I've had a Spotify premium account long enough to be hit with multiple price hikes from my original, stable subscription plan.

Throughout those years, the streaming platform has defined how and what music I listened to, mostly for the better, though in some ways for the worse; it could be my stage of life, but I don't feel music like I used to.

So when I recently rediscovered my iPod nano in a drawer during a clear out, it was the shot in the arm that this tired music lover needed.

The model in question was the iPod nano (2006) in black, and I couldn't for the life of me remember when I had last used it.

I peeled my old portable media player free from its disintegrating soft case and drank in that slice of nostalgia, running my fingers over its aluminum casing and wheel.

I just had to know what music I had painstakingly added to the 8GB of flash memory, however long ago that was.

After persistent rummaging, I found the 30-pin to USB charging cable I needed and, after a moment, sure enough my nano sprang back into life...

The time capsule I needed

2015. That was the most recent period of the music and playlists on my iPod nano. Had it really been over a decade since I had last used a portable media player and moved exclusively to Spotify streaming?

My albums, and more specifically my playlists, spanned 2011 to 2015, with the majority being pre 2013 — the year my first child was born. Back then (pre kids), I was clearly into three genres; electronica, alternative and Christian gospel.

I span the click wheel with my thumb to scroll through the lists, neatly categorized into Playlists, Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres, Composers and Search options.

God, I had forgotten that tactile feeling of the click wheel and the outright simplicity of the distraction-free interface. And with my Bluetooth-faff-free wired headphones attached, I started exploring this little audio time capsule.

Reader, I used to painstakingly curate Final Mix playlists of my favorite tunes each year, and 2012 was so prolific I had also split it into two parts. Three, year-long alternative and electronica playlists! Heck, I even made my own Desert Island Discs list (dated 2013) packed with my eclectic all-time faves, which spanned everything from the hymn Amazing Grace sung by Aretha Franklin to dance house classics like Rez by Underworld and my wedding first dance, Your Love Gets Sweeter by Finley Quaye.

I cued up my 2012 playlist, which opened with This Year by The Mountain Goats, a defiant narrative of endurance in tough times and a simple chorus that resounded "I’m gonna make it through this year, if it kills me".

Eyes closed, I was already finding myself getting emotional.

These were house party days, pub hang-outs and those conversations that went, ‘Hey have you heard this?’. Songs recommended by friends. Songs shared by friends.

I locked in on that playlist, clicking the wheel to crank up the volume to levels probably unsafe for my ears, with no on-screen warning micromanaging my experience.

A timely reminder to simplify

Immersing myself in that old iPod nano reminded me why I love music. It took me back to the times when listening to an album might be the only thing I was doing in that moment.

Today, music is far more likely to be an accompaniment to the multiple activities I simultaneously have on the go, interrupted by the notification alerts and social apps on my phone.

For me, Spotify streaming had turned music into fast food. The iPod Nano was like a sit down meal.

And although my Nano’s battery is effectively dead — it needed constant power to operate — it has called me back to enjoy music in a deeper way once more. That fast food had grown dry, and I was appreciating deeper flavors again.

Things music-lovers enjoy about Qobuz: it was the original hi-res music streaming service and it also offers 24-bit hi-res downloads on demand (ie., no need to subscribe to buy) alongside a regular streaming model. Then, there's the digital Qobuz Magazine, human-first playlists over algorithms, a more ethical payment at significantly higher average per-stream royalties than mainstream competitors, the fact that it refuses to run a free ad-supported tier that devalues music, it continues to transparently publish its financial payout data, it recently added in-track lyrics… I could go on.

But I'm not here to talk to Managing Director Dan Mackta about any of those aspects of Qobuz today, admirable though they are. No, I want to talk to him about generative AI, and Qobuz's strong stance on it, as set out in its February-release AI charter.

If you haven't read the document, the following quote may be enough for now. It reads as follows.

Dan Mackta has made time to speak to me from a hotel room in Connecticut, at 9:30am local time, before setting off on the 100-or-so miles to Rhode Island and the Newport Folk Festival.

Anyone who speaks to Mackta will find a music lover from the Big Apple first and foremost — a businessman not afraid to talk openly and honestly about an industry he knows and loves deeply.

Right now, Mackta is hoping the rumors are true and that Lauryn Hill will indeed make a rare appearance to play a set (she did), adding with no small amount of excitement, "I've wanted to go my whole life, and this is the year it's finally happening".

Ready or Not

Yes, all of these sub-heads are now going to be Lauryn Hill tracks, because I'm jealous of Mackta's upcoming weekend of live music. I ask Mackta how long Qobuz has been concerned with AI-generated audio infiltrating the platform's otherwise notably human-centric offering. It's clear he's not a fan.

"It was a couple of years ago that we noticed the volume of AI content, fake music, whatever you want to call it. It was a problem from the beginning because of the volume of stuff that was being delivered.

"There was already a fraud problem in music streaming — basically content uploaded just for the purposes of fraudulent streaming, money laundering, organized crime and all of that crazy stuff — but generative AI allowed scammers to create this stuff at crazy scale. They do it to hide their tracks; create so much stuff that nobody can even really tell what the heck is going on. So we knew it was a problem.

"We also knew that this content did not fit into our vision for what our music service should be focusing on. So early on, the guys in France — because all of our tech is in France — looked at a few detection solutions that were on the market at the time, about two years ago, and decided to create their own detection methodology.

"So, we started analyzing. The thing is that the analysis takes a long time, so it's being rolled out in stages. All new releases are now analyzed."

Mackta is also refreshingly open about where the company's at with the rollout. "The actual tagging piece of it, which is where we notify the user if something has been detected as AI, hasn't rolled out yet, although it's planned for September. We shall sell no wine before its time!"

DDEX (That Thing)

I ask Mackta about the relevance (or effectiveness) of voluntary AI self-identification as a solution to the problem of 100% AI tracks — the 'Hey, here's an AI content badge; we've created it and given it to labels and distributors, so they'll use it' approach, because it's one we've seen in the form of 'Transparency Tags' on rival sites. Mackta is quick to clarify that actually, it is a new development and does have some value.

"I mean, the DDEX, (Digital Data Exchange, which is the metadata standards-setting organization upon which the music industry is run) recently added some fields to its structure. But it's basically voluntary for the person setting up the music for release.

"They fill in these fields in the DDEX. So it's 'you' and 'title' and the ISRC (International Standard Recording Code — a 12-character unique digital fingerprint that identifies a specific sound recording or music video) and UPC (Universal Product Code, which is similar but for the whole product) and other areas for credits. It's a whole elaborate standard.

"So, they added fields for AI where you're supposed to say if something is 100% generated by AI or if the lyrics were AI-generated.

"Now, some of the DSPs (Digital Service Providers, ie., rival sites) said, ‘All right, we’re starting to get this information from our suppliers, so we're going to surface it in a way that the users can see’ — and we'll have that too; we get the same information. But obviously, big problem: why would a scammer admit? If it's voluntary, it's a partial solution."

The Miseducation

Mackta is keen to impress upon me that while detection is a big part of the issue, it's not just about AI detection when it comes to Qobuz — or for the wider music industry. The company has thought deeply about what it's going to do with this content. "That's why the AI charter was a very comprehensive doc; it wasn't just about AI content", Mackta confirms.

What is the bigger picture? "It was about our philosophy as a company about AI and as a tool in our business — our everything. When we're going to use it and when we're not, and transparency around that. So that was about more than just the AI content."

Mackta sighs. He's ready to pin his colors to the mast. "You'll notice I do not call it 'AI music' because I don't think it's music. I think it's a simulacrum of music to get, you know, critical theory. But it's… it ain't music."

Everything is Everything

I want to know more about the different types of machine learning in music we accept, versus generative AI audio for fraudulent use.

Mackta is incredibly open about the versions of machine learning Qobuz does use. "Listen: there are a lot of tools in music creation workflow that have been around for a long time that are essentially versions of AI. But it's very different when you're using creative tools as a musician versus a scammer saying, 'Give me 10,000 things that sound like music that I can upload, for fraud.'

"Our number one most requested feature was autoplay. Right? When your cue ends, the Qobuz user wants the music to keep playing. So, that's machine learning! That's AI that looks at what you were listening to, and runs an algorithm to figure out what it should play next.

"So, we have that. Users wanted that. We have a few playlists now that are algorithmically generated based on your listening and your favorites. But that's like two clearly marked playlists, and if you don't want that, you never have to look at it.

"The thing is that some people — especially as Qobuz has been getting thankfully bigger and starting to poke into the mainstream — those people are used to those kinds of features and they don't realize it’s AI. We'll always make it clear what's been selected by humans versus what hasn't."

Lost Ones

I posit the idea that some have suggested — that AI is here, it's not going away, and there's an argument for not even trying to stem the slop. Mackta laughs, but he gets it. "I mean, let's be real. We're doomed! But let’s also try to hold it at bay, however we can.

"To me, the whole thing is just a really, really big bummer. You know, it just is so different from ‘why am I in the music business’? Why, really though, do I do this? Having to deal with this issue on top of all the other issues that were already there in music just makes me really sad, and so much time and energy and resources wasted.

"It’s largely an unintended consequence of the streaming business model, with the way revenues are shared; it's always been a target for fraudsters. It's like if every man, woman, child, and dog released three albums last year on the planet, it still wouldn't be as much music as the fake music that’s being shoved down our pipes."

Ex-Factor

I muse that perhaps as long as it's human beings making content for the emotional appreciation of other human beings (which is what Deezer's head of research recently offered, when I interviewed him), perhaps we'll be OK? Mackta is quick to jump in. "Well, and that's what music is! It's the whole thing that makes it all go!

"It's unique. It's a form of communication that taps directly into emotions of humans. So we can take humans out on either side of that equation — it ain't music anymore. What makes music music? You know, if you ask those questions, I think it all becomes pretty clear that this AI stuff may sound like music, but…"

Quite right. So what's the future for Qobuz? And can he speak to the music industry at large? Mackta is less certain, but he definitely isn't keen on one possible development.

"It's not really clear what's going to happen with this generative AI stuff. I thought the music industry would do its usual thing and try to stamp it out. But instead, now these companies are basically licensed by the major labels; if everybody's getting rich off of it, they're not going to try to stamp it out.

"But I do think, in terms of the fraud piece (of the puzzle) and the massive amounts of content that's just being generated purely for the purposes of fraud, the industry is going to come to some kind of resolution about it, because it's just not kosher.

"I don't know exactly what it's going to look like, but Qobuz is part of a trade group, the Music Fights Fraud Alliance (along with other DSPs and distributors and aggregators), and we're all trying to come together — the way the banking industry has come together to share certain information to be able to stop fraud. It's kind of like herding cats."

All Falls Down

And there's another 'what if?' Mackta wants to share. "At Qobuz, we sometimes talk about, like, what if AI fake music becomes something that most people want to listen to, you know? What if that's what's considered music in 10 years? Are we still going to have our philosophy? I would say I hope so. I hope that we stick to our guns and the stuff that makes music special is not going to change.

"And I do think that 90-whatever-percent of people probably could be played AI content and be told it's music, and they wouldn't know. They wouldn't care! And that's a shame. But that's reality.

"However, for people who are just even a little bit into music, I don't think we're going in that direction. I think, if anything, there'll be a backlash coming soon that really values human curation, human creation, and actual artistry and emotion and communication. You know, you just can't fake it."

I tell Mackta that I agree, and that as an occasional performer myself I really hope he keeps up the good fight. He laughs. "Yeah, I mean, if anything, it's gonna force us to dig in even more on these principles. And from a business standpoint, I think that's just fine. I think that success for us is going to be in how we differentiate and stay focused on what we think is important. And so far, so good!"

Agreed. As a loyal Qobuz fan myself, I'd go so far as to say it's a case of so far, so very good.

Deezer has never been backwards about coming forwards regarding the scourge of AI slop infecting our music streaming platforms. Just days ago, the French streaming site announced that over half of all new daily uploads to its site are AI — up from 44% in April and just over 30% at the end of last year. So, things are only getting worse.

Luckily, the platform not only implements its own proprietary filter to find, label and in some cases purge AI tracks from its site; it also recently made the tech available to everyone, irrespective of your chosen streaming platform.

But how was Deezer's own in-house AI filter developed, why is Deezer so keen on tackling AI tracks, and what does the company think the future of music streaming will look like — you know, for actual humans still trying to make it their career?

I spoke with Manuel Moussallam, Deezer's Head of Research, to get his take on all this and more.

Moussallam agreed to speak with me on the morning after the company's summer party, held at a music venue in Paris. I couldn't help but think it's good to know that proper live gigs and parties still matter to a firm whose success hangs on our love of music.

Identifying an issue (back in 2021)

How long has Deezer's research arm been thinking 'Okay, this AI thing is an issue, and we have to do something about it'? Moussallam explains that the site's comprehensive AI filter, now available to anyone who wants it, has been almost five years in the making.

"It all started in scientific conferences back in later 2021 or early 2022, because the generative models that were already working for images and videos were starting to make real progress — like real scientific progress — for music," he says. "That was probably a couple of years before the first commercial services were appearing.

"So, since we participate a lot in these scientific conferences, we saw people from Google and from Meta sharing these foundation models that were starting to work quite well for creating whole pieces of music. Not just snippets of 10 seconds like before, but really whole songs. So I guessed that eventually, if you're able to generate a lot of music, you can also distribute it quite easily — and down the road, it would end up in our catalogs."

"I would say we started working on the project in 2022, first with some complicated methods, because that's unfortunately a reflex for people like me — to try to do AI to capture AI — but then eventually we simplified a lot because we made some mathematical discoveries on how those models work.

"We realized that we didn't actually need a big AI to understand and to detect these pieces. Just by relying on some plain signal processing and mathematical tools, we were able to actually detect these artifacts for most of the models out there.

"Yeah, I think we deployed the first version of the detector in September 2023 — and we communicated the first numbers when we were able to scale it up to the catalog a few months later."

A big problem — and it's only getting worse

I wonder why, given that various rival music streaming sites have implemented 'Transparency Tags' (read: optional AI badges that place the onus on distributors and labels to tell listeners that what they're listening to was not written or performed by a human), Deezer chose to create a comprehensive filter — and then to release it to all? While admirable and commendable, that's a lot of R&D budget on AI, no?

Moussallam laughs. "There are many aspects, but I guess firstly, we did it just because we wanted to see if we were able to do it. On my team, we do a lot of audio analysis. So, knowing was the first motivation."

"But then, I think since Suno, Udio, and all these tools are trained on unlicensed catalogs, I was pretty convinced that eventually we would have to take down all this music, because it would be considered as plagiarism or copyright infringement in some sense — which may be the case if the legal battles end up that way.

"So at some point we thought that, okay, if people agree with us that it's kind of unlawful to train this model with all this music and they ask us to remove all the content from Suno in the catalog, we need to be prepared. We need to be able to do it. So, that was another big motivation.

"It didn't turn out like that — for now — but it may be that one day people tell us, 'OK, everything that was generated with that AI model prior to this date in the future, when people actually have agreements and compensate musicians for their work, all of this needs to be removed'. And we would have to be prepared for that."

Putting information into the hands of people who need to make decisions

I mention that across all of my audio streaming subscriptions (not a flex, I simply review audio kit for a living), I tried the Deezer AI filter, and none of my playlists contained AI, bar one: my Tidal catalog listed 1% AI content — and to know what the pesky tracks are I'd need to switch to Deezer. I ask what the reception has been since the release of the software for all.

"Mostly people are happy with the tool, I think everyone just wants to know," replied Moussallam.

"Ever since we started deploying this detector, we've been talking to major labels, obviously, but also indie labels, sometimes small publishers. All of them just wanted to know. Some of them made some pretty interesting discoveries on how their members were using — or actually not using — these technologies; so overall it's really about putting this information into the hands of people who need to have it to make some decisions.

"Implementing some transparency for our users was also a main motivation for us to flag the content on the website. And then we realized that people had to come to Deezer to check an album, say, to see if it had the label. And we said, 'Okay, we can also create a tool just for you to check — you will see for yourself how contaminated your whole library is on other platforms".

To purge or not to purge, based on AI markers?

Speaking to Moussallam even briefly, it become clear that he's a scientist as well as a musician (among his many accolades is a Master's Degree in Acoustics, Signal processing and Computer science applied to Music, from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie).

So when I ask how this proprietary new filter works to pick out 100% AI-generated content — which I assume is fully text-prompted music — and whether Moussallam and his team are looking to take it further, to stuff that's only 50% AI generated, say, things get more serious.

"It's a very complicated question," Moussallam concedes. "Right now, we can't really say that we only detect fully AI-generated songs, because what we detect is the presence of markers of AI generation in a song, and we detect the strength of these markers in the song.

"When we flag an album, it's because these markers are strong enough for us to be confident that it's been AI generated at some point.

"But we don't know if you wrote the lyrics for yourself, for instance. We also don't know if the song contains very few elements of human creation; that's not something that our detector is able to do right now — but that's the focus of our current research.

"So we really want to be able to boil down to the stem level and be able to make a decision based on a stem by stem case, because obviously we're seeing a lot of hybrid cases, and a lot of artists are also integrating AI tools into their creative process.

"So, these very strong markers of AI, we're starting to see them spread in human creations, and we need to be able to disentangle that from what you mentioned, like purely text-prompted music curation".

Can the markers the filter picks up recognize whether it has flagged an AI vocal, say, or artificially generated instruments — and how about stolen melodies?

"No, no, we can't go that far," admits Moussallam. "I mean, we are working on the stem by stem detection, but right now we detect markers — and we are not so sure where they come from."

He smiles. "I mean, we have ongoing research, but not something that I can publicly share. When it comes to detecting chord progressions or melodic impressions or plagiarism metrics, we are not so interested in that, because it would lead us too far. And I mean, there are so many songs that share only four chords! I think that debate is way, way out of our hands in any case."

What's next at Deezer — and can AI and humans coexist happily in music?

Perhaps surprizingly for someone who's spent nearly five years building the tech to flag and potentially quash AI music tracks, when I ask Moussallam where he thinks Deezer and online music will be in 10 years time — and whether he'd like to see all flagged AI tracks gone from the site — he instead builds a quite compelling case for computation in music.

"Well, the very first piece of music that was written by a computer dates back to 1953 I think, back in the days where computers were actually whole buildings built around them.

"Ever since people built computers, they tried to make music with computers. I think that's the story of the 20th century. I'm confident people are going to make great things with these new creative tools. It enables some stuff, and I guess as long as it's being used by humans to create cool music for other humans to listen to, we are very fine with that.

"What we're really fighting at Deezer is automated music generation, people who script computers to generate songs — I mean thousands of songs — and uploading them in batches to streaming platform to try to overwhelm and flood and basically really replace human creation with automated creation.

