Spotify is the most popular music service in the world. A program on the PC or app on your mobile device gives you access to millions of songs in one fell swoop. This Swedish music service has all kinds of clever things that you may not know yet. We therefore give away sixteen useful tips.
Tip 01: Listen anonymously
On Spotify, other users can see what music you listen to, such as friends, family and possibly even strangers. Would you rather not? No problem, because you can use the music service (temporarily) anonymously just as easily. For example, you can secretly listen to old-fashioned hits from yesteryear. In the PC program at the top next to your profile name, click the down arrow and choose Private session. A blue lock will now appear in the profile picture. In the mobile app, tap the Home section or Library on the gear. Navigate to Social and activate the rear switch Private session.
Tip 02: Sound quality
When using Spotify Premium, you benefit from higher sound quality. This feature may not yet be enabled. Click on the arrow at the top of the PC program and go to Institutions. At the part Sound quality activate the option High quality streaming (Premium only). In the mobile app you first open the settings via the cogwheel, after which you Sound quality taps Very high. In this menu also indicate in which quality you want to save downloaded songs.
Spotify Premium
Spotify is free to use for everyone, but it comes with all kinds of limitations. For example, spoken advertising comes along every now and then and you cannot save songs offline. For that reason, many music lovers subscribe to Spotify Premium. Although that costs 9.99 euros per month, you will not be bothered by advertisements. Moreover, you play the songs in a higher quality. You can also use Spotify Premium on other suitable playback equipment, such as modern receivers, smart TVs and wireless speakers. You can try Spotify Premium free of charge for thirty days. Curious? Surf to www.spotify.com/nl/premium and take out a trial subscription. You can also register with a Facebook account.
Tip 03: Web application
You normally always use Spotify with a program on the PC or mobile app. Alternatively, you can also access the music service via a web application, so you don't have to install anything. This is useful, for example, on public computers in libraries and Internet cafes. Open a browser and surf there. Fill via login enter your account information. You can then access your playlists and favorite artists in the web interface. You can also see which albums you have recently played.
Tip 04: Playlist Folder
In Spotify you will find all kinds of playlists that you can follow, for example the best fifty songs in the Netherlands or the most popular rock songs from the 90s. You can also easily create your own playlists. They appear on the PC in the left pane, one below the other. Especially when you follow a lot of playlists or have created them yourself, it quickly looks very messy. So use playlist folders to organize things. Click on the icon with the three dots in the top left and go to File / New Playlist Folder. Give this folder a logical name and press Enter. You add playlists to this new location by dragging them to the newly created folder.
Tip 05: Barcode
You can of course share a playlist with someone by forwarding a link via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or email. In addition, there is an alternative sharing method, which is the generation of a unique barcode. As soon as someone scans your barcode with the mobile camera, they also have access to the playlist. This trick is especially useful when you are camping in the same room with a friend and want to exchange music directly. In the Spotify app, open a playlist and tap the three-dot icon. A barcode appears in a colored block below the playlist. This code looks more or less like a sound wave. Your friend then also opens the Spotify app on a mobile. Through To search and the camera icon next to the search bar it is possible to scan the barcode.
Create a unique barcode and share music directly with friendsTip 06: Experimental
The Spotify team is constantly working on new features. Some components are not yet available to the general public, but you can already try them out. You may still encounter some errors. Click on the arrow at the top of the PC program and choose Experimental Features. Depending on which functions you are currently trying out, an overview of available components will appear. For example, at the time of writing, a detailed explanation of classical compositions is available. Activate the switch whenever you want to activate an experimental function.
Tip 07: Data Saver
If you like to listen to music on the go, Spotify will of course charge your mobile data bundle. One solution is to pre-download favorite songs and playlists over a Wi-Fi connection. By the way, this feature only works for Spotify Premium subscribers. Alternatively, you can also enable the new Data Saver feature to reduce mobile data usage. This reduces mobile data usage by about 75 percent. Keep in mind that this feature comes at the expense of audio quality. In the mobile app, open the settings via the gear and go to Data Saver. Finally, turn on the switch.
Tip 08: Download location
Just like with the mobile app, Spotify's program also allows you to save songs offline. This is useful, for example, if you want to enjoy music with a laptop in places without an internet connection. On a Windows machine, Spotify saves music files to the C drive by default, but you can easily designate a different location if necessary. Click on the arrow at the top and go to Institutions. Scroll down a bit and click at the bottom Show advanced settings. If you're at Storage Offline Numbers clicks Change location, set a different folder to your liking. Restart Spotify for the change to take effect.
