Архив рубрики: Apps

Spotify is testing new card-style user profiles focused on discovery

At Spotify’s Stream On event this month, the company introduced a redesigned app with TikTok-like discovery feeds, an AI DJ and other tools for artists and podcasters. But the app’s changes may not be stopping there. The company confirmed it’s now testing a revamp of its user profiles, which includes a card-style layout that lets users establish more of a social identity on the platform in addition to providing easy access to Spotify’s unique features — like its personalized recommendations, Blend playlists, co-listening experiences and more.
The changes were first spotted by Chris Messina, who shared screenshots of the tests on Twitter. He noted the additional cards on profiles and how the new layout was directing users to tap a button to “discover more features.”
Some Spotify users, however, said they’ve had the updated profiles for some time. But that’s only because the feature has been in live testing in multiple markets. These profiles are not fully rolled out to all users.

This is big! Spotify is previewing a new profile design!
It appears that more profile cards will be coming soon.
It recommends discovering «more features» to «get the most of your listening experience».#NewSpotify pic.twitter.com/Qcctw3PJU7
— Chris Messina (chrismessina@mastodon.xyz) (@chrismessina) March 28, 2023

Spotify did not commit it would make the feature available for everyone at any particular time. Often, the company’s new ideas are tested in public, then modified based on user engagement and feedback before a global rollout. Or, in some cases, they’re scrapped entirely. That said, it’s not as likely that this one would be dropped, given how well it fits with the new Spotify redesign which puts greater emphasis on discovery.
“We routinely conduct a number of tests,” a company spokesperson told TechCrunch when asked about the new profiles. “Some of those tests end up informing our user experience and others serve only as an important learning. We don’t have anything further to share at this time,” they added.
Image Credits: Chris Messina via Twitter (opens in a new window)
Among the notable changes in this version of the user profiles is the new heading at the top of the screen that looks more like something you’d see on a social network. Currently, Spotify user profiles are fairly bare-bones. The person’s name as well as their follower and following counts are displayed above lists of their playlists and recently played artists. The new profiles, by comparison, include other details about the person like which Spotify plan they’re subscribed to, how long they’ve been a Spotify member, their general location (like the U.S.), in addition to their follower and following counts, a button that lets you follow them and another for profile edits.
There’s also a fun feature that apparently lets you set a “vibe” above your name, to give your profile a little pizazz.
Image Credits: Chris Messina via Twitter (opens in a new window)
The new profiles still feature sections for your playlists and artists, but these now appear as cards and there are more interactive features available next to these options. For instance, you can now click a button to create a new playlist right from your profile, or use buttons beside each playlist to share them with others. Next to each artist’s name, there also are buttons that let you follow the artist on Spotify — before, you’d have to click into the artist profile to do so. This could be particularly useful if you had visited someone else’s profile and were discovering new artists through their activity.
Under the “Discover more features” section on the new profiles, users are pointed to other things they can do on Spotify — like find live events, “like” more songs to improve their recommendations, create Blends with friends, check out Spotify’s new audiobooks and more.
The profiles also include a message at the bottom that reads “View more cards,” which indicates there will be future additions coming to this space beyond the playlists and recently played artists. But this feature isn’t fully built out yet — Messina told us that, when clicked, the in-app message reads “there’s nothing to see here yet” and informs users that Spotify is “busy building more content for you — coming soon.”
(May we suggest incorporating podcast recommendations into this experience, please?)
These changes would make sense as part of Spotify’s broader focus on discovery that’s driving its most recent app updates. That is, instead of just showcasing a user’s basic information and activity, these redesigned profiles would allow people to explore more of what Spotify has to offer while also making it easier to find and enjoy new artists and music directly from someone else’s profile with fewer clicks.
Spotify is testing new card-style user profiles focused on discovery by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch
Spotify is testing new card-style user profiles focused on discovery

Comedian Hasan Minhaj returns as The Riddler in new Spotify podcast series

Among the wave of Spotify announcements coming out of today’s Spotify Stream On event, the company shared some exciting news with podcast listeners — in particular, Batman fans. Spotify is launching a new podcast series “The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark,” starring comedian-actor Hasan Minhaj as The Riddler.
As part of Spotify’s exclusive multiyear partnership with DC and Warner Bros, “The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark” will premiere later this year and will see Minhaj reprise his role as the supervillain. Minhaj starred in the 2022 Spotify podcast “Batman Unburied,” which starred Winston Duke as the Dark Knight. Batman/Bruce Wayne will also appear in the new podcast series along with Barbara Gordon and Alfred.
“The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark” is a scripted “Batman” spinoff series that follows an unexpected duo — The Riddler and Batman — as they bring down another villain tormenting the streets of Gotham City.
“Audiences are going to travel back to Gotham City with me in a story that leaves clues, puzzles and shines a spotlight on my personal favorite character, The Riddler,” Minhaj said in the announcement video.