"So, I guess I hope music will stay artisan, as we say in French, so something that humans do to have the attention of other humans. That's really what I guess drives our motivation. If the music includes computers, that won't be a such a revolution — computers are fine, numerical instruments are fine — it's just who is using them to create that matters, in the end."

He's also keen to hone in on the fraudulent aspect of AI slop and the payment dilution for for artists, because that's also one of the motivations for stifling the recent development of the AI-in-music game.

"Fraud has always been there, it's just easier now with AI music," he says. "And if you upload thousands of tracks, then you can sort of spread that fraud across more and more tracks — and that's something that we want to get rid of as much as possible".

I mention that from the perspective of the consumer (i.e., me), the key annoyance is tracks making it into our recommended playlists and ultimately usurping streaming royalties — small amounts maybe, but still — which we'd prefer would go to a band that we actually like.

Moussallam emphatically agrees. "That’s really something we wanted to avoid. Anyone listening to AI music without knowing that it's AI music, like just feeding it to people in a recommendation? That's something that was very clear for us from the beginning we wanted to avoid. Because that's an awful feeling, I think for everyone".

Given that Tidal only recently drew its anti-AI line in the sand, Bandcamp's strong and concise stance was set out in January of this year, and Spotify's Verified by Spotify badge certifies that an artist is human but doesn't help filter out the slop from any generated playlists, I think it's safe to say that Deezer is leading the charge here.

Based on Reddit threads I see every day, I think I speak on behalf of thousands of music lovers when I say we're grateful for everything the Deezer team is doing to combat the AI infestation trying to take hold on our streaming sites. Where do we go from here? For now, trust in Moussallam's work.

• Spotify is rumored to launch its own song ID tool
• Changes in the Android app were spotted, with references to 'Identify a song’, ‘listening’, and ‘analyzing’
• It could add a level of convenience when adding identified songs to a playlist, just like Apple Music's Shazam shortcut

There’s one thing that Spotify has over Apple Music, and that’s music discovery features, though the latter service has the edge when it comes to music recognition — but that could all change soon.

In a recent investigation from Android Authority, the outlet found lines of code in the latest version of the Spotify app which suggest the platform is working on its own song identification feature. Though this has only been found in Spotify’s Android app, we wouldn’t rule out the possibility of it launching on iOS.

As it is with every rumor, we’re taking this with a pinch of salt until more information surfaces, but Android Authority’s findings present some pretty convincing evidence, showing text that reads ‘Identify a song’, ‘listening’, and ‘analyzing’. It seems the feature will need access to your device’s microphone, and will display pop-ups when a song can’t be identified.

Essentially, it sounds like Spotify is developing its own in-house version of Shazam, which could act as a band-aid for many music fans out there who, like myself, rely on third-party music-recognition software to put titles to songs.

When Apple bought Shazam in 2018, it thrust the music-recognition platform right into the iOS experience. Instead of needing to use the standalone Shazam app, you can add the ‘Recognize Music’ tab to your iOS Control Center for easier access, and Shazam will be right there at your fingertips.

It also works wonders for quickly adding songs to your Apple Music library. When you Shazam a song, a pop-up reading ‘Add to Apple Music?’ appears and all of your tracks will be sent to your library. Until now, this level of convenience wasn't available for Spotify users.

Since Apple took ownership of Shazam, Apple Music and its users have greatly benefited, but listeners who use Spotify, Tidal, and the rest of the best music streaming services have been missing out. Not all was lost however; last year Shazam rolled out a feature where each song you identified using the app would be automatically added to a special playlist in your Spotify account titled ‘My Shazam Tracks’.

I have to say, this small but effective feature has become one of my most-used tools for keeping tabs on new music, but if you Shazam quite a lot of songs from different genres, it creates a very messy-looking playlist.

Even after my Shazamed songs have been added to ‘My Shazam Tracks’, I still go back into the playlist to individually move songs into my other playlists — which is why a native Spotify song ID tool would go a long way, and would be even better if you can add it to your iOS Control Center.

Just think about it: you’re out and about and a song starts playing which you know you’ve definitely heard before, but can’t remember for the life of you what it’s called or who sings it. A simple swipe down to the Control Center and a tap of a button gives you the song title in seconds, and then it directs you to your Spotify Library where you can add your recently-discovered song to a specific playlist.

We’ve reached out to Spotify for a comment, who replied with the following:

"We're always exploring ways to improve our product and deliver more value to users, but we don't comment on speculation around possible new features and don't have anything new to share at this time".

Listen up, music fans: the best streaming service in the world* just got even better.

I'm talking, of course, about Qobuz — the French streamer that we consider to be the best music streaming service for high-res audio and which has just rolled out a bunch of updates that fix some of its biggest problems.

And, to be clear, it did have a few. While Qobuz is without question the best music streamer if you care more about audio quality than anything else (and are you really a music lover if you don't?), it has traditionally lagged behind the likes of Spotify when it comes to user experience and features.

This update brings a bunch of nice quality-of-life changes that make it a slicker, easier platform to use, as well as adding some sorely missed features that most of us have come to expect these days — for instance, lyrics.

Let's dig in.

* According to me, not TechRadar as a whole

Fixing a hole

There were two big things that jumped out to me when I switched from Spotify to Qobuz in late 2025.

One was the incredible leap in audio quality; oh my word, you have not lived until you've heard Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in glorious 24-bit / 192kHz quality on a decent hi-fi.

The second was how bare bones the app experience was. Spotify is many things, and not all of them good, but its app is generally a joy to use. In contrast, the Qobuz interface felt distinctly lacking, as if so much effort had gone into making the music sound good that they hadn't spent much time making it look good too.

This new update changes that as follows:

1. The Qobuz player has a fresh new look

The first change is on the face of it a relatively superficial one: the player that displays when you're listening to music has been redesigned. However, I'd actually rate this as pretty consequential.

For instance, the player now changes color to match the artwork of whatever you're listening to. Who cares? Well, me. Immersion is a massive part of the music-listening experience, and opening the app to see that its background is of a similar hue to the album art helps to keep you in the mood. After all, if you're listening to Joy Division or The Cure, you don't want a bright yellow sunny screen to snap you out of your intentional gloom.

There's more to the overhaul than just the colors, though. The fact that the player stays visible during navigation is appreciated, while the split-screen tablet mode — which I haven't tried yet — promises to make multi-tasking easier still.

2. You now get lyrics!

This is a big one. I've been on the Qobuz Beta for several months and so have had access to lyrics on the app for a while — and frankly, I can't imagine (musical) life without them. After all, there's only so many times you can listen to Total Football by Parquet Courts before you really, really need to know whether he's genuinely saying something rude about Tom Brady at the end. (He is.)

It is fairly astonishing that it's taken this long for Qobuz to add lyrics to the service, admittedly, but better late than never eh?

The lyrics also scroll as the song is playing, with the current line highlighted, and there's even translation of foreign-language lyrics via single button press.

One caveat: your experience may differ depending on what you listen to. My tastes are geared more towards the relatively obscure alternative rock side of things, and some of my favorite tunes either don't have lyrics at all or don't have the fancy scrolling-and-highlighting-and-translating options. But hopefully the catalogue will expand over time.

3. There's a new Explore section

One of the big differences between Spotify and Qobuz is in how rarely the latter service tries to persuade you what to listen to. In many ways this is a plus point; for all of its supposed algorithmic expertise, Spotify never really knew me too well. And I definitely didn't need to be told that I should be listening to some high-energy party playlist just because it was a Friday, thank you very much.

Qobuz's new Explore section shows how it should be done. Simply click the icon when listening to any song and you'll be shown an excellent overview of related content: albums by the artist, playlists that feature them, magazine articles about them (yes, Qobuz has a built-in magazine), more from the same label, similar artists, similar releases, and genre classics.

It's a one-stop-shop for music you might well want to listen to next, and its contextual nature really lifts it above the competition and makes it far more useful than most.

4. You can easily go deeper

Want more than what the Explore section offers? You can go deeper still by clicking the Info icon. This already existed on Qobuz, serving up credits for the musicians on the track and the label behind it. But it's now been expanded to give easy access to an artist bio, label bio, info about the audio quality and the ability to follow artist and label.

5. The queue finally makes (some) sense

Qobuz's queue feature was definitely not its strongest point in the past, although many of the criticisms I've seen aimed at it are based entirely on the fact that it doesn't work exactly like Spotify's; not worse, it's just slightly different.

Anyway, it's another area that's received a freshening up here: it's easier to see what's coming up next, you can easily add or remove tracks from the queue with a swipe, you can reorder by dragging and dropping. Simple things, but things that make it slicker to use and so are welcome all the same.

What's next?

Qobuz probably still has some work to do on the user-experience front if it wants to convert more people from Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal. The desktop apps lack some of the enhanced features now found in the mobile versions, for instance, and I still have some major frustrations around playlists in particular — not least the 2,000 track limit that has broken some of my favorite collections.

But that's for the future. For now, I can rejoice in the fact that the gap between Qobuz's audio chops and its user experience has been sharply narrowed. If you love music I recommend you give your ears a gift and try it out.

The new Qobuz features are available now on the service's iOS and Android apps for mobile and tablet.

• Spotify has rolled out its first music video charts playlist
• It's part of the platform's steady expansion of its music video ecosystem
• Spotify is once again battling YouTube, but it's not close competition

Music videos in Spotify are becoming one of the most popular ways to engage in digital music streaming — now the service is expanding its video ecosystem in another attempt to one-up YouTube.

For the first time, Spotify is bringing music videos to its Charts hub with the launch of Music Video Charts Global, a new top 50 playlist of the most streamed videos. Additionally, the platform has also rolled out a new Videos for You editorial playlist, which offers personalized music video recommendations based on your streaming habits.

Music Video Charts Global rolled out on July 21, and is already playing a big role in Spotify’s gradual expansion of its video content. Recently, Spotify altered the video uploading process for musicians, allowing them to upload their own videos directly through Spotify for Artists instead of going through their label and distributor to do so.

Artists can also pitch videos to Spotify’s editorial team to give them a better chance to feature in playlists such as Best New Videos, Live Performances, and Today's Top Videos.

If you were like me and spent most of your youth scouring through music TV channels before they were sadly phased out, Spotify’s new music video charts might evoke a sense of nostalgia — but the platform is doing it in a way that’s designed for the streaming era.

Music Video Charts Global ranks the top 50 videos around the world based on daily music video streams, refreshing daily at 6pm ET / 11pm GMT / 8am AEST (the next day). Spotify also shared that it will spotlight the top 10 music videos across its social media channels every Tuesday — but there’s another reason why the best music streaming service is doubling down on its commitment to music videos.

Even though Spotify is trying to emulate these channels, a form of music consumption that once shaped listening habits, the platform is backing its music video expansion with data linked directly to streaming.

In an email sent to us, Spotify shared “After streaming a video on Spotify, listeners stream that song 64% more over the next three weeks, are 1.4x more likely to save it, share it, or add it to a playlist, and go on to stream the rest of that artist's catalog 57% more”.

For Spotify, its new ecosystem does more than lead to higher fan engagement and video views — it also gives artists an opportunity to boost audio streams. This is beneficial for both fans and artists, but as someone who doesn’t use Spotify for music videos I see this as just another way for it to compete with YouTube.

The Spotify-YouTube battle continues

Spotify has been playing catch up to YouTube ever since it rolled out music videos in 2024. Although there are users out there who do use Spotify for videos, and the platform has the numbers to support it, I’m just not one of those people. As soon as the music TV channels went bust, it was YouTube that filled the void for me, and it’s been that way ever since.

However, Spotify knows it can’t just build a music video ecosystem and hope that YouTube users will flock to it, it has to offer something extra — which is why it’s taken advantage of early releases. For example, artists like Taylor Swift and BTS have each released music videos to Spotify as exclusive content before uploading the videos to YouTube in the days after. This is where Spotify has the upper-hand.

Because Spotify is centered around music and audio streaming, it’s more likely that artists will gravitate towards the company when it comes to exclusive partnerships. Though YouTube has its own music platform, its standard video player houses content across countless genres from web series, interviews, how-tos, vlogs, and so much more — so music isn't the only place it makes its money. Besides, YouTube Music isn’t as influential as Spotify.

Do I think that Spotify is going good by bringing classic music video charts into the streaming era? I guess so — but I still don’t think it’s enough to entice loyal YouTube-first music video viewers to make the switch.

• Singer Lorde called out Spotify's AI 'About the Song' feature
• She says it featured incorrect details and limits free interpretation for listeners
• Users are starting to catch onto its flaws

Spotify is always dropping new tools to enhance your listening experience, but one of its newest features has been called out by one of the most influential pop artists of this generation.

New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde slammed the best music streaming service’s ‘About the Song’ feature which launched back in February. The tool is currently in beta, and pulls information from third-party sources to create AI-generated summaries of individual songs offering context and background.

According to the pop star, one of the summaries for her song ‘Current Affairs’ mentioned incorrect details which were sourced from themusic.com.au, stating the following:

“On her Ultrasound World Tour, Lorde turns Current Affairs into a full-on performance piece, stripping down to underwear while a dancer pours water over her stomach so the song plays out like the shower scene she talks about on stage”.

The singer didn’t hold back, taking to Instagram Stories to call out the platform while highlighting the dangers features like this pose on listeners:

“Hey @spotify I’m gonna go out on a limb and say we don't want this. Not only is this inaccurate (not the song I did that in) but reducing a song to an AI-generated meaning right at the source feels like it limits free interpretation IMO. At least make it possible for artists to opt out please,” she wrote.

It didn’t take long for Lorde’s comments to spark reactions from all corners of the internet, and Spotify has come forward to offer clarity from its side. We reached out to the platform for further comment, and a Spotify spokesperson replied with the following:

“We built ‘About the Song’ because fans want to dig into the stories behind the music. It’s still in beta. The info comes from articles across the internet, and when something’s off, we move fast to fix it, like we did here. Getting it right matters to us”. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the song summary has been removed.

‘Half the fun is figuring out your own meaning’

At the time of the feature’s launch, many Spotify subscribers welcomed ‘About the Song’ with open arms — I even went into detail about how much I couldn’t get over it and how it taught me things I never knew before. But despite the positive reception from subscribers, Lorde’s observation of the AI feature has sounded the alarm for music lovers.

Comment from r/Music

Aside from its inaccuracies, Lorde’s comments highlight another big issue with AI features like ‘About the Song’; they remove the listener’s opportunity to interpret the music for themselves. This has been the topic of many online discussions since Lorde aired her comments, especially on Reddit — ‘half the fun is figuring out your own meaning instead of getting AI Cliff Notes right away,’ one user says.

But according to others in the same Reddit thread, it speaks volumes about how art consumption is evolving. Whether you’re reading a book, watching a movie, or listening to an album, everyone looks at things differently which is what allows conversations and debates to flow. Another user went the extra mile, saying “If you need AI to tell you what it thinks the song means, you've stopped thinking”.

That said, Spotify isn’t the only music platform that dives into the background of music — Apple Music includes detailed summaries of albums located under the Play button — but these pockets of context are all written and developed by Apple Music’s editorial team, who don’t rely on AI for third-party sourcing.

But the album summaries is where Apple Music draws the line. As soon as you hit Play the platform leaves you to get lost in the music — which subscribers would rather have over what Spotify is trying to sell them.

• Prices are going up across almost all the Apple Music tiers
• There are some bumps in Apple Music prices too
• These are the first price hikes we've seen since October 2022

Apple Music is the latest subscription package to get a bump in price, leaving users with the choice between paying more or losing access to the streaming part of their library. The bundled Apple One package that includes Apple Music now costs more as well.

As reported by Music Business Worldwide (via Engadget), the reason cited by Apple is "rising licensing costs". It's the first price hike for this particular subscription we've seen since October 2022. The new monthly prices are below:

The Apple One price increases are less clear, as they're not as easily available on the Apple website. It appears the Apple One Family plan is now $27.95 (up $2) / AU$24.95 (unchanged) per month and the Apple One Premier plan is now $39.95 (also up $2) / AU$52.95 (up AU$3), though the Apple One Individual plan has stayed at $19.95 / AU$24.95. Internationally, similar price rises are likely.

This comes at a time when everything tech-related is getting more expensive, from laptops to streaming services. Exploding AI resource demand has sent the price of memory and storage rocketing, and that continues to have a knock-on effect everywhere.

Loss of control

Apple raises prices for Apple Music and Apple One subscriptions from r/apple

Apple is of course by no means the first company to put up its subscription prices, but it's a reminder of the pitfalls of the digital rental model. As soon as you stop paying, you lose access — so if you need a service, you have no choice but to accept the higher price.

The online reaction has mostly focused on this too: "It's not even about the cost sometimes," writes one Redditor. "It's about loss of control over your finances. Companies can jack up their prices whenever they want." Few commenters seem ready to quit Apple Music, though many are pointing out the billions that Apple has in the bank.

Apple Music doesn't have a free tier like Spotify does, but it beats every other music streaming service in the support it gives you for local files. If you have enough MP3s and ripped CDs, you can use it perfectly well without a subscription.

As we've written about recently, Apple is selling more and more of its software products through recurring payments rather than a flat one-off fee, and one of the reasons is that it's more profitable — and makes it more likely that users will continue to pay up.

• Spotify has quietly updated its Mixed Playlists tools
• You can now fine-tune transitions smoother by amending effect curves
• It's starting to crop up for more users, and it's a smash hit so far

There’s one thing that Spotify does really well, and that’s offering a roster of different playlist-making tools for you to really get creative with. Though some are AI-powered, Spotify’s Mixed Playlists encourages you to use your originality when compiling songs, all while putting you in the DJ booth.

Just as you’d get with music-mixing software, Spotify’s Mixed Playlists allow you to create smooth transitions between songs to ensure your playlist flows like a classic DJ set. Its mixing interface presents you with preset effects, and even tells you the key and BPM of each track — and now users have noticed a new upgrade that gives you even more freedom on the customization front.

A recent post on the r/truespotify Reddit page shows the latest update, revealing that you can now amend the Volume, EQ, and Filter settings even more by simply dragging each effect curve to control how the transition runs. According to a small number of users, this feature has been live for a few months, but the majority of listeners in the replies are only now running into it — myself included.

Spotify first launched Mixed Playlists in August 2025, hot on the heels of Apple’s own AutoMix function. But instead of relying on AI to mix songs, Spotify’s version puts the control right into your hands, and it quickly became one of my favorite new tools.

Prior to the update, you could create song transitions by selecting a preset which would automatically amend the Volume, EQ, and Filter settings, or you could go into each of the three and select your own preset to curate a custom transition. While these are still available, you can fine-tune your song-mixing even more, and after testing things out for myself I can see why listeners have taken to it so well.

