My friend (and 9 Clouds’ resident tech wizard), Allen Day, has taught me a lot about getting the most out of the Internet.
Recently, I asked him about some lesser-known Spotify features. Here are some things Allen said you should definitely be aware of while you listen.
My Top 8 Spotify Hacks (by Allen Day)
1. Collaborative Playlists
I started using Spotify for shared playlists while getting to know my now-wife. We later used one for our wedding.
Make sure: You're logged in to the same account on both your desktop and mobile; Your devices are connected to the same WiFi network; The app is up-to-date on both devices; Your device is up-to-date; The Spotify app has access to your local network. Check in your iPhone/iPad settings under Spotify.
Collaborative playlists are a great way to mark an occasion. At 9 Clouds, when Catherine was concerned she listened to too much Maroon 5, the team rallied together and built her a playlist.
How to Do It
Want to collaborate on a playlist?
Just right-click on the playlist, and choose Collaborative Playlist. Then, share it with your future collaborators.
Check out the playlist we made for this blog post »
2. Organizing Your Playlists with Folders
If you’ve been using Spotify for a while, you’ve probably accumulated quite a few playlists.
Did you know you can organize them into folders?
I didn’t, either . . . until I grabbed my wife’s phone to change up the music on a road trip and saw how organized her lists were compared to my mess.
Mind. Blown.
You can make as many folders as you want to organize your playlists so they make sense for you. Break them down by theme or genre — make a collection of playlists for the gym, driving, you name it.
How to Do It
Just right-click on a playlist, and select Create Folder. Once you’ve created your folders, you can drag playlists into them.
Note: You cannot create or organize folders on your phone; you’ll have to use the desktop app. Once they’re set up, though, you can still see and use them on your phone.
3. Customizing Playlists with Your Own Album Art
You’ve put a lot of listening time into your favorite playlists.
Whether you want to keep them private or share them with the world, those playlists deserve to look great and stand out in your Spotify app.
The ability to update cover art and playlist descriptions used to be limited to featured partners, but now it’s available for all playlists — public or private.
How to Do It![]()
Open your playlist in the desktop app. Click on the cover art to upload your own photo, or click on the description to write a new one.
Check out 9 Clouds’ car song playlist »
4. “Daily Mix” Playlists
Not sure what to listen to? Check out your “Daily Mix” playlists.
“Daily Mix” is a series of playlists with nearly endless playback that combines your favorite tracks with new songs Spotify thinks you’ll love — minus the effort that goes into creating the perfect listening session.
Spotify creates up to six playlists for you based on your own listening history. Each playlist is differentiated by a unique color and generally spans a single genre or theme.
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When you’re playing one of your daily mixes, a couple new icons will appear in your player. You can ❤️ your favorite songs to add them to your Liked Songs.
5. Yearly Reflection: “Your 2019 Wrapped”
Each year, Spotify marks the holidays with a recap of what you listened to that year. For 2019, Spotify has released “Your 2019 Wrapped.”
Sign in to see your most-listened-to songs, albums, and artists in 2019.
Here at 9 Clouds, we love to compare stories and screenshots of our own “Years Wrapped.” Here’s mine from way back in 2017 (I listened to a lot of Alphaville — but in my defense, they released a new album for the first time in years, and I got to see them in concert after a 20-year wait):
6. Podcasts
The podcast industry has never been bigger. Podcasts have gone mainstream . . . which means Spotify is not just a music player anymore.
Spotify free streams quality. For years, I’ve tried recommending podcasts to friends and acquaintances. Too often, the response is that the podcast sounds interesting, but they don’t know how to use podcasts.
Now, I can just point people to Spotify. While it’s not my podcast app of choice, I am extremely excited to see Spotify offering them as a gateway to podcasts.
Don’t miss any new stuff — subscribe for updates! »
7. “Discover Weekly” and “Release Radar”
Spotify has a couple of weekly playlists custom-tailored just for you.
Every Monday, the first thing I listen to is my “Discover Weekly” playlist. This playlist is a mix of familiar tunes from your own playlists, plus new music Spotify thinks you’ll like. “Discover Weekly” tends to be pretty hit-or-miss, but it hits enough that I keep coming back.
The other weekly playlist I look forward to is the “Release Radar.” Similar to “Discover Weekly,” this playlist is based on your listening history. It features the newest releases by artists you listen to or follow.
If you haven’t already, search Spotify for “Release Radar” and “Discover Weekly.” Once you find yours, click the Follow button to add them to your playlists for easy access. They update every Monday and Friday, respectively.
8. Creeping on Your Friends
Want to see what your friends or coworkers are listening to?
Check out the Friend Activity panel in Spotify on your Mac or PC desktop. (Don’t see it? Turn on the right sidebar under the View menu.)
Of course, this goes both ways — your friends can see what you’re listening to, as well.
If you don’t like the idea of broadcasting your listening preferences to your friends, you can disable it in the Spotify settings. Toggle on Private Session to temporarily hide what you’re listening to, or disable Share my listening activity on Spotify to turn off your public activity for good.