“Batman Unburied” premiered on the audio streaming service in May 2022 and climbed its way up Spotify’s top podcast charts. At one point, it even took the crown from “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which was the No. 1 podcast globally on Spotify in 2022 despite its controversial host.
Plus, Spotify recently launched “Harley Quinn and The Joker: Sound Mind,” which was also a huge hit among fans, reaching the top of the charts in six markets, according to the company.
As Spotify bets on original programming to boost its overall podcast strategy, the DC podcasts are certainly a smart move being that podcasts with recognizable characters, especially from the Batman franchise, will likely perform well in this IP-driven world we live in.

Podcast series ‘Batman Unburied’ set to premiere on Spotify after ‘The Batman’ heads to HBO Max

Speaking of recognizable voices, Spotify also announced today an exclusive video partnership with Markiplier (Mark Fischbach), the popular YouTuber with 34.5 million subscribers and approximately over 19 billion views. The partnership allows for Markiplier to produce exclusive video episodes of “Distractible” and “Go! My Favorite Sports Team.”
“While we love the audio world and still aim to bring you the very best in auditory experiences, by bringing our faces into the mix, we aim to give you an as-yet-unseen dimension to your listening experience. Imagine if you could smell a movie, imagine if you could smell us . . . who knows what the future will bring?” Markiplier said in a hilarious and thought-provoking statement.
Now, instead of just listening to his voice, Spotify users will also get to watch videos of Markiplier alongside his content creator friends Wade Barnes and Bob Muysken.
Another podcast getting the video treatment is “Forbidden Fruits” with actresses Julia Fox and Niki Takesh, which will return for a second season on March 17. The new episodes will be released as an all-video podcast, reflecting the growing trend of video-led podcasting.
According to Spotify, there are over 70,000 video creators on the platform. In April 2022, Spotify expanded the ability for creators to publish video podcasts in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the U.K.
Separately, the company revealed that “The Comment Section” hosted by TikTok star Drew Afualo, would be moving exclusively to Spotify on April 5.
During today’s event, Spotify announced an array of new podcaster tools, such as a redesigned Podcasters dashboard that includes an Anchor integration and the launch of a new feature “Autoplay for Podcasts.” Plus, the company is teaming up with Patreon to allow users to listen to Patreon content on Spotify.

Spotify is revamping its podcaster tools, including Anchor, and is partnering with Patreon

Comedian Hasan Minhaj returns as The Riddler in new Spotify podcast series by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch
Comedian Hasan Minhaj returns as The Riddler in new Spotify podcast series

Google winds down feature that put playable podcasts directly in search results

Google confirmed it’s putting an end to a feature that allowed users to access playable podcasts directly from the Google Search results in favor of offering podcast recommendations. Officially launched in 2019, the feature surfaced podcasts when they matched a user’s query, including in those cases where a user specifically included the word “podcast” in their search terms. But a few weeks ago, some creators began noticing the podcast carousels had disappeared from Google Search results — and now the company is explaining why that’s the case.
The disappearance was first spotted by Podnews.net, which noted in January that searches for podcasts no longer returned any play buttons or links to Google Podcasts itself. When they tested the feature by searching for “history podcasts” they were only provided with a list of shows alongside links to podcast reviews, Apple Podcast pages and other places to stream.
At the time, Google simply told the site the feature was working “as intended.”
But a new announcement in Google Podcasts Manager indicates the feature is officially being shut down as of February 13.
“Google Search will stop showing podcast carousels by February 13. As a result, clicks and impressions in How people find your show will drop to zero after that date,” the message states. Podcasters are also being instructed to download any historical data they want to keep in advance of this final closure.
Of course, as many podcasters already discovered, their metrics had already declined as the feature was being wound down.
To be fair, playable podcasts in search wasn’t a remarkably well-executed product as it didn’t offer a way to do much more than click to play an episode. On YouTube’s Podcasts vertical, by comparison, podcast creators can create an index to the various parts of an episode, allowing users to jump directly to the section they wanted to hear. Plus, users can watch a video of the podcast, if the creator chooses to film.
YouTube has also proven to be more popular than Google Podcasts and other competitors. In a 2022 market survey of podcast listeners, for example, YouTube came out ahead of Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts as users’ preferred podcast platform. Though many podcast market analysis reports don’t consider YouTube when comparing the popularity of various podcast apps, one recent report by Buzzsprout at least suggests that using web browser as a listening app had a very small market share of just 3.5%. And that share had barely increased over the years, despite Google’s indexing of shows.
Reached for comment, Google explained its decision to wind down playable podcasts in Search will allow it to focus on a new addition instead.
“Our existing podcast features will gradually be replaced with a new, single feature, What to Podcast,” a spokesperson told us. They noted the feature is currently live on mobile for English users in the U.S. “This feature provides detailed information about podcasts, links to listen to shows on different platforms, and links to podcasters’ own websites, where available,” the spokesperson added.
According to the help documentation, these recommendations will be personalized to the user if they’re signed into their Google account and will factor in things like the user’s past searches and browsing history, saved podcasts and other podcast preferences. The personalized results can be turned off, however, if the user wants more generic suggestions, Google says.
Google winds down feature that put playable podcasts directly in search results by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch
Google winds down feature that put playable podcasts directly in search results