For starters, it allows you to clean up the small but noticeable imperfections in your transitions that you can’t achieve by presetting the three audio categories individually. For example, if you go into the Filter category and select the ‘High-pass filter out option’, it’s stuck in one place on the audio track. When you tap the ‘Customize’ button, three points appear on the effect curve which you can move around the audio track display so that your chosen effect comes in at a specific time.

Comment from r/truespotify

However, there are a few small blips (not so much setbacks) with the feature that users have picked up on. When you start off with customizing your transitions, it can feel a little fiddly when trying to find the exact placement for each of the effect curve points but this you’ll get used to.

Additionally, other users have also pointed out that the effect curve points sometimes move back to their original spots after you’ve shifted them. I’ve only run into this a few times, so it’s not a major issue that’s going to put you off for good.

For once, it’s refreshing to see Spotify give one of its existing tools some TLC instead of pumping out new features without a lot of thought behind them. If this is the approach Spotify is taking from here on, just think of what it could do to improve features like this in the future.

• Dire Straits' keyboardist/producer Guy Fletcher post about mixing their albums in Dolby Atmos
• He says immersive mixing of the original recording sessions is "quite addictive" and often very emotional
• 3D audio can reveal details that were previously buried when engineering for stereo

One of the things I love most about audio technology is how it can reveal things you've never heard before either because they were buried in the mix or because your setup, speakers or headphones weren't delivering all the detail.

And according to Dire Straits' keyboardist and producer Guy Fletcher, Dolby Atmos is delivering revelation after revelation not just to music fans, but to the musicians and producers who made the records in the first place.

The majority of records are made with stereo in mind, and according to Fletcher "stereo remains an extraordinary format". But as he explains on LinkedIn, redoing a stereo record for Atmos enables you to rediscover "the little things that get sacrificed along the way when you're making a stereo record. The tiny details. The decisions nobody notices because they're buried beneath more important decisions."

Fletcher makes an intriguing claim. Taking a stereo record and making it three-dimensional isn't about making it sound the same; "it's more to do with matching the emotional impact" as he says. It's not what you hear. It's what you feel.

What immersive audio delivers – and doesn't quite deliver

I think Fletcher is correct, and I'm going to compare audio to another art form: video games. I've been replaying some very old favorites recently and I'm amused by how terrible the graphics are; in my memories, those games were photorealistic as well as utterly compelling. When those games are remastered to higher visual quality they're effectively enabling me to play what I remember, not what I actually saw.

As Fletcher describes it, taking recordings into spatial audio does much the same. "The moment you begin placing objects or building beds around the listener, the music seems to breathe and expand. Mix or bus compression suddenly seems rather pointless. Sounds are no longer confined to a flat line between two speakers. Instead, they occupy a living, sculptural environment with depth, height and dimension."

It's not perfect by any means, because people listen to Atmos and other spatial audio on all kinds of different hardware that may be suboptimal: headphones, soundbars, and a range of speaker systems that don't deliver the full experience.

"Creating extraordinary Atmos mixes is no longer the obstacle," Fletcher says. "The real challenge is ensuring that the sense of space, scale and emotional impact that makes immersive mixing so exhilarating, can be faithfully experienced by the vast majority of listeners who do not own a dedicated Atmos speaker system.

Fletcher describes spatializing Dire Straits' biggest hit album, Brothers in Arms, whose original multi-tracks took him straight back to the recording studio in 1984. Although the album had previously been remastered for 5.1 audio, the Atmos edition still required extensive detective work as well as painstaking restoration.

"The real challenge lay in respecting an album that has become woven into the lives of millions of listeners," Fletcher recalls. "While 5.1 and Atmos share some similarities, Atmos offers a very different creative canvas. The challenge was never technical — the challenge was emotional."

For Fletcher, "Atmos has a curious ability to reveal not just the details within a recording, but also the memories embedded within it. In that respect, at its best, the spatial audio experience is as much about rediscovery as it is about technology."

Of course Atmos doesn't guarantee a mix is good: the record industry is very good at remastering records as a quick cash grab, and there are plenty of famous records by big artists whose remasters caused howls of outrage. But when an album is approached with care, patience and above all else, a love of the original material, the move to 3D can make songs sing even more beautifully.

One of my favorite things about the best music streaming services is that they’ve evolved into more than just audio platforms — they give you the freedom to create your own digital music space.

Take Spotify for example, the platform I’ve been using for over a decade. Not only does its algorithm learn to understand your tastes (though it takes quite a bit of time and effort to train it), creating playlists and folders gives you another way to make your Spotify space your own.

One of Spotify’s most handy features is pins, which places select playlists, albums, and artists, as well as audiobooks and podcasts to the top of your Library for quick and easy access, but the four-pin limit is a pain point that pretty much every subscriber has been asking Spotify to upgrade since the pins feature was rolled out some five years ago.

In the case of Apple Music, you can pin up to six different items which, while it’s still a small number, is better than four. Users have been begging Spotify to increase this number for years — and you’ll be relieved to learn that change is finally coming.

From 4 to 20

I first spotted signs of a possible update after coming across a Reddit post (see below) in which a user shared that they had somehow found a way to pin more than four items in their Library. Apparently all they did was update their Spotify app, but other users responding in the comments saw no such change — myself included.

[Breaking | Pins] Look how many things I have pinned :) Update your app now. from r/truespotify

After coming across the post, I reached out to Spotify, which confirmed that it’s increasing the four-pin limit, which was one of the improvements I wanted the most in 2026. A spokesperson shared the following comment:

“Spotify is updating the number of items listeners can pin at the top of Your Library from 4 to 20. This gives our users more flexibility to keep the music, playlists, podcasts, audiobooks, and creators they care about most within easy reach. It's still rolling out and will be available for Free and Premium listeners around the world in the next month”.

Why pine for more pins?

I can imagine many people will read this and question the fuss over such a small feature, but there’s a lot more to it. For those who are seasoned Spotify users, the platform is much more than a music haven — it’s their source for podcasts and audiobooks.

When you factor this in, having only four pins across music, podcasts, and audiobooks is rather stingy — "Does Spotify think we only listen to 1 of each at a time?", someone commented on the post shared to the Spotify Community page. But it’s not just about being able to pin music, podcasts, and audiobooks simultaneously; it’s about enhancing the user experience.

Whenever you follow a new artist, pre-save an upcoming album, or save a new playlist, it all appears as one messy collection in Your Library. This forces you to scroll through a hoarding eyesore to find what it is you’re looking for, so pinning items bumps your most-used content to the top saving you bags of scrolling time.

Though you can simply search for the playlist you want to listen to, regular listeners have tons of them (I know I do), so it’s much easier having all of your music there at the tap of a button in Your Library. For others, it’s about more than making your playlists easier to navigate; it's about having more say in how you choose to curate your digital music collection — “we should get full control”, another user puts it plainly.

All things considered, then, avid Spotify users everywhere will welcome this update with open arms.

Spotify has the upper hand out of all the best music streaming services because of its hyper-personalized feed and social features, but its app design isn’t the greatest.

I’m not the first power user to call out the platform for its stuffy and, at times, unorganized layout. The ‘Your Library’ section, for example, is a cluster of your recent activity, which you can only rearrange using the filters at the top of the screen — full customization is out of the question.

After using Spotify alongside Apple Music, there’s no comparison — the latter packs a simple and concise interface, with a bright and sleek finish, and there’s Spotify could certainly take a page out of Apple Music’s book on the organization front. However, one user has, at least, found a hidden setting that allows you to switch from Spotify’s dark color scheme to a brighter one similar to Apple Music's.

A Reddit post shared by u/Hot_Perspective (see below) shows two images of the Spotify mobile app with inverted colors enabled, which essentially replaces Spotify’s dark appearance with a ‘light mode’ one consisting of an all-white background reminiscent of Apple Music’s interface.

Do you know u can use Spotify in light mode in iOS it looks pretty 😍 from r/truespotify

The thing to note here is that it’s not actually controlled via the Spotify app; it’s all done through iOS or Android settings — and it’s simple to enable.

If you’re using an iPhone, open Settings and head to Accessibility, then tap Per-App Settings. From there, you’ll need to tap Add App and search for Spotify. Once you’ve added Spotify select Smart Invert and enable the toggle. Android users can enable this feature also by heading to Settings and tapping Accessibility, then Text and Display. Find Color Inversion and toggle it on.

What an eyesore

If you haven’t yet come across this tool, it’s a stark difference from Spotify’s traditional dark-theme interface to say the least.

While it flips the dark in-app color scheme on its head, it’s smart enough to know not to invert album and playlist covers, so not every part of the Spotify app is inverted — which I think is quite clever. But despite its accessibility benefits, it hasn’t been a huge hit with music fans, myself included.

For one, it doesn’t solve the issue of the cluttered and unorganized interface, it just adds funky colors to the app. That aside, it’s frighteningly bright, I’d say even brighter than the average smartphone display setting — the meme replies in the Reddit thread have cracked me up (see the countless reaction images).

Comment from r/truespotify

I can’t exactly explain it, but there’s something very 'uncanny valley' about Spotify with inverted colors. It sort of looks like Apple Music, but I know it’s not. I even lost my muscle memory while trying to navigate it — it threw me off that much.

As we all know, Spotify loves a good visual, and most songs on the platform display a short looping video in the playback section of the app, but inverted colors interfere with this, making visuals look like X-rays. But even if you like how it looks, it has a knock-on effect for both iOS and Android smartphones.

Because Android doesn’t allow this tool to be enabled for individual apps, you’ll have to put up with inverted colors across your entire system, which is quite a strain on the eyes. While iOS allows you to enable inverted colors for separate apps, you need to have the system-wide Light Mode setting turned on for it to work. This means that if you’re like me and prefer to use Dark Mode in apps like Instagram and iMessages, you’ll have to sacrifice this — it’s an all-or-nothing situation.

I think it’s appropriate to say that, overall, it doesn’t sit well with a lot of subscribers. It does, however, remind us that while Spotify has yet to fix a few layout issues, at least the platform has a solid brand identity.

• Tidal has published a new policy on AI-generated music content
• Along with labelling 100% AI tracks, it targets "substantially generated" stuff too
• Tidal "will not tolerate AI-generated music that impersonates an artist or group"

Tired of the AI slop in your music — or tracks your delicate ear perceives to be AI-generated — in recommended playlists? You're not alone.

In a welcome move for recording artists, their parents, their loved ones, and just lovers of original musical works with human vocals, hi-res music streaming giant Tidal has published a comprehensive AI policy with the strapline "Promoting Fairness and Economic Empowerment in the Era of AI-Generated Music".

The publication of the policy follows extensive progress in this area from Deezer, with its free AI-detection tool that works on any streaming platform, Bandcamp's strong and concise anti-AI stance set out in January of this year, Apple's March-issue (but somewhat shaky) 'Transparency Tags' which rely on record labels and distributors to tag AI content in Apple Music, and Spotify's… er, Verified by Spotify badge, which certifies that an artist is human, but doesn't help filter out the slop from any generated playlists.

Tidal's stance, while not before time, is particularly firm. The company's extensive six-point document was published today (Monday, June 29) and opens with the statement:

"Tidal defines AI-generated music as music that is wholly or substantially generated by generative artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are not new to music creation, they have just become more commonplace and advanced. Our policy as it relates to AI-generated music is intended to capture recent developments in — and the rapid proliferation of — text-prompted AI music generation."

The missive adds that while the streaming platform will accept AI-generated music ("Artists should have the freedom to create with AI tools, and listeners should have the autonomy to choose the type of content they consume"), it will "hold AI-generated content to a higher standard of content integrity". How? By identifying it, tagging it (by mid-July of this year) and crucially, not paying any streaming royalties for it.

The tide is turning on text-prompted AI music creation

Interestingly, Tidal is seemingly looking to go even further than Deezer here. While the rival platform's anti-AI filter currently works only on 100% AI tracks, Tidal's policy states: "As AI-detection methods become more reliable, we will expand this tag to content that is substantially AI-generated". Bold.

The Tidal document adds, "But the responsibility to identify and tag AI-generated content should not rest with Tidal alone. We expect — and will begin to enforce — that content distributors identify AI-generated content before it reaches our platform."

So, a two-pronged attack on AI? It's a move that can only be seen as a win for musicians and bands. That said, it remains to be seen how effective Tidal's specific anti-AI software will be — and also, who exactly is helping the company achieve its admirable aims.

I asked Tidal whether it had perhaps implemented Deezer's anti-AI tool (which the company made available to rivals back in January and subsequently offered to anyone who wanted to check their playlists for AI tracks regardless of the streaming service) and was told "We're currently working with an external partner to manage detection."

So it seems Tidal is keeping its cards very close to its chest regarding how it's going to make good on the policy. Either way, it's a positive step in the fight to keep music and musicians (a)live.

It's Amazon Prime Day, and one of my favorite deals of day isn't actually a huge discount, but I think it's a really worthwhile buy at the lower price. It's the WiiM Amp Ultra, which is available for $449 at Amazon US (down from $529), or you can get it for £425 at Amazon UK (down from $499).

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

I have the WiiM Amp Ultra at home, and it's an amazing streaming amp for this price. It's really well-built and looks at home among nice furniture, with a solid metal finish — and it's shockingly compact, considering that it provides up to 100W per channel, so it can work with some really hefty speakers,

Most importantly, it sounds excellent, and there's support for nearly every music service you could want (but I'll come back to that "nearly), plus useful inputs for a turntable and so on.

I use it with a pair of Dali Oberon 5 bookshelf speakers, and the combination is off the charts for a hi-fi system that barely takes up any space. Obviously, floorstanding speakers are tall, but the Oberon 5 only have the same footprint as bookshelf speakers, so these three boxes overall can be used even in space-starved homes, but sound like you've got a much bigger, beefier setup.

When I started this configuration, I auditioned it against using the Amp Ultra with a pair of Dali Oberon 1 bookshelf speakers, and against a pair of Sonos Era 300 speakers (a pair of which costs about the same as getting the Amp Ultra and Oberon 5 speakers).

The Oberon 1 bookshelf speakers crushed the Sonos Era 300 when it came to detail and dynamic response in music, but they were equally crushed by the Sonos for bass depth and dispersion of sound in the room.

However, the Oberon 5 are the best of all worlds with the WiiM powering them — big and controlled bass, fantastic detail in the mids and treble, superb dynamic attack, and great dispersion in the room.

So I'd recommend the WiiM Amp Ultra generally, but if you're thinking that you'd like a whole magnificent hi-fi setup for under £1,000 in the UK, here's my recommendation today — if you're in the US, scroll down, because I've got a recommendation for you right after.

Today's best UK WiiM Amp Ultra and speaker deal combination

Today's best UK WiiM Amp Ultra and speaker deal combination

Some speakers are quite a lot more expensive in the US than in Europe, and Dali speakers are chief among this category. So when looking for an equivalent system to suggest with the WiiM Amp Ultra in the US, I wanted to find something that was also a huge bargain, and that's just as good, and the ELAC Debut 2.0 F6.2 is the perfect option, because their bookshelf version also got five stars from What Hi-Fi? in their review.

The downside to the WiiM Amp Ultra

There is one thing I want to note about the Amp Ultra: it's not 100% ideal for Apple Music households, despite its aluminum look and slick design. It lacks any kind of Apple support outside of Bluetooth — not just Apple Music (which is normal for streaming amps, only Sonos has this natively), but even AirPlay 2, which nearly every other music streaming device on the planet supports.

It doesn't have a USB audio input either, which seems like an odd omission for an 'Ultra' device — and it's annoying that it rules out using your Apple device's USB port to send Hi-Res Audio to it.

Now, Spotify is the most popular service, and that's supported. I have a Tidal subscription, so I'm all good. This is far from affecting everyone, but there are plenty of people who are deep in the Apple system, who use Apple Music only, and the Amp Ultra is oddly hostile to those people.

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
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More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: get a 30-day free trial
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• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: up to 33% off AirPods & Apple Watch
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• Essentials: household goods from £5
• Fans: from £20
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Gaming: £90 off PlayStation 5
• Headphones: up to 50% off Beats & Sony
• Laptops: from £149
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• Deezer unveils Remix Lab in-app tool in France; should launch elsewhere soon
• Lets you augment a song or combine two
• Doesn't use AI; artists are paid

AI slop peddlers may try to make you believe that artificial music is absolutely fine and dandy music, and that it's impossible (or at any rate, quite unimportant) for original artists to get paid, in order for it to work. Well, Deezer has just proven that as totally wrong.

The music streaming service has just launched Remix Lab, a tool which lets you combine or remix songs and then add them to your library. It's available in the app right now, but only in France; the platform says it could come to more regions later in the year, but for now, it's largely French musicians included.

I know what you're wondering, and I asked: Deezer confirmed to TechRadar that there's no AI used in the process. Happy days! The brand has been refreshingly anti-AI, but given how many companies have forgotten their anti-AI stances when a checkbook comes out, it never hurts to check.

Instead, the tool uses audio stems provided by the artist, and applies edits to these to create an effect. So it's less slop generation, more a lightweight version of Adobe Audition without the dials and sliders.

AI? Not on this platform

Music remixing is nothing new, but usually it needs one of two things: either some level of technical know-how, or the ability to quell your ethical qualms and use AI to do it. Since AI is often sold as as a field-leveler — now a lack of talent is no hindrance! — many assume it has to be used for those without training.

Not according to Deezer, though, proving that you don't need to feed water-gobbling, planet-heating data centers to riff on existing songs. Deezer also says it's the first ever streaming platform to offer a song remixing service with full rights compliance and in agreement with the artists, and I'd be inclined to believe 'em.

Another pervasive AI myth, perpetuated by world governments as much as unscrupulous rights holders, is that it's impossible to compensate artists for their works being used, and that permission is optional. These bots may have been trained in your back-catalog without your consent, but it'd be impossible for you to be compensated for this, apparently.

To Deezer, this doesn't fly. The platform has confirmed that artists have agreed for their songs to be used in Remix Lab, and get compensated for remixes and listens through the tool. Let the dollars Euros roll!

Every day, AI sounds more and more redundant; you can't help but hear about businesses firing staff to save money, then spending more on AI credits, or filmmakers tanking their careers by making slop history shows and aligning themselves with AI brands. And so Deezer is doing the good work, by continuing to show us that there is a better way — and that this 'panacea' should actually just be panned.

• Atonemo has launched the new NTS Radio Player box
• It connects to your speakers and to online radio
• You can also stream to the box from your phone

If you find the abundance of choice on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music a little overwhelming, consider this new gizmo from Swedish electronics firm Atonemo: its minimal design features just two buttons and one dial, to connect you to curated online radio stations run by NTS.

