaking Year and New Docuseries with Exclusive Playlist Cover Art Stickers

• How to Get Your Music on Spotify

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🎧 Streams

• Spotify and The Game Awards Debut Gaming-Inspired Spotify Singles From Labrinth, Evanescence x GUNSHIP, and Bilmuri

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🖌 Design

• Spotify Integration for Algoriddim's Djay App Expands to iOS and iPadOS

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🤖 AI

• Spotify to let users ‘steer the algorithm’ by personalizing playlists with AI prompts

• Spotify Removes Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard AI Copycat

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💡 Tips

• Stranger Things hidden details on Spotify that you definitely missed

• 5 missing Spotify features I want that would make it way better

• You can use ChatGPT to build a personalized Spotify playlist now

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💻 Tech

• Shuffle: Making Random Feel More Human

• Background Coding Agents: Predictable Results Through Strong Feedback Loops

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📢 Marketing

• How Our 2025 Wrapped Campaign Turns Your Year in Listening Into a Global Celebration

• Why Spotify Wrapped goes viral every year

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🔥 News

• Spotify Enters Partnership To Boost Revenue For Music Creators

• Spotify Wrapped’s New “Listening Age” Feature Did Not Need to Read Us Quite So Hard

• Spotify Spins ‘Tunetorials,’ Turns Media-Buying Tips Into Catchy Pop Songs

• How Roxette got dressed for success... on TikTok and Spotify

• Will Spotify Be the Next Great Dating App?

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🎵 New Adventures

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Raul Malo, frontman of The Mavericks, dies at 60

Raul Malo, whose rich voice was the defining train of the Mavericks, the fittingly named group who brought Latin flavor and lively rock vibe to country music in the 1990s, died on Monday, the band announced on social media. No cause of death was cited, but he announced back in June that he was battling Stage 4 colon cancer; he was 60.

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🎵 Have a Spotify playlist you’d like spotlighted? Let’s talk. Email: jeff.spotifynewsletter@gmail.com

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📧 If you have a question, or request for advertising info, please email jeff.spotifynewsletter@gmail.com.

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