Tip 09: Own files (1)
Do you compose music yourself and do you want to listen to these audio files via the Spotify program? Or do you have music that can't be found in Spotify's libraries? No problem, because you can easily add local audio files to the program. A requirement is that the songs are provided in an MP3 format. Go to on the left Local Files / Go to Preferences and click on A source add. After you select the correct folder, the songs will be available within Spotify. Click again Local files to request the numbers.
Tip 10: Own files (2)
You can also play the local audio files from the previous tip on a smartphone or tablet via a detour. In the program on the computer, open the item Local files. Select the desired songs and right click on the selection. Use the shortcut Ctrl+A to select all files if desired. You then choose in the context menu for Add to playlist, then add the songs to a new or existing playlist. Now open the mobile app. It is important that the device is connected to the same (wireless) network as your PC. Navigate to Library / Playlists to open the playlist of local audio files. Sometimes it takes a while for the numbers to appear. Finally, activate the rear switch To download.
Tip 11: Playlist cleared
Do you regret deleting a playlist? Don't worry, Spotify automatically saves a backup of every created playlist. Open a browser and surf there. After you are logged in, choose on the left for Restore playlists. Click on the appropriate title To recover and the playlist is available again within Spotify as usual.
You can always restore a deleted playlist at a later time soundiiz
If you've used another online music service before, you may want to transfer these playlists to Spotify. The English-language Soundiiz comes in handy for this. With this free web service you can copy playlists from Tidal, Deezer, Apple Music, Napster, YouTube and SoundCloud to Spotify, among others. The intention is that you log in to the relevant music services via Soundiiz. All available playlists appear on the screen, after which you can exchange them between the registered music services. Check the boxes for the correct titles and click on the icon at the top Convert. Then, after a few steps, you designate Spotify as the target location.
Tip 12: Privacy Options
Well-known web services have a knack for collecting as much user data as possible. They use this information, among other things, to serve personalized advertisements. Spotify does that too. Fortunately, you can easily stop that by changing the privacy settings. Open this webpage and log in with your account details. If your Facebook profile is linked to Spotify, the music service stores information from the online face book for various purposes. Deactivate the switches for Process my Facebook data and Process my personal data for tailor-made advertisements. Confirm twice with Yes – Disable. Then open the Spotify program settings on your PC. Click at the bottom Show advanced settings turn on the switch at the bottom Privacy at. Then restart the software. This prevents Spotify from requesting internet data via stored cookies.
Tip 13: Compose together
You can easily create joint playlists in Spotify. Friends then add extra songs on their own initiative and change the order. This function is useful, for example, when you want to create a playlist for a party with other people. Open Spotify on the computer and right click on a custom playlist. Then choose Joint Playlist. This function also works on a smartphone or tablet. For a playlist, tap the icon with the three dots and choose make it together.
Tip 14: Artist radio
If you like a certain band or singer, you can easily search for music from related artists within Spotify. Who knows, maybe you'll discover nice music that you haven't heard before. In the PC program or mobile app, open an artist page. Then choose the icon with the three dots. Within the PC program, click Go to Artist Radio, while in the mobile app you have the option To radio taps. Spotify presents you with a playlist of songs by related musicians. Choose Play or Play radio to listen to the songs. Through To follow save this artist radio if necessary. From the main menu, tap channels or radio stations to call up an overview of saved artist radios.
Discover new music from related musicians with the artist radio featureThumbs up/down
While listening to an artist radio, you can easily help Spotify select good music. Click the thumbs up if you like the current song. If you click on the thumbs down, Spotify will switch to the next song. In this way, Spotify adjusts the radio station based on your taste.
Tip 15: Audio normalization
Especially if you listen to a playlist with music from different albums and artists, you may experience differences in the volume level. It is of course difficult when you have to constantly correct that manually. For that reason, Spotify sets the same volume for all songs. In the PC program, open the settings and activate at the section Sound quality the switch at the back Normalize volume. In the mobile app, you can also open the settings via the cogwheel. Navigate to Play and set the function Enable audio normalization at. You also determine the volume level of the audio normalization. Choose between Hard, Normal and Soft.
Tip 16: Other devices
Spotify Premium subscribers can easily share music with other suitable playback devices in your home. Think, for example, of a receiver, wireless speaker, smart TV, game console or Google Chromecast that is connected to your (wireless) home network. Curious on which devices you can play Spotify? First turn on the equipment on which you want to listen to the songs. Then open Spotify on your computer and click Available devices. This is the monitor and speaker icon. When using the mobile app, open the playback view and choose Devices available. Select the appropriate device to start the music playback. You can now use your PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone as a remote control. You can easily check whether your playback device supports Spotify Premium via the website www.spotifygear.com. A number of devices also work with the free version of Spotify, such as Google Chromecast, Nvidia Shield, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and smart TVs from Samsung, Sony and Philips.