It's called the Atonemo NTS Radio Player (via Deezen), and it hooks up to your speaker system of choice via a 3.5mm analog line-out port (and there's an AUX to RCA adapter in the box if you need it).

Once connected, you can press one of the buttons to tune into either NTS Channel 1 or NTS Channel 2. The dial, meanwhile, gives you access to 16 'infinite mixtape' feeds from NTS, with icons matching the mood of each one: these mixtapes include Sheet Music (the violin icon), Sweat (the water drops icon), and Island Time (the sunshine icon).

There's a mixtape for most types of mood and most types of music, pulled directly from the NTS site. The device offers 24-bit / 192 kHz lossless audio quality, gapless playback, and a 10-band graphic equalizer that can be accessed through the app.

Bring your own tunes, too

According to Atonemo co-founder and radio player designer Noah Constantinou, the gadget follows the Japanese concept of 'omakase' — that's where in a restaurant you let the expert chef choose the dishes, rather than selecting them yourself.

If you don't want the NTS DJs to pick your music, you can also stream your choice of tunes to the radio player from your phone using Google Cast, AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, or Tidal Connect. In that regard it doubles up as an easy way of connecting your phone to a set of speakers (which Atonemo's standard Streamplayer also does).

"I think people miss tactile objects," Constantinou told Dezeen. "We have become so used to putting screens on everything when it is in many cases not necessary, and even sometimes counterproductive."

Judging by the Reddit reactions, Constantinou is right: "such a cool idea" and "I gotta have it" are just two of the many positive takes on this new gadget. The device will set you back $179 / £129 / AU$250 and can be ordered online now.

• Spotify is rolling out its Reserved concert priority scheme in the US
• ROLE MODEL is the first partner artist, with more to follow
• 'Top fans' are determined based on overall engagement in Spotify, which poses questions about who the true fans really are

A few weeks ago Spotify unveiled Reserved, its new priority scheme that gives top fans first pick of tickets to see their favorite touring artists — and it’s finally going live in the US today (June 18).

Premium subscribers over the age of 18 will be eligible for Reserved access, which has come out of Spotify’s partnership with Live Nation, powered by Ticketmaster. To kick off the new scheme, singer ROLE MODEL will be the first official artist partner, who just announced his US tour.

Starting today, listeners will receive notifications informing them if they meet Spotify’s criteria and qualify as a ‘top fan’ of ROLE MODEL. From there, Spotify will reserve two tour tickets for eligible fans, which they can purchase within a 24-hour window before tickets go on sale to the general public.

In addition to push notifications, Spotify says it will notify you if you’re a top fan via email and pop-ups in the ‘Your Updates’ section of the Spotify app. The platform recommends having your notifications for live events turned on, and ensuring your app is updated.

If you wish to claim your Reserved tickets, tap the ‘Buy now’ button when your purchase window opens. Once you’ve selected your tickets, you’ll be taken to Ticketmaster where you can complete your purchase.

As per Spotify’s announcement the platform says that, if prompted, you’ll have to connect your Spotify account to your Ticketmaster account in order to verify your Reserved access. As far as availability goes, Spotify notes that “Reserved allocations include a range of seating and prices, and specific availability varies by show,” adding the following:

“For some high-demand shows, you may enter a queue before reaching the ticket selection page. No matter what, two tickets on the tour will be held for you throughout your entire on-sale window. Each show has its own availability, so if you reach the end of a queue and your preferred seats are sold out, you'll still have the opportunity to purchase other tickets”.

Once the purchase window closes, unclaimed Reserved tickets will be released to the next most dedicated fans, and Spotify will notify them in the same way.

How do I know if I’m on the list?

This is the burning question we all want the answer to, and in short, there’s no way of knowing if you’ve met Spotify’s criteria prior to receiving a Reserved notification.

In deciding who qualifies as a ‘top fan’, Spotify doesn’t just take the number of times someone has streamed an artist into account. For the platform, it’s all based on engagement, meaning it considers shares, saves, and your overall streaming history with the artist. “There’s nothing random about who gets chosen!” Spotify claims, but the company is holding its cards very close to its chest.

While the company says it uses the above to measure engagement, it’s refraining from revealing every detail regarding how it decides who the top fans are. This is because Spotify wants to avoid strategic engagement, and prioritize authentic fandom (it also clarifies that relying on background listening to bump up streams won’t get you on the list).

Though you can purchase tickets to any date on an artist’s tour regardless of where you’re located, Spotify does take your location into consideration when it’s deciding who top fans are — which is a huge pain point. So, if an artist is touring a city that isn’t far from you, you’ll be more likely to receive a Reserved notification, which is a punch to the gut for mega fans who live in the sticks. Then there’s the case of fandom itself.

While I do think Reserved could be a good preventative measure for stopping ticket scalpers, there’s always the chance it could make fan culture even more of a battlefield for people to prove themselves as 'genuine' fans and gain bragging rights, when fandom has always been a place of community and not competition.

Does this mean that those who stream an artist to the ends of the earth are ‘bigger fans’ than those who engage in other means outside of Spotify, for example by investing in physical music which goes directly into the artist’s pocket? Will Reserved solve a legitimate issue that’s plaguing fans, or is it simply a badge of honor?

Convenience has become a much more acceptable concept in hi-fi these days. No longer shorthand for compromise, its importance for modern listeners has instead inspired whole lines of products — and the impressive Cambridge Audio Evo range is one of the most impressive among them.

Initially made up of a couple of just-add-speakers streaming amplifiers and an all-in-one player, the line up has offered a great solution for anyone looking to simplify their setup since its launch five years ago.

Last year, Cambridge retired the lesser powered of the two streaming amps — the Evo 75 — leaving the reconfigured Evo 150 SE and the also-includes-speaker Cambridge Evo One holding the fort on their own… until now.

Cambridge recently unveiled the Evo 300, a brand new range-topping stereo streaming amp, promising to be twice as powerful and, the brand says, a “real step up” from last year’s Evo 150 SE in “pretty much every way”. I got to hear it at this year's High End Vienna hi-fi show, and we deemed it good enough to win one of TechRadar's High End Vienna Best in Show awards.

As much as I love the fun of system matching with hi-fi separates, it can be expensive and time consuming, so there’s a lot to be said for a the simplicity of a streaming amp — particularly one that is claiming a hefty output of 300 watts per channel of Class D amplification, all wrapped up in a seriously stylish design.

You even get to choose from interchangeable side panels for the Evo 300’s black aluminum body, with the option of a traditional real-wood finish or a more modern black slatted look. I’m partial to the wood look myself.

The Evo 300 is like a slightly stretched out version of the Evo 150 SE, measuring just a couple of inches wider. This means it also features the brand’s largest screen at 7.8 inches, which is an OLED that looks as bright and crisp as ever. This shows any changes to volume and input as they happen, but also displays album artwork or a choice of digital VU meters, if you prefer.

The same incredibly tactile dual-concentric control dial from the 150 SE sits along the front panel, for adjusting volume and choosing input, plus there’s a front-mounted 6.35mm headphone output and a handful of playback controls just to the right of the display.

While Cambridge told me that it’s managed to squeeze even more power from the same Hypex NCOREx amplification modules as the 150 SE, the company’s flagship streaming amp has had a DAC upgrade, with the improved 32-bit ESS Sabre ES9038Q2M now on board to support playback of just about any Hi-Res Audio you can throw at it.

It also now features a dual-mono layout under the hood, for maximum channel separation, and improved stereo imaging, alongside a balanced pre-amplifier stage. Plus there’s now the addition of HDMI eARC for the most up-to-date connection for your TV, and flexibility with independent volume and subwoofer controls.

These join the things we loved from the 150 SE, such as dual speaker outputs, optical, RCA and balanced XLR inputs, and a moving magnet phono stage for hooking up a turntable.

Comprehensive streaming support is of course offered via Cambridge Audio’s excellent StreamMagic platform, which includes Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Qobuz Connect, plus you can use AirPlay 2, Google Cast, and Bluetooth 5.4. It’s also Roon Ready for multiroom support with other Roon-compatible devices.

All of this points to a seriously capable centrepiece in a serious hi-fi system — particularly considering the much more powerful speakers it can now be paired with.

I got to listen to the Evo 300 hooked up to a pair of Dynaudio Contour Legacy floorstanders — which really aren’t messing around at $14,000 / £10,000 / AU$20,000 per pair. But the Evo 300 takes them in its stride, with a confident, full-bodied presentation, and volume to spare.

From a brief first listen, it’s easy for the power and scale that this relatively compact single box is capable of to be the main takeaway. Streaming from Spotify Lossless, the Evo 300 delivers an incredibly expansive and spacious sound, with a solid stereo image and good separation.

But the level of insight, clarity and detail retrieval also feels notable here. Combined with Cambridge’s reputation for musicality and what appears to be a more refined tonal balance — even at high volume levels — it all means that, on first impressions, the Evo 300 certainly sounds to be the substantial step up it is promising to be.

Of course, trade show demos offer far from perfect conditions for a truly critical appraisal of sound, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing how it performs in the real world.

The Cambridge Evo 300 is very much priced for its capabilities though, so at $3,999 / £3,499 / AU$6,399, you’re going to want to make sure your space or gear can really make use of these beefier specs before you invest.

If not, the Cambridge 150 SE remains a great option for just-add-speakers convenience, and at almost half the price in the UK and Australia (£1,999 / $3,299 / AU$3,849). In the US, the price is bizarrely close between the two models, though the Evo 150 SE often falls to $2,699.

• Spotify is rolling out Track Reactions for Collaborative Playlists
• This lets you react to songs added by other members from a choice of six emojis
• It's rolling out in select markets now, but Spotify hasn't said which ones

One of Spotify’s most handy tools are Collaborative Playlists, which allow you and your friends to work together to pool songs into one monster playlist — now they’re getting a new upgrade that makes them even more interactive.

The best music streaming service shared on a community page that it’s in the process of rolling out Track Reactions, which is essentially a feature that lets you use emojis to react to songs added to your Collaborative Playlists.

Spotify says the tool is rolling out over the coming weeks in select markets to Free and Premium users aged 16 and older, though we don’t know which markets will be first.

Just like emoji reactions on platforms like Facebook Messenger, it works similarly, giving you a choice of six; a standard red heart, a laughing face, a thumbs-up, headphones, fire, and an emotional face. When you send a reaction, it appears next to the track name, and you can view the reactions added by other collaborators in the playlist.

The addition of Track Reactions means that Collaborative Playlists will now look slightly different than before. The profile image of playlist collaborators now appears on the song thumbnail indicating which member added which song, and now the Track Reaction icon has taken the spot to the right of a song title next to the three-dot button.

Track Reactions are automatically enabled in Collaborative Playlists that have 10 or less members, and only the people within the playlist can view them, meaning outside viewers won’t be able to see which songs have which reactions. You also don’t have to stick with them if you don’t want to — the playlist creator can disable Track Reactions in the playlist’s Name and Details settings.

We’re going through a time where most of Spotify’s new tools are reliant on the powers of AI, most recently its two new AI features for podcasts, so Track Reactions feels like a reminder that Spotify does have human elements to its user experience.

When it comes to Collaborative Playlists, I use them mainly for creating playlists with friends for gatherings and other social events (we have an annual summer meet-up, so the tool really comes in handy there). Now that Spotify has thrown Track Reactions into the mix, I can’t see it being used for anything other than judging each other’s song choices — and I’m actually okay with that.

Emoji reactions are a commonly-used feature among my friends across our slew of group chats, whether that’s for reacting to silly texts on Facebook Messenger or responding to unhinged videos we send to each other on TikTok. It won’t be any different in the case of Spotify, and hopefully it will encourage more conversations about the music we’re currently listening to.

For now, the emoji options are very limited and don’t quite represent a wide scope of emotions — they all seem to be pretty positive-leaning, with the exception of the emotional face emoji, which is often used to represent sadness or that feeling of ‘smiling through the pain’. To really take it to the next level, the choice to use custom emojis would open the floodgates for users to be even more expressive, or in my case, severely more judgemental.

Track Reactions are locked into the Collaborative Playlist experience for the time being, and Spotify hasn’t announced any plans to expand it to other playlist-making tools yet. We’ve contacted Spotify for more details about this, as well as which markets will have access first, so we’ll update this story when we know more.

If you had problems with DoorDash or Spotify today, you weren't alone — both apps experienced major issues that were later confirmed and resolved.

The problems on both apps appeared to start at around the same time, 9.30am ET / 2.30pm BST. However, there was no confirmed related issue between the two, despite small simultaneous reports of issues on AWS and Cloudflare.

At the peak of the problems, there was a massive 35,000 reports for DoorDash on Downdetector, with users reporting that they were locked out from the app and from making orders. Spotify's issues were slightly more minor, with a peak of 4,800 reports in the US.

You can follow what happened during both outages in this live report...

A huge spike for both

Welcome to this liveblog for the issues thousands are experiencing right now on both Doordash and Spotify.

Right now, it isn't clear what the connection (if any) there is between the two, but we'll be getting to the bottom of it in this liveblog, and bringing you all of the latest official information.

As you can see, the spikes on both Doordash and Spotify on Downdetector are considerable. Let's hope they're both short-lived, unlike the Google Gemini outage we saw last week...

A widespread outage for DoorDash

DoorDash down? Or am I the only one? from r/doordash

This Reddit thread shows that the DoorDash issues are pretty widespread across the US right now, with reports from Tampa to Michigan, and also in Australia too.

It appears to be down for both users and drivers, which is causing widespread worry for those who need their hit of energy drinks and snacks. Most are seeing an error message like "the data couldn't be read because it's missing", and logging out seemingly isn't helping.

Spotify joins the outage party

Today's Spotify issues don't seem to be as widespread as those on DoorDash — the app is working fine for me and many here at TechRadar, but there are thousands of reports on Downdetector and social media platforms like X.

Many are experiencing the classic "something went wrong" message when trying to play tracks that haven't been saved for offline listening, while others are seeing "Spotify can't play this right now" or "That didn't work right" messages.

It's definitely intriguing that both the Spotify and DoorDash issues seemingly started simultaneously, but so far there's been no confirmed cloud connection between the two.

DoorDash confirms a problem

Well, that's a slight relief at least — DoorDash has just officially confirmed that it's experiencing issues, which explains the thousands of reports we're seeing across the US and Australia.

There's no real explanation in the post on X (above) about what's causing the outage, but DoorDash promises it's "working urgently to resolve it".

Lots of questions for DoorDash

This is the problem facing most DoorDash users and drivers right now — they can't log into their accounts, which is leaving many stranded mid-order.

As many have asked in response to the DoorDash post on X, this raises many questions — most urgently, what happens to orders that are already en route? This necessarily a major problem if the Dasher driver already has the address, but that's not the case for everyone.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to cancel the order or request a refund while the app's down, but drivers can call this number for assistance: ​​855-431-0459.

Spotify is "aware of the situation"

Unlike DoorDash, there's been no confirmation of a Spotify outage on X via the SpotifyStatus account on X, although this thread has started on the Spotify forums.

On there, an official moderator says "we're receiving reports where the app is showing different errors (103, something went wrong) mostly on the desktop but other clients seem to be affected as well".

It adds that "the relevant teams are aware of this situation and working on a fix", so that's promising news — and the reports appear to be dropping slightly on Downdetector (above).

Could AWS or Cloudflare be the problem?

There are no official AWS (Amazon Web Services) issues reported today on Amazon's dashboard, so that seemingly isn't the cause of today's problems on both DoorDash and Spotify. Similarly, Cloudflare only has a reported issue with its Workers AI platform.

However, DoorDash and Spotify are known to use AWS for some of their cloud infrastructure — and both AWS and Cloudflare have experienced small spikes on Downdetector today. Still, those may simply be the knock-on effect of today's other outages, so there's still no single official cause for the DoorDash and Spotify problems (or a connection between the two).

Spotify is "all clear now"

Is Spotify fixed? It's looking that way, according to Downdetector — the reports of issues have fallen as quickly as they started just under two hours ago.

And now Spotify has confirmed on X that it should be "all clear now". If you have any more issues, you can check out the Community thread — but according to a few users on there, the problems now seem to be resolved. Phew.

Things are also now looking up for DoorDash too...

No official DoorDash fix — but it's back for many

DoorDash hasn't yet given us an update since its last post on X, where it confirmed an "issue affecting our platform", but Downdetector suggests it's well on the way to being fixed.

The reports have plummeted to just over 4,000, down from their peak of just over 35,000, and many on social media are expressing their relief that the app is working for them again. Let's hope that continues...

DoorDash is officially fixed

Good news for both DoorDash fans and DoorDasher drivers — the app is now officially fixed, according to the company.

DoorDash has added that it's still "working hard to correct any impacted Dashers and orders ASAP". So if you were hit today, stay patient and your frustrations should soon be ironed out.

Spotify is one of the best music streaming services when it comes to discovering new music, and while I think Daylist is one of the most underrated features for finding your next music obsession, Spotify’s flagship New Music Friday playlists are just as reliable. Now, it’s getting a visual upgrade.

The music streaming giant announced today (June 12) that its New Music Friday playlist will now feature short-form videos from its editorial team, who will share their thoughts on the biggest new releases.

Rolling out to Free and Premium users in the US first, you can find editor videos as you scroll through Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist of the latest releases. We’ve contacted Spotify to ask if and when these videos will roll out to other regions, and a spokesperson got back to us with the following:

“At this time, we’re focused on establishing and nailing the editor-led videos in the U.S. We’ll share any updates on expansion plans if and when they become available”.

In addition to sharing their perspectives, Spotify’s team will also spotlight rising artists and dive into the stories behind new songs and albums. It builds on Spotify’s in-app experience, The Drop Weekly, where editors break down new releases and discuss cultural moments. This experience rolled out in the US in September 2025, but hasn’t rolled out globally yet.

Not only does this give Spotify playlist curators the opportunity to share their recommendations front and center, but it also opens the doors for music fans to form connections with and understand the minds that work hard to pull Spotify’s playlists together.

Head of North America Editorial at Spotify, John Stein, details this in the company’s announcement:

“New Music Friday has always been about helping fans discover the best new music each week. By bringing our editors directly into the experience, we’re giving listeners a closer connection to the people behind the playlist and more context around the artists and songs shaping culture right now”.

I bet that most of you rolled your eyes when you read ‘short-form video’ and thought, ‘Really, Spotify?’ If it makes you feel any better, so did I. I can’t think of the last time I used Spotify’s video tools to find new music, but I feel there could be something different with its New Music Friday upgrade.

There’s one thing missing from music platforms, and that’s journalistic perspectives on music. Though Spotify’s About the Song function is handy for reading flash summaries of a track’s background, this information is gathered from third-party sites and compressed into something you can read in a few seconds.