Peacock kills its free tier option for new customers

Peacock is no longer offering its free tier to new customers, a spokesperson for NBCUniversal confirmed to TechCrunch on Tuesday. The company says it’s shifting its focus to its Premium offering and that doing so will allow the streaming service to remain competitive in the marketplace. The change was first reported by The Streamable.
The free tier is still available to users who are already on the plan, the spokesperson said in an email. In addition, users who cancel their paid subscriptions will automatically be downgraded to the free tier. Peacock has offered the free tier since its launch in 2020, giving users restricted access to the streaming service’s content catalogue. The tier included a limited amount of content when compared to the paid tiers.
New customers will now have to choose between Peacock’s Premium or Premium Plus tiers. The ad-supported Premium tier costs $4.99 per month and includes the full content library, live sports and NBC and Bravo shows after they air on TV. The Premium Plus tier costs $9.99 per month and offers an ad-free experience, offline viewing support and a livestream of your local NBC channel.
Peacock launched around the same time as Disney+, HBO Max and Apple TV+ but was the only one to offer a free tier. Now the company’s focus is shifting. The spokesperson told TechCrunch that Peacock is now focusing on its Premium offering, noting that the paid subscription is more reflective of its brand.
The move comes as Peacock recently reported its best quarterly result since its launch. The streaming service added 5 million paying subscribers in its fourth quarter of 2022, bringing the total to 20 million, up from the over 15 million subs in the previous quarter. The boost in paid subscribers was primarily due to the FIFA World Cup, which streamed in Spanish on Peacock Premium and Telemundo.

Peacock tops 20M subscribers in Q4 as losses widen

Peacock kills its free tier option for new customers by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch
Peacock kills its free tier option for new customers

Meta expands its partnership with the NBA to offer 52 games in VR

Meta is expanding its partnership with the NBA and WNBA to offer more than 50 live VR games on Meta Quest, the company announced on Monday. Meta Quest is the official headset of the NBA, as Facebook signed a deal with the league back in 2020.
The company will deliver a package of 52 live NBA games, including five immersive 180-degree monoscopic VR games in 2880 on Xtadium and on Meta Horizon Worlds. Meta will also offer a selection of WNBA, NBA G League and NBA 2K League games over the course of the season. In Meta Horizon Worlds, you’ll also be able to access game highlights, recaps and archival content.
Users can visit the dedicated NBA Arena in Meta Horizon Worlds starting today to watch NBA content with friends, compete in interactive minigames and support their favorite teams. Meta says that in the future, fans will be able to watch even more content in the app with an NBA League Pass subscription.
Meta also announced that it’s partnering with the league to launch NBA-licensed apparel in Meta’s Avatar Store in the coming weeks. Users will be able to purchase their favorite NBA or WNBA team apparel for their avatar and showcase it across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, as well as on Meta Quest.
“Meta’s immersive VR technology is opening up new opportunities for sports fans to engage and interact with their favorite NBA teams,” said Meta Director of Sports Media and League Partnerships Rob Shaw in a blog post. “Fans will be able to express their fandom by donning their favorite team’s gear on Avatars and enjoy more live NBA games and experience NBA League Pass in a much more social and immersive way.”
The games available in VR on Meta Quest in January include Milwaukee Bucks vs. Detroit Pistons on January 23, Denver Nuggets vs. New Orleans Pelicans on January 24, Denver Nuggets vs. Milwaukee Bucks on January 24, Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder on January 27, Los Angeles Clippers vs. Cleveland Cavaliers on January 29 and Miami Heat vs. Cleveland Cavaliers on January 31.

Meta’s Quest Store hits $1.5 billion in total revenue to date

Meta expands its partnership with the NBA to offer 52 games in VR by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch
Meta expands its partnership with the NBA to offer 52 games in VR