Plays Count Doesn't Work On Spotify AppsBonus: What Does Spotify Suck At?
Sure, we’re biased — we know a thing or two about superb targeting online.
https://browncure394.weebly.com/spotify-web-download-music.html. Still, despite its awesome data, Spotify’s ad targeting could use a lot of work.
Only Spotify would advertise Chick-fil-A to me in a town hundreds of miles from the nearest restaurant — and always while I’m running. It should totally know I’m running because of data . . . and my playlist with the word Running in the title. C’mon, guys.
Learn more about online targeting »
…Okay, It’s Matt Again Now
Thanks, Allen!
Before we put this post together, I didn’t know a thing about the “Release Radar,” and there are a few more features in here I definitely have to check out.
If you want hacks for more than just Spotify, 9 Clouds is always learning about new things and then passing that knowledge along. To get articles about marketing and playing better online, subscribe for our blog’s email updates.
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Google’s this year’s I/O developer conference unveiled new look and feel for the company’s smartphone-powered in-car interface Android Auto (AA). The revamped version of Android Auto is expected to land on all compatible cars sometime later this summer.
The key highlights of the refreshed design are the new navigation bar (that’ll display turn-by-turn directions and let users control their apps just with one tap), the Dark Theme that comes along with new fonts and colorful accents, and an improved notification center with more available actions.
Android Auto – new navigation bar and notification center
Looks good right?
But while the company is busy enriching the service to offer users a level up experience, some of the existing functionalities have lately been acting glitchy as we’ve reported in our earlier coverages.
For a quick refresher, just last week we brought to focus an Android Auto issue where while launching Google Maps on the car’s head unit, users get to see a blank white screen instead of maps. Though the head unit screen goes blank, driving instructions keep coming.
Apart from Google Maps blank screen, some users also complained of a white bar sitting at the top of the head unit screen that shifted the actual screen downwards because of which options on the lower side went missing (as can be seen in the following user shared image).
White bar on top of Android Auto display
Then yesterday, we pointed out another problem wherein a lot of Android Auto users have lately been facing connectivity issues. They say Android Auto just doesn’t launch on the car’s head unit when connected with phone over a USB cable, though the phone continues to charge.
In some cases, users got an error saying “Could not connect. Please check if the mobile device supports Android Auto” (as can be seen in the image below).
Coincidentally, all three problems – Google Maps white screen bug, white bar on top of display as well as the connectivity issues – reportedly instigated after Android Auto’s March update that bumped the version to 4.1.590944.
As if that wasn’t enough already, now we’ve caught sight of a different problem that also reportedly got triggered after the same update. Quite a bugful update if I may say so.
Anyway, coming to the latest issue, users report Google Play Music suddenly stops playing music after playing the song for about 5-10 seconds. Soon after the track stops, the head unit throws a notification stating “Google Play Music doesn’t seem to be working right now.”
Android Auto error while playing music through Google Play Music
Here’s how some affected users word the problem behavior:
When I use Android Auto (with my 2019 Subaru Crosstrek) and say “ok google, play pink”, it will start to play for about 5 seconds and then it just stops/pauses. This is a new behavior, just noticed it within the last month.
EXACTLY the same. Will play 5 seconds (or so) of the song and then just stop. Get the same error message. “Google play music doesn’t seem to be working right now.”
I have the same issue. After selecting a playlist in Google Play Music, the song plays for 5 to 10 seconds and then stops.
Just before you think this issue might have to do with Google Play Music instead of AA, let me tell you that other music apps like iHeartRadio and Spotify also behave in the similar manner and throw an error saying “app name” doesn’t seem to be working right now, after playing music for some seconds.
Following are some user shared images of the notification they encounter while using other apps:
Android Auto error with media playing on Spotify
Apart from thecompany’sofficialhelpforum, reports can be seen posted across online discussion platform Redditas well.
Apparently, it’s an issue with Android Auto while using music apps. It’s worth mentioning that majority users who face the issue either have a Samsung device (like Galaxy S8/S9/S10/S10+/S10e) or OnePlus unit (such as OnePlus 3 or 5T).
Additionally, users running the app’s later version i.e. the April patch (4.2.591444) also encounter the same problem. One of the complainants even confirmed that the Android Auto app without even connecting to car’s head unit also replicates the same behavior. Here’s what they said:
Even without connecting to the Android Auto in the Car, we can verify by opening the Android Auto app from mobile and click on music and it will through the Following error :
Spotify doesn’t seem to be working at the moment Spotify Doesn't Play Full Playlist
While reports continue proliferating, users have shared a couple ofworkarounds (device specific) that appear to help.
Just in case you’ve been facing the music-related issue discussed here, give these workarounds a try and see if that helps. And yes, don’t forget to let us know how it goes by dropping a comment below.
Plays Count Doesn't Work On Spotify App Subscription
P.S. For more bugs/issues, news and stories related to Android Auto, you may head here.
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