With these editors' videos, it could introduce a lot of value to one of Spotify’s most-visited editorial playlists. It not only opens a door for you to learn more about the stories, but it also puts faces to the brains of the music connoisseurs who put the playlist together and how they think about which music to recommend.

I spend quite a bit of my time scrolling through Wikipedia pages, online magazines, and even Genius lyrics to get a kick out of my music trivia, and though Spotify’s New Music Friday videos aren’t going to replace these practices any time soon, I’m sure they’ll be a welcome addition to my music research regimen.

• Deezer launches AI music detector
• Scans your playlists to see how much of your music is AI slop
• It's free and works on any streamer, not just Deezer

The annual Spotify Unwrapped has proven itself a masterclass in free marketing, with music lovers across the world posting across social media about, well, how much they use Spotify.

Now, in an iconic "hold my beer" move, Deezer has just launched something to give you a stat you'll really want to brag about.

The streaming service has unveiled an online music detector, which it calls... the AI music detector (no zingy names here). It's an online site that can link up to your streaming service of choice to quickly scan all of your playlists and tell you how much of your tracks are AI-generated. It takes literally a minute or so to do — although in TechRadar's tests, Apple Music libraries took the longest.

Naturally, the goal is to either prove that you listen to no AI slop, or, if you receive a shock diagnosis, work out where these 'songs' are so you can treat the offensive condition. Deezer makes no secret that it'd be chuffed if you'd transfer all those playlists after the scan and thus sign up for its service yourself — and AI avoiders might find that ideal, since Deezer tags AI music (so you'd know what that offending 1% was, say).

To work out if this AI music detector is any good, and hopefully boast about my clean AI-free record, I booted up the tool and linked it to my Spotify account.

Livin' On A PrAIyer

I was already pretty confident that I don't listen to any AI music — it'd be pretty hard to when 90% of your music taste is from the noughties — but as an outspoken anti-AI-er, it bears checking.

It was really quick to pair the Free AI music checker by Deezer to my Spotify account, and it took less than a minute to comb through my libraries. Colleagues who've checked via other streaming services, particularly Apple Music, report longer wait times (and even one crash before it worked), but for Spotify and Tidal it was simple.

The Deezer tool quickly returned the score I was expecting: 0% AI. Nice. It even let me save a little badge to post on socials.

Some people on TR's team received a 1% AI score, much to their chagrin, and it did raise some questions. Firstly: which song? They weren't told, and so weeding out that errant strand of slop was way harder than it might be, if it were simply disclosed. Perhaps the only way to find out is to transfer your playlist over to Deezer, which the tool is very keen to help you with…

Secondly, where was this AI track found? It's not 100% clear, but the Deezer tool most likely checks your custom-made 'static' playlists only, rather than algorithmically-generated ones which you have no control over (or even other people's which you've saved).

Even though it'll still leave some users with as many questions as answers (is that 1% lurking somewhere in your hyperpop playlist?) it's great to see Deezer forging ahead in its war on AI-generated music.

The Spotify AI slop debacle has dragged on for longer than it should have, and despite the company rolling out measures to counter the spread of AI-generated music, some users are still wielding their pitchforks and torches over the controversy.

I came across a recent Reddit post in the r/truespotify forum that brought attention to the artist page of Selah Stone — an obviously AI-generated artist. But it wasn’t the artist the poster had an issue with; instead they decided to shade Spotify, claiming that the platform has been “creating fake bios and pictures to hide AI artists and further confuse users”.

Now, I’m all for pressuring the best music streaming services to tighten their AI-detection measures, but what the user addressed is completely out of Spotify’s hands, and I’m not the only one who thinks these conspiracy theories are becoming exhausting.

Though AI slop is becoming more apparent to some users (I haven’t run into it myself), Spotify is not the one uploading AI-generated music, nor is it creating the artist profiles that come with it. Every song and album uploaded to Spotify is an action taken by the artist and their team, or in the case of an AI artist, the person who sits behind that façade.

Comment from r/truespotify

The thing to remember is that Spotify doesn’t take direct music uploads. When a (human) artist shares music to Spotify (or any music streaming platform for that matter), it’s all processed through their label or distributor. Additionally, since Spotify rolled out its new ‘Verified by Spotify’ labels for artist profiles, another layer of reassurance that the artist you’re listening to is not AI has been added.

The same applies to AI artists, and even the music they generate can’t go through Spotify directly. Similarly, they’ll also need to use a distributor, with some common ones including DistroKid and Ditto Music — but the blame doesn’t end there.

Another AI conspiracy doing the rounds is that Spotify is making more profit by allowing users to rack up stream numbers of AI-generated music. This isn’t the case, because of how Spotify’s royalty and pay-out system works.

All subscriber fees are put into a pool, and from there the artists with the highest streaming numbers receive a larger portion of those pay-outs. While it’s not the fairest way of paying artists (even if you don’t stream Taylor Swift, your money is going to her and not necessarily the artists you actually listen to), and it puts indie artists at a disadvantage, AI-generated artists are not making heaps of money, although they do take up spots where human artists should be, something which I agree needs fixing.

In addition, Spotify paid out 70% of its annual revenue in 2025 to artists and rights-holders, so the majority of the money it makes from subscriptions is going right back into the industry, with what’s left over being invested back into the company.

Comment from r/truespotify

I don’t think such complaints are the real reasons why users are bothered. Instead, I believe it’s Spotify’s transparency issues that are the cause a lot of users' frustration. But because the platform hasn’t been the most transparent regarding AI music, the annoyance among users has reached boiling point, leading them to come up with ridiculous conspiracies — and now they’ll point the finger anywhere to find new reasons to blame Spotify for the increasing presence of AI slop.

Like many users in the Reddit replies, I also agree that Spotify needs to do a lot more to flag AI-generated music. I think that while the platform has tried to do some good with its online reporting resources, and new Verified by Spotify badges for artists, other services got there first.

However, the finger-pointing has to stop at some point — and those pushing conspiracy theories either need to provide clear evidence to support their claims, or shut up.

• Apple Music's iOS 27 upgrades include new artist pages and performance upgrades
• The platform has yet to roll out highly-requested functions such as continuity tools and social features
• The longer Apple Music goes without them, the better chance Spotify has at snatching its users

Tim Cook took what may be his final bow as Apple CEO at the company’s WWDC 2026 event, and there’s lots for iPhone users to look forward to with iOS 27, including upgrades to Apple Music.

In addition to the announcement of Apple’s next-gen Siri upgrade, Siri AI, the company is rolling out a handful of upgrades to its music streaming platform. It hasn’t been long since Apple last updated the Apple Music UI, but its Liquid Glass look divided subscribers.

One of the most notable new changes to the UI is a new look for artist pages, which now places the ‘Play’ and information buttons in the center of the page under new name displays. The ‘Essentials’ carousel, which spotlights an artist’s popular albums, has also been changed and is now in a list form that doesn’t look as punchy, which is a bit of a design downgrade if you ask me.

Apple Music redesigned artist pages from r/AppleMusic

It’s not just Apple Music’s UI that’s had a bit of a nip and tuck; the platform is also getting some performance enhancements in iOS 27, starting with the Automix tool, which uses AI to beat-match songs and create seamless DJ-like transitions.

According to Apple, the company has improved its algorithms to make room for better transitions. That's quite a vague way to put it, but I assume this means it will perform more efficiently when creating transitions between songs of different genres — a pain point I experienced during my time testing it out. Additionally, Apple says it has upgraded start times for quicker playback, and the 'Now Playing' page will now load much faster.

Apple Music is allergic to continuity tools and social features

I’ll always welcome new design approaches and performance upgrades — I’ve been running into delayed playback times far too often recently. But once again, Apple has chosen to overlook the meaningful features users actually want.

Many Apple Music subscribers like to criticize rival platforms such as Spotify, but if they can agree on one thing, it’s that Spotify Connect destroys Apple Music on the continuity front. To this day, Apple Music users are still waiting for a similar feature, and it’s one of the tools, if not the tool, that will really bring Apple Music into line with its competitors. The fact that Apple has never even discussed such a feature only adds to the frustration.

The platform also faces scrutiny for the inconsistency of its features across devices, creating a far-from-seamless user experience. For example, Apple Music’s new live concert information and playlists and albums tabs are still missing from the Mac version.

Something I was patiently waiting for during WWDC was Apple’s official announcement of Playlist Playground, an AI-integrated playlist-making tool similar to Spotify’s Prompted Playlists. To my dismay, though, nothing was mentioned, even though we were expecting a wider roll out to be confirmed after Playlist Playground came arrived in beta in February.

Just like continuity tools, this feature would give Apple the perfect opportunity to not only match a popular Spotify feature, but give its users another reason to stick around. Apple Music has already won on the audio streaming quality and editorial fronts, but Apple now it needs to start paying close attention to how it can build social features that complement its ecosystem.

It’s been four months since Playlist Playground first appeared, but there’s still been no word from Apple on when it will finally open its doors to the public. We might see a reveal at Apple's iPhone launch event, which will likely be in September, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

• Spotify is eyeing up live concert streaming
• It's part of the company's strategy to shift more into video content
• YouTube is still leading on the livestream front, and I think it'll be tough competition

Spotify is doing all it can to move beyond being just an audio platform — now it wants to offer live concert videos for subscribers, and I’m not sure how to feel about it.

According to Bloomberg , the audio streaming giant has plans in the works to become “a hub for live music”, and has reached out to concert promoters to secure licensing rights to broadcast live videos of music festivals right from the Spotify app.

Spotify has recently been experimenting with concert videos, adding a slew of pre-recorded music videos from Dua Lipa’s show in Mexico City, accompanying a live album released by the artist. Additionally, Primavera Sound festival took place in Barcelona over the weekend, which has gained substantial popularity and following online over the recent years — so it makes sense as to why Spotify would want to capitalize on this.

The move into live concert broadcasting reflects Spotify’s evolving plans to become a pipeline between artists and their most dedicated fans. A few weeks ago Spotify unveiled its new in-app tool Reserved, a concert ticket-reserving tool that aims to give legitimate fans top priority for securing tickets to their favorite musician’s live shows. On the other hand, the move into live concert streaming plays into Spotify’s wider video monetization strategy.

Spotify first started out as an audio-only service, but over its 20-year lifespan it’s rolled out many visual components from short-form content feeds to music videos, and even video podcasts. Not only have these helped increase subscriber engagement levels, it’s also established a more profitable means of ad revenue that Spotify doesn’t quite get through its audio content and this is reflected in the company’s recent quarterly earnings, as Bloomberg highlights.

In the first quarter of the year Spotify’s total advertising revenue saw a drop — The Next Web reports that it fell 5% year on year to €385 million (roughly $443 million) — therefore adding more video content means higher advertising rates and a better chance at boosting this profit.

That said, some see Spotify’s venture into live concert broadcasting as just another means of reducing artist’s streaming revenue — but that’s not the first concern that crossed my mind.

YouTube, always and forever

Spotify’s video offerings aren’t my favorite ways to engage with music. Compared to Apple Music, I find Spotify’s music videos interface to be unorganized and almost forced upon you while listening to audio (I never use the ‘Switch to video’ button).

I’ve said it before and I shall say it again, YouTube is still the holy grail of visual music content, even if Spotify is still doing all it can to compete. You have to give it to Spotify though, it’s drive is undeniably admirable, but competing with YouTube is like attempting to shade the sun.

In addition to its slew of pre-recorded live music channels (I watch a lot of NPR Tiny Desk Concerts as well as artist music videos) YouTube plays a huge part in bringing fans closer to the biggest music events across the world. This is most notably the case for the Coachella music festival in California, which I’ve been streaming via YouTube since I was 17.

Spotify has a lot to think about, and for its live concert broadcasts to stand out it needs to match, or totally defy what YouTube has. As well as this, there’s also the question regarding where in the app these broadcasts will be situated — the app is already bulky as it is, so an entirely new live stream interface would be a bit of a squeeze.

With that being said, I can see the minor user benefits. Depending on which artists sign on to this agreement, it could give music fans a higher quality, more robust way of consuming live concert content as opposed to relying on watching videos posted to TikTok or Instagram reels.

Right now, my feed is inundated with content from Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine tour which kicked off over the weekend, and it’s making me regret not going for tickets. I have no issues with watching clipped videos on social media, but thinking about it now, having an accessible live stream of the show from start to finish would make good background viewing/ listening. But let’s be real, Netflix works an awful lot faster to sign deals with artists for live concert movies, and that’s essentially the same thing.

The 2026 High End audio show is in full swing in Vienna. The show is a key fixture of the hi-fi enthusiast's calendar, and was previously held in Munich — this year, it made the big move over to the Austria Center on the banks of the Danube, and TechRadar followed it.

We've had our audio team on the ground, rapidly learning how not to get lost in the new layout and exploring the mix of returning companies and new players who've jumped on board as part of the change.

We explored as many listening rooms and headphones booths as we could, to identify our favorite products in the audio areas we cover here on TechRadar, so naturally we've got a mix of speakers, streamers, a soundbar-that's-not-a-soundbar, and headphones, rather than hi-fi cables and pre-amps.

So here, in alphabetical order, are the products our team picked as the products that really stood out to us at the end of the show days, all chosen based on listening to their performance.

Astell & Kern SP4000T and Clarus

Let's start with a double winner — we got to test these together, and while each seems phenomenal, the combination was the most impressive part. The SP4000T DAP is an upgraded version of the already fantastic A&K SP4000 player, now packing four vacuum tubes for a taste of the analog.

The Clarus are wired earbuds with nine drivers per bud, using a bunch of different technologies, each targeting different frequencies.

The combination of the two really leans into the 'clarity' suggestion in the Clarus' name — we were instantly taken by the pin-sharp attack in their dynamic range, and the fine detail that they were able to bring out of the music, all while giving every listener a huge sense of scale that feels well beyond something handheld or that fits right in your ear conch.

Bowers & Wilkins 801 D5

Bowers & Wilkins is celebrating its 60th anniversary, so what better time to release its new flagship 801 D5 loudspeaker? This model features B&W's famous Diamond Dome tweeter and an upgrade to its internal Matrix bracing, including a new Space Frame Bracing extension.

The aim is to deliver even more incredibly natural, generous, and immersive sound. During our demo with the 801 D5, we were blown away by life-like vocals, brilliantly regimented deep bass, and super-defined treble, as well as its sophisticated soundstage and spacious presentation.

Cabasse Pearl Pelegrina Édition Atelier

The High End show is always full of bonkers speaker designs, and Cabasse's spherical Pearl design is old news to hi-fi fans — but we can't help but be taken by the Pelegrina version's 'alien eyeball squid has come to Earth to negotiate a new intergalactic peace' design — and what's new this year is the Atelier system, meaning that you can have any finish you want on them, to make them fit your spaceship listening room perfectly.

But what's most important is the astoundingly powerful sound from a speaker cabinet that's actually amazingly compact. The front driver is a tri-coaxial system, meaning it's actually three drivers nested inside each other, and there's a hefty custom-design woofer on the rear capable of especially high excursion.

The end result is a set of speakers that look like an art installation, but can party like a warehouse rave. They can thump the low-end with the best of them, while delivering super-rich and detailed sound that wraps across the room despite their compact 'pupils'. And they're active speakers, so you can put them wherever you want in your home and just start playing.

Cambridge Evo 300

This is the artist formerly known as Cambridge Audio's new, more powerful compact streaming amp — if you've got a really beefy speaker. Still, if you don't want to dedicate too much space to components, then the 300W per channel you can get from the Evo 300 might be exactly what you want.

That's paired with Cambridge's excellent, super-comprehensive streaming platform and digital skills, so you've got easy access to Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, Roon, and Deezer, with various casting options from your phone and aptX Bluetooth if you prefer. There are two sets of speaker outputs, plus a sub out; for input, you've got XLR, HDMI eARC, and analog options including an MM phono input.

It's just the ultimate all-in-one modern amp if you've got big speaker ambitions — and here in 2026, why shouldn't you?

Canvas Hi-Fi Canvas L

This is basically a pair of floor-standing speakers disguised as a soundbar for Halloween. You've got a stereo setup where each side has a tweeter, a midrange driver, and an 8-inch bass woofer with a matching 8-inch passive radiator. There's 1500W of amplification behind that, as well a necessarily well-braced cabinet — all of which are designed to attached to the rear of your TV using a mounting bracket, with the speakers sitting underneath the screen.

And it's in this list because it sounds like two excellent floorstanding speakers. It delivers unbelievably deep and resonant bass for a floating speaker bar, with the low end dispersed well throughout the room. There's phenomenal texture and realism to vocals, and it's all brilliantly musical and full of excellent rhythmic energy. It's delicate when it needs to be, but our overarching takeaway from listening to music is just how firm and 3D every instrument feels.

We didn't get to try it with music, but this is the first time we've heard something claim to be an audiophile soundbar and responded, "Yep, that's fair". It was electric, musical, and kind of addictive.

iFi iDSD GR 2

The iFi iDSD GR2 portable DAC is a considerable upgrade on its beloved predecessor, the venerable xDSD Gryphon, in a number of ways. It delivers far more amplification power, longer battery life, and even a touchscreen for a more user-friendly experience.

After trying it out at the show, we loved how it more seamlessly helps you to bring the very best out of a pair of premium headphones, and with K2HD tech for enhanced harmonics alongside a whole load of connectivity options, the GR2 has just about everything an audiophile needs, whether listening at home or on the go.

Meze Audio Arta

These new planar magnetic headphones come from a brand known for bringing high-end sound to a very reasonable price — but this time, Meze Audio just went all out, price be damned.

The result is one of the biggest and most cohesive soundstages we've ever heard from a pair of headphones. From the tinkliest treble with heavy sub-bass, these headphones deliver it all with total control and clarity, all at the same time if they have to. It's that cohesion that stands out, partly because it means individual parts don't stand out — everything sounds simply 'correct' in a way that deeply satisfies the brain. They deliver total audio order — a perfect, seamless whole.

Noble FoKus Artemis

These are wireless active noise-canceling headphones, from a company that most people will probably know best for putting improbably powerful driver arrays into earbuds. Well, it's now put an improbably powerful driver array into over-ears, including a dynamic driver, a planar driver, and a balanced armature — and somehow, the end result is pretty lightweight and comfortable, with a 50-hour battery life.

The end result is probably the most revealing noise-canceling headphones we've ever tried. They're utterly impeccable at picking out every nuance of instruments, even in the most dense mix, and even with the ANC mode activated (which is pretty good too).

