Spotify appears to be taking lessons from TikTok and Instagram. The international streaming platform, which used to be heavily reliant on its audio expertise and playlist recommendations, has showcased a completely revamped look at its Stream On event recently. As a part of its new design, Spotify will now go heavy on imagery and vertical scrolling, sort of like Instagram stories but with album covers. 

The obvious intention here is to push users towards Spotidy originals, in which the company has invested heavily in the last few years. This bid to make Spotify more than a music app was highlighted by CEO Daniel Ek’s comment to The Verge in 2021, where he revealed that he hopes to have more than 50 million “audio creators” on the platform. 

The new design seems to have already been implemented, with users seeing playlists and album recommendations on the top, while a video podcast auto-plays underneath it. In hindsight, this does allow the original content (podcasts, live shows, etc) to co-exist with its music library. 

Additionally, if you notice the top-half part of the app, you’ll see the option to choose between “music” or “podcasts and shows”, clicking on either of them will lead you to a vertically scrolling feed, reminiscent of TikTok or Instagram. 

There’s also now the new personalized AI, with the Smart Shuffle feature, which helps in temporarily adding tracks to your existing playlist based on your listening choices. This is supposed to be a refined version of the app’s  “just for you playlist” idea. Ever since the re-design was pushed out, there’s been a lot of debate on where Spotify’s future is headed. Here’s what some of the existing users had to say.