There's a huge dynamic range, and really steep level of attack to them: every drum is hard, and every plosive is picked up with precision in a voice. The sound is maybe a little cooler than most people will be used to from ANC headphones, but that will be exactly their strength — they create the silence, and then fill it with tiny details you'd never heard before.

Ruark R710

The Ruark R710 streaming amplifier blends a beautiful retro-style look with an expansive suite of modern features — as well as some not-so-modern ones that we very much welcome. It builds on Ruark's previous R610 in a number of ways, packing in more power for the speakers, along with an integrated CD player, which has apparently been included by popular demand (and is hidden in the handsome wooden front grille, making it a fun secret touch).

When listening to the streamer alongside Ruark's new Talisman R speakers, we were impressed by the warmth and tonality of vocals, the high caliber of instrument separation in the mix, and the striking power of the overall presentation from a compact box.

Yamaha NX-70A

Yamaha's new active speakers have a very sleek and stylish look, but generally seem quite unflashy and demure — though in our demo at the show, they seemed like something of a wireless wonder.

They offer a lively, precise sound with really well-honed handling of transients, which helps them to build an excellent stereo spatial presentation. The diffusion of ambient sounds into the room while holding the tension on the sharper central sounds makes them a really exciting listen. There's so much detail, creating a really physical sense of texture to something like the hum of a saxophone reed. Add the pleasingly weighted bass response, and you get a set of active speakers that really grab your attention, in the best way.

This year's Amazon Prime Day has officially been announced for June 23 - 26, and the retailer already has great early promotions to check out for Prime members. In fact, some of these promotions won't even cost you a penny.

One such example is Music Unlimited, Amazon's premium streaming platform, which is currently free for a full four months. That's a massively extended free trial that lets Prime members try everything out while saving a significant amount of cash.

Amazon Music Unlimited usually costs $11.99/£11.99 per month, so today's early Prime Day promo can save you well over $40 with the full four-month duration.

As a brief overview, Amazon Music Unlimited offers access to more than 100 million songs along with a large catalogue of podcasts. We rate it as one of the best music streaming services on the market — and a particularly strong option for Prime members, in particular. If you want a deeper look at all its features, you can check out our full Amazon Music Unlimited review for more details.

Get three months of Music Unlimited for free

• See more: check out all of today's Spring deals at Amazon

Aside from being cheaper for Prime members, Amazon Music Unlimited has a few other major selling points if you're interested in switching up your music streaming.

Firstly, Music Unlimited offers high-quality audio thanks to support for lossless FLAC up to 24-bit/192kHz. That's something that a few rivals lack right now, so it's a solid all-around choice for audiophiles.

Secondly, beyond its audio quality and expansive library, Amazon Music Unlimited also works great with other products in the broader Amazon ecosystem. If you're already using a ton of Alexa-compatible devices, then it's a strong addition to your line-up.

As with all early Prime Day promos, you need to be an Amazon Prime member to be eligible for this extended free trial. If you're not a member, don't fret, as you can simply make use of the 30-day free trial outlined below. That will cover you for not just this deal, but for any Prime member exclusives during the upcoming Amazon Prime Day sale.

Also available at Amazon today

• Spotify could be rolling out a tool that allows you to change your username
• It could also roll out profile bios
• They're minor but exciting new tools, however, I need Spotify to make improvements to Messages and Listening Stats first

Spotify’s integration with third-party social media platforms allows you to seamlessly share what you’re listening to with your friends, but I’m still bitterly disappointed with its limited profile customization functions — but the music platform could finally be expanding on this.

At the start of the year, Android Authority spotted strings of code in the Spotify app pointing to a tool that lets you edit or change your Spotify username. Fast forward to now, and the outlet has come across more evidence that this feature could be in the pipeline.

In its most recent teardown, Android Authority found more text strings referring to “edit profile social handle” as well as one that states “you can only change your username twice within 14 days”. If you’ve been using Spotify for a while and have been forced to stick with a default username, or you created an embarrassing one at the time you signed up, it could solve a huge pain point, and I’m already excited for the possibility of its arrival.

But it doesn’t end there, because profile bios could also be coming to the Spotify app after being restricted to artist pages since the platform’s inception. It means so much more than simply giving you the freedom to tell the world exactly who you are in flash form, but it gives you a whole new way of curating and a proper musical identity on Spotify.

Android Authority’s findings also reveal that you’ll be able to add and edit your bio, as well as have the option to choose who can view it in your profile — that’s if Spotify decides to release it, that is.

Messages and Listening Stats need some more TLC

I'll admit that this is pretty basic stuff — most social media platforms have always given you the freedom to curate your own identity through usernames and profile bios, but this could mark the beginning of a big transformation for one of the best music streaming services.

Spotify has always been dedicated to its social functions. You can share music to other platforms, and your algorithm is completely determined by your personal habits, but Spotify has yet to really hit the nail on the head with other social functions.

I’ve always wished for more profile customization tools in Spotify. In fact, it was one of the improvements I said I wanted in 2026 — think Musicboard, which lets you set banner images and profile photo borders to give your page a bit more personality. Though Spotify is nowhere at this stage yet, its username and bio tools are a small step forward, but there are other things the platform needs to tweak, too.

Spotify introduced the Messages tab in August 2025, allowing you to DM the people you follow and share music recommendations, which in hindsight is handy for some, but I find that this part of the interface still needs a lot of work. I’m still waiting for replies from friends whom I messaged weeks ago, so there must be a notification issue there.

In relation to Messages, Listening Stats also had an overdue glow-up, which now tells you exactly how many songs and artists you listen to in a week. It also allows you to compare your own stats to your friends’ and view them side-by-side, but Spotify is being funny about how it determines who your friends are.

Instead of automatically adding the accounts you follow to your ‘friends’, Spotify says you have to invite friends to chat in order to view their weekly stats, even though you can see what they are listening to in real time. I tried to do this as soon as I came across the Listening Stats update, but the person on the other end couldn't accept my invitation.

It’s got me thinking, is Spotify only doing this to get more subscribers to use the Messages function? Because given how my experience has panned out, that theory seems even more legitimate.

• There's evidence for a new free tier for Apple Music
• It will no doubt come with certain limitations
• Users are worried that there will be adverts involved

The streaming, unlimited listening component of Apple Music differs from Spotify in that you can't use it for free — you have to pay a monthly subscription. According to code spotted in the latest Apple Music app for Android, that might be about to change.

Discovered by tipster Aaron Perris (via 9to5Mac), the code snippets mention limits on track skipping, and a "Premium access required" message, which are both consistent with some kind of subscription-free tier for the Apple Music streaming catalog.

However, Perris himself admits the code strings could be related to something else, like radio stations. These might soon work differently depending on whether or not you're currently paying for an Apple Music plan.

Spotify's free tier comes with adverts, and limits on audio quality, playlist creation, track order, and track skipping. Premium subscribers also get to save playlists of offline use, and usually get access to new features first too.

Does this mean ads?

Based on the Reddit reaction, this might not be such a popular move. "Oh no not the ads," is one typical comment, and there seems to be quite a swell of resistance against Apple Music offering a free tier if it comes with adverts attached.

Having traditionally kept advertising in its products down to a minimum, Apple has recently started heading towards a more Google-like approach: ads have started appearing in Apple Maps with iOS 26.5 for example.

In fact, as we've already noted, this is a trend that many apps and services are joining in with, in an effort to squeeze more money from consumers — whether it's advertising on streaming services or new subscription models for social media sites.

We'll have to wait and see if a free tier for Apple Music makes an appearance soon — perhaps at WWDC 2026 on June 8. You can already use Apple Music the app for free, of course, if you bring your own digital music with you.

• Spotify has rolled out new playlist tools, including bulk editing functions for queues
• Background downloading is rolling out for iOS users after being limited to Android devices
• Playlist folders are also being rolled out globally

I love making new playlists in Spotify, but sometimes its limited editing and queuing tools make the experience more of a chore rather than a fun activity. Thankfully, the platform just dropped a shedload of tools to make playlists more enjoyable and to ‘help keep listening smooth’ for both iOS and Android users.

Spotify announced yesterday (May 28) more control tools to help you edit your playlists and queue more effectively. Rolling out to Premium users globally, the new ‘Edit’ button allows you to select multiple tracks at once, which you can either bump up higher so that they play next, or remove them from the queue altogether. This was a tool once offered on Spotify and is now being resurrected, and it also applies to audiobook and podcast episode queues.

Spotify’s new ‘Reshuffle’ button is another feature I can see being a welcome addition to the app. If you find that a playlist isn’t quite giving you what you want, be that one of your own or one curated by Spotify, the Reshuffle button will generate an entirely new sequence of tracks — meaning you’ll no longer have to manually disable and enable the standard Shuffle icon to change the order.

Yes, queue controls have had a much-needed upgrade, but so have Spotify’s playlist organization tools. Though we first spotted it a few weeks back, the ability to create and add to playlist folders is rolling out globally for all users after being locked behind the desktop experience for 15 years.

However, these upgrades are just the start, and Spotify is also making offline listening for iOS users even more reliable with background downloads — a tool that’s been limited to Android users until now.

If you want to download a playlist or podcast episode, for example, you’ll no longer have to keep the Spotify app open to complete the downloading process. Now it does it all in the background for you, and you’ll get notifications to see the progress. “So whether you’re on a flight, underground, or out of range, your listening is ready to go,” the company says in its announcement.

Spotify adds a feature I've wanted for years

Recently, I’ve found myself hitting a bit of a wall when it comes to making playlists in Spotify, and it’s not just because of the lack of inspiration. Playback and queuing features haven’t always made the experience as easy as it could be, but Spotify’s new additions could alleviate many pain points for music fans.

I chronically add songs to a queue while I’m commuting or while I’m at a social gathering with friends, and one thing I’ve always wanted from Spotify is a ‘play next’ option that’s similar to Apple Music — which is one of my favorite parts of the Spotify rival.

Although there still isn’t a ‘play next’ option for when you want to add individual songs, you can bump up your song of choice directly from the queue. But unlike Apple Music, Spotify lets you move multiple songs at once to the top, which not only saves you bags of time dragging them individually with the three-line icon, but it will get your friends to stop nagging you to bump a song they’ve just requested.

As for playlist folders, I can’t believe it’s taken this long for Spotify to roll out a very basic feature, but hey, at last we’ve got it now. If you’re anything like me and have different types of playlists for the same occasion (I have multiple workout and music-by-the-year playlists), keeping them stored in a categorized folder does wonders for keeping your profile neat, tidy, and navigable.

• Apple Music users are asking for better playback continuity tools like Spotify Connect
• At the moment, Apple Music doesn't let you pick up where you left off when you switch between devices
• Subscribers are hoping for some improvements to be announced at WWDC 2026, but chances are slim

For hardcore Apple Music subscribers, the platform has everything they could possibly need from a music streaming service, but there’s one feature missing that is integral to pretty much all of its rivals — and its cross-device continuity.

While Apple Music has it all, from Dolby Atmos-supported albums, a clean-cut interface, and lossless audio at no extra cost, users have been asking for the company to upgrade its device-switching feature that allows you to hand off music to other devices and pick up where you left off in your listening sessions.

This has been a common annoyance for users for years, and a recent Reddit post (see below) reveals that this frustration is only growing. Though AirPlay allows you to cast videos, music, and other media from your iPhone to supported devices such as Apple TV 4K, if you want to switch from your iPhone to a smart speaker to play Apple Music, for example, it doesn’t resume your listening session in the way that Spotify Connect does.

The one Continuity feature Apple still refuses to add to Music in 2026 from r/AppleMusic

The author of the Reddit post expressed their disappointment with this, using the iPhone-to-Mac switching as an example. Basically, if you're streaming Apple Music from your iPhone and want to hand it over to your Mac to continue listening, you'll have to start from scratch and even rebuild your music queue, as this won't transfer over either. I’ve also tried controlling Apple Music on my Echo smart speaker from my iPhone, and it’s the same case.

It’s pretty common for major streaming platforms to offer their own versions of this tool. Spotify Connect is arguably the leading playback continuity feature, which seamlessly resumes your listening session and music queues across smart speakers, Bluetooth speakers, and its desktop and car apps. Even services such as Tidal and Qobuz (which aren’t as popular as Apple Music) have their own continuity tools.

But why hasn’t Apple Music jumped on this bandwagon when users are actively begging for the upgrade? The short answer is, we don’t know, and it’s a lot more frustrating being left in the dark than it is knowing the truth — and it turns out that it’s irritating more subscribers than you think.

Users are longing for the 'one killer feature'

There’s no doubt that those who love Apple Music love Apple Music — Spotify is nowhere near an option for them. That said, the Reddit thread has garnered something I never thought I’d see — Apple Music subscribers across the board are praising Spotify.

Despite Spotify’s poorer audio quality and clunky interface, both of which Apple Music subscribers still criticize, Spotify Connect “is the one killer feature that’s missing from Apple,” as one user puts it.

Another Apple Music user notes that although they quit Spotify for Apple Music, it’s the one tool they miss the most; “This is the single worst thing about Apple Music. On the green disco all app, I can pick up from any player and or control any player”.

In between the glowing Spotify comments, a handful of users have questioned whether it’s a matter of a patent getting in the way. Though one user mentioned that Spotify apparently has a patent on its Connect tool, others were quick to point out that this doesn't mean companies won’t be able to develop similar features of their own. It’s a matter of simply building around it, as we’ve seen with Tidal, so it could be a case that Apple is satisfied enough with the current version of AirPlay — even if it gets a bad rep.

Aside from playback continuity, users in the same Reddit thread have taken the opportunity to shed light on other functions Apple needs to improve, like the search bar.

For many, and I include myself in this, Apple Music's search feature doesn't perform as smoothly as the likes of Spotify. One user says what we're all thinking; with Spotify, you can type in less than half a word, and it gives you exactly what you're after. With Apple Music however, search results aren't as quick or thorough, so it requires a bit more elbow grease.

However, there’s only a few weeks until Apple’s WWDC 2026 event kicks off on June 8 where we’re expecting to see a handful of iOS 27 upgrades, so that leaves a perfect gap for the company to solve a handful of issues — but users still think it’s a long shot.

When it comes to intentional listening, the algorithmic foundations of music platforms can sometimes reduce the joy that comes with listening to complete bodies of work. Enter Cantilever, the audio service that’s putting album-listening first.

Though it’s a relatively new addition to the pool of music streamers, Cantilever wants to make a difference with its approach. For £4.99 / $5.99 / €5.99 a month, the platform lists 10 albums each with a 30-day expiration date to encourage full-length listening, filling out the space with detailed accounts of each record from music journalists, on top of a user-centric payment system for artists.

It’s been a passion project for founder Aaron Skates since he began developing the idea in 2022, and he himself has worked his fair share of jobs in the music industry since the mid-2010s. During our in-depth discussion about the music start-up, Skates goes into detail about why he wanted to create the ‘Mubi for music’ and why there are good and bad sides to algorithmic music discovery.

From music writer to CEO

Cantilever stands in its own lane compared to the likes of the head honchos of music streaming, Spotify and Apple Music. It’s designed to blend audio with music journalism while embedding a structure similar to Substack, which was sparked by Skates’ own experiences working in the industry.

“I’d been working in independent music at independent record labels since 2019, and I'd also been writing since I was 17 and going to gigs doing university-related music journalism,” he tells me, adding “when Substack as a platform started to gain traction, I realized that it's not really a secret that many music websites weren’t paying the journalists that were writing for them”.

From there, Skates had a lightbulb moment. “It was maybe 2022 when I started formulating some of these ideas of ‘where is a good online space for music journalism and how can I kind of participate in that?’” he says. “It was also the same time we were seeing a lot of stuff around remuneration not being as good as it could be on streaming, and middle-tier artists were missing out”.

So Cantilever’s mission is multi-faceted. On the one hand, it’s dedicated to spotlighting independent artists and giving music journalists their flowers by including thorough written accounts of albums to provide context for the music, just like Substack. But where Cantilever stands apart from other music streamers is with its focus on intentional listening.

Albums aren't going anywhere

Instead of offering an extensive catalog of music, Cantilever operates as an album rotation, spotlighting 10 at a time, which remain on the app for 30 days. It works wonders for eliminating doom-browsing, which everyone is guilty of doing when navigating the best streaming services, but there’s more to it for Skates.

“There's an argument that the album is an anachronistic format, which is the reason that it lasts as long as it does. It's 45 minutes because there was only so much music that you could get two on two sides of a 12-inch record,” he says. “The album as an art form was invented because of a piece of technology and its limitations, and then we kind of just ran with that. When cassettes and CDs came along, we kept the album format, almost like referring back to the past”.

But things are different in the digital age. Now that it’s become easier to access individual songs from albums, there’s been a shift in the way consumers approach album listening. However, despite the algorithm, Skates is confident that the album as a body of work is timeless.

“The point is that it remains a format that people continue to gravitate towards even during this culture of playlists and algorithmic streaming. When major stars release their music, they release albums, and there's an excitement and a buzz around the album almost as an event,” he elaborates. “So it's not saying ‘album good, track bad’ but saying well, here's a space where we can celebrate this format and have that durational experience”.

“It’s a genuinely brilliant and exciting time for music right now. There's so much awesome stuff happening in every genre,” he concludes.

The ups and downs of the algorithm

Cantilever is very simple in its interface, so you won’t expect to see a slew of tools such as playlists or an algorithm that’s constantly spitting out music recommendations. If anything, Skates is looking to avoid this.

“Contrary to my previous point, I also think that there is a potentially negative downside to having algorithmic personalization across the board. It creates this personalized experience, but not necessarily one that fosters social connection,” he believes.

“At the same time, one of the things that the algorithm-generated playlists have over album listening is that they can foster this non-intentional listening,” Skates adds and, as someone whose entire relationship with music has been rooted in album listening, I completely agree. For Skates, it also makes him question the value it imposes.

“There’s this idea of ‘I’ll put something on in the background and just have it there’, and I personally don't think there's anything wrong with that, it suits a particular time and place, but then there's another question about the value that's ascribed to that: Is something that you're paying attention to worth more money than something that you're not really paying attention to? Is the music you listen to when you're asleep as valuable as the music that you listen to when you're awake? And the platforms that we currently have have no real way of making that distinction,” he says.

This is just the beginning

Though Skates is very much focused on keeping Cantilever’s in-app experience a simple one, that’s not to say he doesn’t have plans to develop it further and enrich the platform with more features.

“It's actually more media features than the features we might typically associate with digital service providers or streaming platforms. One thing is offline downloading. So, I really want to have it so you can listen to music on your commute. Another thing is that we're going to increase the number of albums that are on there. Right now it's just 10, and that's a capacity thing, and then for the app experience I want the media to be very similar to Substack,” he tells me.

When I look over the leading music platforms out there, Apple Music is one that’s winning on the editorial side. Its extensive collection of radio stations and exclusive artist interviews bridges the gap between fan and artist even more, and it provides rich context and background behind an artist’s music and their creative process. This is another thing that Skates wants to tap into.

“[Cantilever] will have video journalism, interviews even with the artists, and potentially live sessions that we film with artists. Those kinds of ways of telling an artist’s story that have previously been the purview of the media and bring that into the app,” he reveals.

As well as audio listening for in-app articles and diversifying the genres of its albums, one of the end goals for Skates is to shift beyond mobile. “The final feature is to have a web player version, so that it’s not just a mobile app but also a desktop version that can be more familiar with how news magazines and websites operate,” he says. But before he leaves, Skates reveals that he’s always keeping an open mind about the possibilities that could arise for Cantilever.

“We have all the music we could ever want for a very cheap price, and so it feels like the more we learn about the audience who want to use this, the more informed I'll be to answer that question of what do those people want, and what do they need and how can we best serve that community”.

• Spotify is launching a new system that gives an artist's top fans a first chance at scoring concert tickets more easily
• If you're an eligible fan, Spotify will reserve two tickets for you
• The platform wants to ensure fans get tickets first over scalpers and scammers

Live music tickets are becoming increasingly difficult to score, but Spotify is doing something about it, and the platform is about to launch its own ticketing priority system for top fans.

During its Investor Day 2026 briefing Spotify unveiled Reserved, a new system that’ll grant top fans first priority for purchasing tickets to their favorite artists with no additional fees. It’s launching in the US to eligible Spotify Premium subscribers over age 18 in the US starting in the next few months, with other countries set to follow.

To start, recently-announced tours for select artists will have the opportunity to reserve tickets for fans. Spotify plans to expand this to tours of any size in the future.

In a world where ticket scalpers are rife and the Ticketmaster sales are becoming more like battlefields, Spotify’s Reserved experience aims to make the ticket-purchasing experience a smoother one — ensuring that long-time fans who give to their favorite artists get a fair chance of seeing them in person. Essentially, Spotify wants to reward your fandom.

Spotify will determine if you’re a top fan by looking across your overall Spotify activity, which includes your streams and shares, as well as monitoring the activity of Premium users. This will help Spotify determine if you’re a “real human fan”, and not a bot.

If Spotify decides that you’ve streamed an artist enough to be a top fan and they’re playing a show in your area, the platform will reserve two tickets for you which you’ll then have the chance to buy within a dedicated window (Spotify says this will be around a day). Having said that, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Jump to the front of the line

When Spotify declares that you’re a dedicated fan, you’ll receive an email and an in-app notification informing you of your eligibility to buy tickets. Spotify recommends turning on notifications for live events, enabling your location settings, and ensuring your app is updated if you don’t want to miss out.

After receiving your notification, you’ll have the chance to purchase two tickets in the dedicated timeframe before the sale opens to the general public. Although this quantity doesn’t cover large groups who may want to attend a gig together, if your friends are also big streamers of the same artists, there’s a chance they’ll also be eligible fans with Reserved access — meaning no one in your group will have to miss out.

If you decide to go ahead with your purchase, you’ll be taken to a ticketing partner’s website to complete the sale — but then there’s the matter of availability.

Spotify says that not every fan is guaranteed an offer for tickets as the number of fans aiming for tickets exceeds the total capacity of venues. Additionally, Spotify says that ticket offers with Reserved will be based on the tour’s location, meaning that if a tour isn’t coming to your area there’s a chance you may not receive priority access.

However, if you do receive an offer in spite of this, you’ll be able to buy a ticket to any show on the tour where you can select the date, location, and seat selection when you check out. Spotify also adds that ticket type availability will vary per show.

Fan engagement matters

As a serial concert attendee, I’ve noticed first-hand the shift in ticket purchasing over the past couple of years, and though the pandemic contributed to the sky-rocketing demand for live music tours, scalpers and Ticketmaster’s controversial dynamic pricing method have also made ticket purchasing an anxiety-riddled process.

Though Spotify does have its off days, it’s the first company out of all the best music streaming services to start taking a stance against scalpers who resell tickets for ridiculous prices to spite genuine fans.

Recently Ticketmaster came under fire when its president claimed that queue positions aren’t randomized, leaving fans questioning the real reason that determines these placements.

“We’re building this to give back to fans who support artists the most — and because when fans and artists win, Spotify does, too,” the streamer shared in its announcement.

But for the platform, it’s all about engagement: “When listeners who show up for an artist on Spotify are the ones getting into their shows, fans stick around, artists grow, and live music gets stronger. This is part of a broader investment Spotify is making in live music across artists at every stage of their careers,” the company concluded.

• Spotify is upgrading podcasts with two AI-powered features
• One is a new search function that allows you to ask questions about episodes
• There's also the new Personal Podcasts tool, which generates a short audio briefing based on your prompts

Spotify has used its Investor Day event to announce some new features for podcast listeners — and they're quite big.

The first of the new podcast features enables you to ask Spotify about the episode you’re currently listening to or watching, and it will give you answers in real-time. For example, you could get more information about something mentioned in the episode that you may want to know more about, or ask to find more podcasts that cover the same topic.

From the demonstration images, it shows the user tapping on the AI DJ search bar in the Spotify home page to launch the podcast episode, and then from there the user proceeds with questions. You can also ask generic questions such as ‘play the latest episode from Dissect’.

Rolling out to Premium mobile subscribers in the US, Sweden, and Ireland first, this new tool is part of Spotify’s larger plan to expand its podcast interface. The company said: “This new capability makes the experience more dynamic, helping fans learn more and connect deeply with the topics, perspectives, and creators they care about.”

Now the controversial part…

Additionally, Spotify wants you to start generating your own personal podcast episodes using AI, which builds on the platform’s recent expansion of Prompted Playlists into podcasts.

Rolling out to Premium subscribers in the US first, Personal Podcasts is another new tool that can be found among the roster of other playlist-making buttons when you tap the Create button in Spotify.

Previously, you could create your own podcasts using platforms such as OpenClaw and Claude Code which you could then save to your Spotify library, so this new tool offers a more on-demand option directly within the platform.

As you’d expect by its name, Personal Podcasts allow you to generate short audio episodes which Spotify says are “tailored to your interests and listening habits”, and it works on a prompt basis.

You can ask it to create a daily briefing to include local weather, any live music happening in your area, and daily news headlines across different topics which you can schedule to update every day or weekly.

But Spotify doesn't draw the line there — Personal Podcasts can also generate episodes that dive deeper into topics, connecting you with related podcast episodes for you to explore your curiosity further.

As well as text prompts, you can add more context to your requests by attaching PDFs and website links, and the information should be pulled into the episode.

There’s a slight catch however. Just like Spotify’s monthly audiobook listening hours allowance, the same applies to Personal Podcasts ,which come with a fixed allocation of credits to generate podcasts included with their subscription each month. If you find that you can’t get enough of them, there’s an option to purchase additional credits.

The interesting thing about Spotify’s new podcast upgrades is that nowhere in the company’s announcement doesn't explicitly state how these features are powered, though it’s quite clear that AI is the mastermind behind these generative tools.

We think the streamer is onto something with tools to let you dive further into the shows you love the most and pull information from them, and allowing you to ask for more insights on topics that presenters maybe don't go into detail with.

It's kind of amusing that Spotify recently added features in support of the anti-AI brigade by not only rolling out ‘Verified by Spotify’ badges for music artists to certify that they're real, it then did the same thing for podcasts only a few days ago — and now it's offering AI-generated podcasts right from its own menus.

• Alexa+ can now quickly create custom AI podcasts for you
• Meanwhile, Spotify is labeling podcasts made by AI
• An increasing number of new podcasts are AI-generated

We're now well past the stage where AI models can create convincing audio podcasts, run by convincing AI hosts — and there are a couple of developments this week that are going to add to and fight back against the growing deluge of AI podcasts (also known as 'podslop', if you're not a fan).

First up, Amazon has given Alexa+ new powers to create custom podcasts based on your prompts. Whether you want a dive into Roman history, a round-up of the best new music releases, sports previews or anything else, Alexa+ can serve up a podcast-style audio exploration in just a few minutes.

I'm not a fan myself of AI podcasts — more on that later — but I have to give credit to Amazon for actually partnering with real news organizations, including Reuters and the Washington Post, to produce this audio. Publishers and creators actually getting paid as AI scrapes and repackages their work? Whatever next?

This is US only for now, and as I'm in the UK I haven't been able to try it, but the examples Amazon has provided seem solid enough: the podcasts are similar in style and tone to what we've already heard from apps such as NotebookLM.

Wait just a moment, AI

As Amazon pushes AI podcasts forward, Spotify is putting the brakes on — or at least, making it easier to spot these pods. Following on from its AI verification scheme for music, launched earlier this month, Spotify is now using the same badges on podcast content.

You'll start to see light green badges that say 'Verified by Spotify' on them, used for podcasts where Spotify has confirmed who the hosts and publishers behind the show are. The idea is to protect listeners against fake content that may be misleading or dangerous, Spotify says, while also helping creators maintain their audience.

"It signals that the show has been reviewed against Spotify’s standards for authenticity and trust, helping listeners understand who they’re hearing while giving creators a clear, credible way to establish their identity on our platform," explains Spotify, adding that listener activity and audience authenticity are taken into account too.

A recent survey suggested some 39% of new podcasts are AI-generated, and I'm glad to see Spotify helping us to sort the real stuff out. I'd much rather listen to something with real personality and knowledge behind it, rather than a machine-made amalgamation of scraped content polished up into a generic, flat audio episode.

• Spotify has quietly updated its Listening Stats page
• You can now view the total number of artists and songs you've listened to each week
• There's also a new social feature that lets you compare your stats to your friends

Spotify is packed with all the features you can imagine, but its Listening Stats tool gives you a solid overview of what you’re listening to and how your streaming habits shift from one week to the next — and it’s just got better.

While I was scouring through the r/truespotify community on Reddit, a series of posts about a new upgrade to Listening Stats caught my attention. I didn’t believe it at first, but immediately stood corrected when I took a look at my own account and saw that Spotify has quietly given it a new look, and with new features to match.

First, Listening Stats has received a big design upgrade, and is more visually engaging than before, with bolder text and display cards that are more distinguishable than before, separating your individual stats from each other to give you a clearer overview of your week in music. But it doesn’t end there.

In addition to Listening Stats’ visual glow-up, Spotify has added new data that tells you even more about the quantity of music that you listen to each week. When Listening Stats first dropped, it showed you your top five artists and songs of the week, and that was pretty much it, but now your stats tell you exactly how many artists and songs you’ve listened to week-on-week — including your total number of minutes listened.

There’s also a new social aspect to Listening Stats, which, given Spotify’s commitment to emulsifying social media with its existing roster of features, isn’t totally surprising, but it’s something many users, including myself, weren’t expecting just yet.

While your top artists and songs have their own separate display cards, there are new individual cards that allow you to see who or what your friends have had on repeat during the week or, in my case, spy on your friends for new music recommendations. Now it’s impossible for them to gatekeep artists from you, which is arguably the biggest upside.

It also means you can compare your own stats to those of your friends, including your total weekly streaming minutes, so now you can battle it out to see who’s the more dedicated music fan.

Listening Stats in the process of a rebrand?

Listening Stats joined Spotify’s mobile interface in November 2025 and has since served as a kind of mini-Wrapped feature. As well as the data mentioned above, Listening Stats include special moments to spotlight different aspects of your listening, whether that’s a milestone, a fan moment, or a new music discovery, diving deeper into your weekly soundtrack.

But with the majority of Spotify features, Listening Stats hasn’t updated for a number of users in certain regions, according to the replies in the Reddit threads I’ve read (some users are only now just getting access to AI DJ). That said, Your Sound Capsule is a similar tool to Listening Stats, but it’s only available to Premium subscribers in Brazil, Indonesia, and India — and has been for quite some time.

Your sound capsule (more features) from r/truespotify

Like Listening Stats, Your Sound Capsule spotlights your most listened-to artists and songs but has graphs and other visual elements that dissect your listening habits in detail. It’s unclear why this tool is limited only to the above markets, but some users online believe that Listening Stats is in the process of being rebranded to Your Sound Capsule.

While Spotify hasn’t mentioned anything about this, the latest update to Listening Stats does give the feeling that a larger upgrade is on the way. Design-wise, the Listening Stats tab is a lot more dynamic and bold, and its visual cards have been adopted from those featured in Your Sound Capsule, but I wouldn’t place any bets just yet until Spotify comes out with more details.

I’ve reached out to Spotify for a comment on the above, and will update this story if and when I hear more information.

• Spotify's glitter ball icon change on iOS is only temporary
• The old icon will be coming back in the next few days
• Many users hadn't been happy with the new look of the icon

If you've noticed that the Spotify icon on your iPhone home screen looks... different, you're not imagining things: the refreshed disco glitter ball look is promoting the company's 20th anniversary and its new Party of the Year(s) feature.

The feature gives you a Wrapped-like experience for your entire Spotify history, but the glitter ball transformation has attracted plenty of criticism. Now, Spotify has confirmed the change is only temporary, and the usual icon will be back next week.

"Alright, we know glitter is not for everyone," the Spotify team said via one of its official social media accounts. "Our temp glow up ends soon. Your regularly scheduled Spotify icon returns next week."

Judging by the reactions to that post, it seems there are a fair few Spotify users who quite like the new look — but overall, the reaction has been mostly negative. "If it's permanent I'll go back to Apple Music," threatened one Redditor last week.

Back to the 1970s

The disco ball icon only showed up on iOS, so if you're an Android user, you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. Some thought the change was a joke, while others complained that it gave the impression that an app update was underway.

Quite a few commenters pointed out that the updated look of the icon was a throwback — not just to the disco era of the 1970s, but also to the more skeuomorphic icon design trend that used to dominate on the iPhone.

When the shiny icon first appeared last week, Spotify wouldn't say one way or the other whether the change was permanent, or how long it might last for. The reaction online seems to have forced its hand.

As for the Party of the Year(s) feature, it has had its critics too. Many users were underwhelmed with the depth of the results, and there was a major Spotify update around the time the feature launched as well — not the best way to celebrate your birthday.

There are many reasons why music fans flock to Apple Music over the slew of other best music streaming services to pick from. For one, it offers lossless, hi-res, and Dolby Atmos-supported audio at no extra cost, and its interface isn't clunky.

I’m currently using Apple Music and Spotify interchangeably, and I’m enjoying both of their offerings, but if there’s one thing rival platforms could take a note from Apple Music's books, it’s the Discovery Station — my new favorite way to find new music and artists outside of my radar.

Although Spotify is still my main music platform of choice — I’ve been a subscriber for the best part of 10 years — Discovery Station has become integral to how I spend my time listening on Apple Music, and I’ve even made a playlist to bank all of the new songs and artists I come across.

For those who aren’t on Apple Music, your Discovery Station is a personal radio station that’s powered by your listening habits and the titles in your library, helping you find new music and artists. The best part is that it’s continuous and never-ending, so it doesn’t cap songs after a certain number like New Music Mix — meaning it never runs out of music suggestions.

Do you find yourself frustrated with the shuffle function repeating the same songs? You don’t get any of that with Discovery Station. Instead, it’s designed to spotlight artists and tracks that aren’t in your playlists or saved to your library, so it’s rare to get the same song suggested twice.

But when I compare it to other music discovery tools, it works in a way that’s reminiscent of Spotify’s Daylist.

I’ve pretty much trial-and-errored my way through finding what music discovery tools work best for me in Spotify, and Daylist is by far one of my favorites, which is why I think I’ve taken to Discovery Station so quickly.

What ties the two features together is that both rely on the algorithm’s ability to dive into your daily music-listening behavior, giving you a list of artists adjacent to your taste that it thinks you will enjoy. Both are rooted in personalization and encourage active discovery.

That said, Daylist doesn’t offer a continuous run of new music. Instead, it updates every few hours to reflect your listening habits at different times of the day, and the playlist only consists of around 50 songs. That's in contrast to Discovery Station, which you can refresh by simply tapping on it to generate a new slew of songs. With Discovery Station, it doesn't show you the full queue of songs, maintaining an element of surprise each time.

Although Discovery Station works pretty much instantly for new Apple Music subscribers, I still recommend dedicating some time to exploring and listening to music to develop your taste profile before giving it a shot. But be wary, it can be quite sensitive.

For example, if you devote a listening session to streaming electronic pop and then switch over to your Discover Station, it will focus on that genre. I don’t necessarily see this as a bad thing, but there are workarounds you can try, such as favoriting artists, frequently adding music to your library, and using the ‘Suggest less’ button to filter out artists and genres.

• Subscribers couldn't access Spotify's Party of the Year(s) tool due to its huge outage
• When the issue was resolved, users were left underwhelmed with what it had to offer
• It didn't give insightful data such as most listened-to genres and behavorial shifts

Spotify’s 20th anniversary celebrations ran into a bit of a brick wall following the announcement of the platform’s latest mobile experience, Party of the Year(s), as many users were left wondering if the service had gone down — in short, it did.

What was supposed to be a day for Premium subscribers to revel in Spotify’s latest music time capsule turned into a frenzy of frustration as many music fans couldn’t access their Party of the Year(s) stats, resulting in a slurry of complaints in the r/truespotify page on Reddit. It could even be that the number of users trying to access the new Wrapped-style experience resulted in Spotify’s going down.

More than 14,000 users issued complaints on Down Detector, which indicated the problems started at around 12pm ET / 5pm BST, but while errors started to drop off for a handful of users, Spotify was still crashing for subscribers several hours later. Thankfully, the platform was quick to jump on the issue, and it took to X to say it had resolved the issues at around 5pm ET / 10pm BST.

A missed opportunity to say the least

With Spotify now running as normal, Party of the Year(s) saw a slew of latecomers but even after all that waiting time, users walked away rather underwhelmed with the outcome.

In a nutshell, Party of the Year(s) is a new mobile experience that gives you "never-shared-before" stats about your entire music journey, going all the way back to the very first day you signed up for Spotify right up to the present day. It’s essentially a Wrapped-style tool, showing you the total number of songs you’ve streamed, your top artists ever, and more.

All sounds good on paper, right? But for some users, these stats simply weren’t enough, as a handful of them took to Reddit to say that they were expecting way more from it.

One of the biggest criticisms highlighted that the feature doesn’t pack in as many stats and as much excitement as Wrapped; “Would have loved some more data included in the story like they do with Wrapped, such as total minutes of streaming and top 5 artists,” said one user.

Over the years people have been begging Spotify to crack down on genre stats when it comes to Wrapped, and though Spotify knuckled down on this for Wrapped 2025, there was none of this in Party of the Year(s). Not only that, but the experience doesn't outline the shifts in your listening habits over the years which, since it’s an anniversary feature, you’d think would be at its core.

Comment from r/truespotify

I tried out Party of the Year(s) to see what it was all about and I thought it was pleasant, but Spotify missed out on the chance to create something insightful and engaging here — it didn’t really differ from what Prompted Playlists can already do.

I side with the majority of users who want to see more stats about genre and music listening shifts and what impacts them, and since Spotify has endless data on its subscribers, I don’t see why the platform didn’t put the intricate readings at the very forefront of the experience.

Everybody was in a panic as Spotify experienced issues, with thousands of reports that the app was not working earlier today, May 12, 2026.

The music streaming service first confirmed that it was "aware of some issues right now with the app and are checking them out!", but there's no word yet on how widespread the problem was or an estimated time to fix.

The problems began around 12pm ET / 5pm BST, with the first reports of the outage appearing on Down Detector. Reports grew steadily over the next 20-30 minutes, peaking at around 14,000 at 1.20pm ET / 6.20pm BST — then appeared to drop off.

However, more than 2 hours later, there are clearly still some issues, with users in both the US and UK struggling to get the app to load on either desktop or mobile — though offline tunes do seem to work. Eventually, the app on multiple platforms came back to life, and Spotify confirmed the issue was fixed shortly before 5pm ET / 10pm BST.

Ahead, you can read our live reporting on the outage as it happened.

Hi everyone. I'm going to dig into what's going on with Spotify, so stay tuned for updates as I get them.

Okay, so what do we know? Well, outage reports started growing on Down Detector just under an hour ago.

You can see in the screenshot below that the numbers climbed steeply, with more than 14,000 users reporting problems 20 minutes ago.

Spotify has responded to users on X, admitting that it is "aware of some issues" and that it is checking them out.

Spotify sputtering in the US

I no longer subscribe to Spotify myself, but I asked my colleague Lance Ulanoff to try it, and he sent me this:

"Even though I can still open the app in the US, Spotify is struggling to respond to any of my requests. I can't play or search for music.

"The situation is even worse on the desktop. After a long wait, I got Spotify to open in Chrome, but when I tried to log in, I got an error message. No music for me."

Poor Lance, he'll have to do some work instead.

And problems in the UK too

Meanwhile, a colleague in the UK, David Nield, confirmed that it's not working for him either, and that "only offline downloads will play."

Right, big news… Lance says it's coming back. I'm still seeing reports on Down Detector, but they are indeed starting to drop.

What do you do when Spotify goes down?

It looks like this outage may be a relatively short-lived one, thankfully — because it can be hard, being cut off from your favorite music source.

Of course, this isn't the first time, nor will it be the last time, this happens. What do you do with yourself in these situations? Tell us in the poll below.

Okay, you know where I said it was working? Well it now seems not to be again.

Strap in, folks, this could be a long one.

We're definitely still experiencing problems in the UK, where my colleague Roland Moore-Colyer is based (as am I). Here's Roland's update:

"Well dammit. I was just enjoying some old-skool rap, courtesy of my broken Spotify algorithm trying to work out my eclectic music tastes and searches, when Spotify ceased working for me on my iPhone.

"While the outage was brewing US-side, I thought we’d missed it UK side, with Downdetector showing a slowing down of outage reports. But whatever is messing with Spotify seems to have blighted those of us in Blighty once again.

"So right now I’m writing with no musical assistance… someone pray for me."

We've reached out to Spotify for an update, and will let you know if we get a response.

Is it up or down?

Spotify is still mostly working for Lance in the US, but he says he's hearing otherwise from people just a state away.

"Perhaps I have all the bandwidth," he says. "I guess I'll enjoy it while I can.

"Still, not everything is A-OK. I'm currently streaming Bohemian Rhapsody from my iPhone, but the website is not quite in sync."

Spotify continues to struggle in the UK

Back to the UK, and this is what you see when you try to load up Spotify on the web right now. The interface partially loads, but music and podcasts are inaccessible, and everything is very slow.

If you're a Premium user, hopefully you've downloaded some of your favorite playlists for offline use. If not, you might have to wait a while to resume streaming (or just switch to YouTube).

Party off

So here's a thing: it’s Spotify's 20th anniversary today and that saw the company announce its new Spotify 20: Your Party of the Year(s) feature.

This is effectively a tool to show you your data from across your entire Spotify journey, starting from the first day you joined the service until now. it includes your most-streamed artist, the total number of streamed songs, and more.

We have no way of knowing what's caused the current outage, but could the implementation of this new feature have been a factor? I guess we'll find out later…

I said earlier that I no longer have a Spotify subscription, so none of this is directly affecting me — though I do, of course, feel bad for those of you who are unable to listen to your tunes right now.

I made the decision to leave the service in December and now subscribe to Qobuz instead — and I can't speak highly enough of it. Sure, it's not quite as slick as Spotify in some ways, but it fixes many of the personal issues I had with the better-known platform and — most importantly — it sounds absolutely fantastic. Seriously, if you love music and haven't given proper hi-res audio a go, I urge you to give it a try.

As it happens, we have a guide to how to switch from Spotify to Qobuz without losing your playlists.

Stick with mobile

Here's another update from Lance in NYC, who seems to be having a slightly better experience with Spotify than some people right now.

"In my neck of the woods, mobile is now the most consistently trouble-free Spotify experience. The web player tries to keep pace, but can't seem to display anything in the main window.

"It knows I'm listening to Franz Ferdinand, but Spotify can't serve up whatever is supposed to appear front and center.

"The good news is that we still seem to be on the mend. Spotify should soon be back for all. I think."

Here's Roland again with a helpful tip:

"If you have songs downloaded on Spotify they’ll still work as expected, so there’s one way to access some of your playlists. But I’m not 100% sure how many people do this, especially as, I believe, if you do this on multiple devices Spotify will then delete some downloaded songs on some devices; you can only spread the downloads so far.

"I tend to have a couple of downloaded playlists to get the best audio quality without sucking up my useless home internet bandwidth. But I could be in a minority with that. Still it means I have some music to listen to while I’m at my desk."

Search is back on Spotify

Here's Lance again in the US:

"Even though the center screen on the Spotify Web Player has been spotty at best, I have now successfully completed a web-based Spotify search.

"My subject: Best dance music of all time, of course. Can't say I'm thrilled with the results. Spotify gave me my playlist and when I clicked on the "songs" tab, I got, "No Songs found for "best dance music of all time"

"That has to be a mistake, no?

"In any case, search functioning is a very good sign, as the Spotify team scrambles to bring all of Spotify back on line."

There's still no word from Spotify since its initial message that it was experiencing problems, but reports on Down Detector are dropping, in both the UK and US.

Lance says that it seems largely recovered, but that it's still suffering from what could best be described as buffering issues.

"I've bought up a pair of playlists, but instead of instantly playing the songs when I hit play, the streamer appeared to be buffering," tells me.

"The only way to get music playing again is to select a different song in the same playlist. It's surely a quirk of the recovery."

Hello there, Jacob Krol stepping in here to keep tracking the ongoing Spotify situation. And the situation is still best described by the music streaming service's original notice: it's 'aware of some issues right now.'

In the US, Down Detector is hovering at around 3,400 reports of issues, and in the UK, the number of reports is higher at around 6,100 as of the most recent update. Spotify still shows an active, ongoing issue on its own blog-like status page here.

Here in the United States, Spotify appears to be mostly back to normal for both my premium account and my colleague, Lance Ulanoff's, free account. Search has resumed normal, and isn't immediately erroring out. I'm also able to play music, quickly jump between tracks, and browse full playlists.

I did ask a few friends, both on the east coast like myself and on the west coast, who are reporting it's working on mobile – iOS and Android – as well as desktop. It is back up and running for my Sonos system as well.

But please do let me know in the comments below if Spotify is working for you and if it isn't where you are.

We're still waiting for further comment from Spotify, as it's been several hours since the initial confirmation that the service was aware of some issues. Even with it returning for me, a colleague, and some friends, it's clear from social posts that Spotify is not back to 100% operation for everyone.

Even with some sharing that Spotify is down on X (formerly Twitter) and on Threads, others are sharing the first song they listened to on the platform as well as how many minutes total they've spent listening.

Certainly an interesting day for an outage.

This post on X likely sums up the day pretty well for Spotify users who are still experiencing issues with the platform — especially if you're keen to see the first song you listened to on the platform.

Down Detector reports for Spotify continue to drop in the United States, now at 622 as of 4:43 PM ET, and in the UK, reports are at 785 as of 4:44 PM ET. Both indicated a sharp drop from the previous thousands of reports we were tracking for issues with the platform.

We're still waiting for further updates from the music streaming platform, though I can tell you it's back for my own premium account in the United States, and Marc McLaren, TechRadar's Global Editor-in-Chief, in the UK, has noted that it's functioning on his free account as well.

Spotify says it's back to normal

Several hours after initially confirming an active issue, Spotify took to X (formerly Twitter) at 4:57 PM ET to write:

"All clear now - thanks for your patience with this! If you still need help, head over to our Community http://community.spotify.com or get in touch at http://support.spotify.com"

Hopefully, this means that if you've been experiencing issues with the music streaming service, it's now back up and running for you. Down Detector reports are still dropping.

Spotify has yet to say what caused this issue, though it did note the extended downtime by thanking users for their patience.

• Spotify has launched its new Your Party of the Year(s) mobile experience to celebrate its 20th anniversary
• It shows you data from across your entire Spotify journey, starting from the first day you joined
• This includes your most-streamed artist, the total number of streamed songs, and more

A few weeks back Spotify commemorated its 20th year of being one of the best music streaming services (I know, I can’t wrap my head around it either), but if you thought the platform was done with the celebrations you’d be wrong — it’s just launched the ultimate Wrapped experience.

Ever wanted to know the deep stats from your entire Spotify lifespan? With the new Spotify 20: Your Party of the Year(s) experience, you can.

Launching today (May 12), the new mobile app walk-through gives you a personal insight to your music listening history in Spotify, which includes exclusive data that encompasses your entire music journey from the moment you joined Spotify right up to today. In Spotify’s words, it’s “designed as a personalized time capsule, the experience captures the moments that defined listeners' music journeys, and celebrates the artists and fans who have shaped Spotify and music culture over the past 20 years”.

Although you can use Prompted Playlists to view stats such as your most listened-to songs of a specific year, this experience takes it a step further.

Behind a gold wax seal sits a nostalgic look-back at your first listens and biggest hits, starting with the exact date you joined Spotify which, if you’ve been using it for quite some time, will reveal a little too much about your age. From there, the walkthrough will show you the total number of songs you’ve streamed from your days as a Spotify baby to your days as a power-user — and Spotify compiles your top 120 songs into a playlist with play counts that you can save to your Library as a keepsake.

To top it all off, Spotify reveals the answer to one of your burning questions: who is my most-streamed artist of all time? But not only does it tell you this, it also reveals how many minutes you’ve spent listening to them since you first hit the play button, as well as the very first song that kick-started your Spotify journey.

You can begin your look-back of your listening life by searching for ‘Spotify 20’ or ‘Your Party of the Year(s)’ in the search tab, so it’s very easy to find.

However, this isn’t the first of Spotify’s anniversary celebrations. The streamer turned 20 a few months back, kicking things off at SXSW in March which was followed by a series of posts where it unveiled its most streamed artists, podcasts, and audiobooks of the last two decades.

We also got involved with the celebrations by recapping the platform’s landmark moments, and even sitting down with Sten Garmark, Spotify’s Global Head of Consumer Experience, who discussed how the company created an entirely new business model, in addition to its plans to expand to new formats and combat against AI-generated music.

One of the most handy features to come from the best music streaming services are lyrics, and although I’m a Spotify user, even I know that its lyrics interface needs some overdue TLC. But I’ve just learned about a hack I never knew existed.

I scour the r/truespotify forum on Reddit a fair bit, mainly to get a kick out of any new rumors on upcoming features I may find. But my latest deep dive took me by surprise, and apparently, you can zoom in and out on lyrics in Spotify. Has this just been launched? Or am I just extremely late to the party?

A post shared by u/mascarariri (see below) includes a side-by-side video comparison of Spotify lyrics on iOS and Android, in which the user shows themselves zooming in and out on Spotify lyrics on Android, using Billie Eilish’s song ‘Wildflower’ as an example. Unfortunately for iOS users like myself, this isn’t available.

Side-by-Side: Spotify Lyrics UI on Android vs. iOS. from r/truespotify

According to the user who published the video, all it takes to zoom is a simple pinch motion on your phone’s screen, just as you would to navigate Google Maps, for example. Additionally, the user demonstrated by zooming out to 75% — though it likely goes further — and zooming in quite far to 150%, so the range appears extensive.

Being an iOS user, I’m not surprised that I didn’t know about this trick sooner, but it turns out that not even Spotify users on Android knew about this. “I'm surprised to see something on Android before iOS. It's usually the other way around, and it takes ages to port those features; even Google apps are better on iOS”, one user said.

But the reason why this is the case for Android and not iOS is still very much a mystery — users are still debating whether it's system or developer-related. But while it's a handy tool for enhancing the lyric-viewing experience for those who are visually impaired, or those who prefer reading larger text in general, it still doesn't fix the main issues with Spotify lyrics.

Apple Music knows how to do it

Yes, Spotify has been my streaming platform since my teens, but my trial runs with Apple Music have magnified the things that Spotify falls short on — and lyrics is one of them.

When I first signed up to Apple Music last year, one of my favorite parts of the experience was the lyrics interface (I believe I said it 'puts Spotify's to shame'). I'm currently on my second round of playing around with Apple Music after being persuaded by a recent offer, and my opinion still stands.

The main difference between the two is synchronization. Not only are all songs on Apple Music synced in time with the flow of the lyrics, but each sentence is highlighted so you can see exactly which part of a line you're supposed to be — and it works wonders for when you're using karaoke mode (another fun feature).

This isn't the case with all songs on Spotify. Not only are lyrics quite static in their fluidity, but not every song is synchronized, meaning you have to scroll manually. You also have to wait at least a few days for lyrics to appear for new music, while Apple Music's catalog of new releases already comes equipped with them.

• Spotify is bringing AI DJ to more countries, including France and Germany
• Users in these markets have been begging for access for years
• AI DJ is also rolling out in four new languages

Is Spotify’s AI DJ still not available in your country? If the answer is yes, you share a common pain point with a lot of loyal subscribers around the world, but that's about to change as Spotify is expanding its digital maestro to more regions — finally!

After years of only being available in select markets around the world, many subscribers have taken to social media to voice their frustrations (you can see an example of these types of posts below). But that's now changing, as Spotify has finally announced that it will be launching AI DJ in more countries.

I really like the implementation of AI DJ, but it feels a bit basic. Here are some of my ideas to make it feel better. from r/truespotify

Starting today, Premium users in a handful of European regions will be getting the AI DJ treatment, including Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland. The feature is also rolling out to users in Brazil and South Korea.

In addition to the feature coming to more countries, Spotify is also expanding its language availability to French, German, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese, making it a lot easier for you to cast your voice requests to DJ in your mother tongue.

It’s been quite the slow rollout for one of the best music streaming service's most popular features. Aside from unsupported languages, users around the world have been left bewildered with its slow launch given that AI DJ has been a flagship Spotify feature for the best part of three years.

When Spotify first launched AI DJ back in early 2023, it was only available to Premium subscribers in the US and Canada at first. Shortly after, Spotify expanded AI DJ’s accessibility to music fans in the UK and Ireland, followed by a wider rollout to Australia and New Zealand, as well as select markets in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Even then, AI DJ’s availability still felt quite restrictive and despite these expansions, a lot of users in bigger markets were still left out of the equation. This has mainly affected Premium subscribers in European markets such as France and Germany, and Spotify subscribers haven’t shied from expressing their annoyances.

One Redditor recently said: "I got a notification saying the DJ was there... so I clicked on it, and it said it wasn't available in my country." Hopefully these frustrations can be put to bed now that Spotify is bringing AI DJ to the countries that have been missing out.

We reached out to Spotify who gave us more insight to why AI DJ has taken its time to roll out to more markets, who shared the following:

"To build DJ, we want it to feel like a native experience. So, we went through over 100 auditions, selecting voice talent that felt authentic to each market. From there, the team worked with local teams to help shape each DJ's personality — making sure the tone, warmth, and cultural nuance felt genuinely local, not just translated".

Additionally, the platform also teased new AI DJ developments that are in the pipeline: "Our plan is to continue to gather listener feedback and enhance the DJ experience to make it more interactive for our listeners".

• JL Audio, owned by Garmin, unveils new hi-fi products
• Two speakers: T6 and S3, each with high prices
• Also unveils CS Stereo Centerpiece preamp and streamer

Everyone's favorite smartwatch brand Garmin has taken a break from wearables, such as the recent Tactix 8, to release a series of home audio gadgets with bank-breaking prices.

This is JL Audio's Primacy range, and this is one of Garmin's sub-brands. You'd be forgiven for not having heard of them, as their chief areas are car and maritime audio, and this jump into luxe hi-fi is sure to raise some eyebrows.

Don't expect these gadgets to price similarly to the best Garmin watches, though. They're seriously expensive pieces of hi-fi gear — priced to match the elite stuff from the likes of Bowers & Wilkins and Wilson Audio — that you can only pick up from specialist audio dealers.

Meet the Primacy pals

Let's talk about the Garmin JL Audio Primacy T6 first (just above). This is the priciest of the bunch, retailing for around $90,000 per pair.

These floorstanding active speakers have six drivers each: a 1-inch carbon tweeter, a 5.5-inch mid-range driver, and four 5.5-inch woofers. These are three amps per unit, totaling 1000W of output, and each amp has its own DSP and DAC, with support for 32-bit/192kHz audio.

The JL Audio Primacy S3, selling for $35,000 per pair, drops the specs a little. They're active speakers again, with the same 1-inch dome tweeter as the bigger model, plus a 5.5-inch woofer, and two amplifiers per unit.

Both speakers have various refinements such shaped enclosures and audio filters to offer tuned sound. They connect via XLR, RCA or Cat 6

Rounding out the trio, ostensibly to control the others, is the $15,000 CS Stereo Centerpiece. This is both a streamer — with compatibility for various audio services — and a preamp. It has all the trappings you'd hope at the price, such as room correction, user profiles, Bluetooth compatibility, and a built-in screen.

None of Garmin's new devices are available from its website. Instead, the listings guides you to your local retailer, who you can pick them up from.

• Spotify could be releasing a 'Bulk Downloads' feature
• This means you won't have to delete and redownload your music to upgrade to offline lossless streaming
• The platform could also be bringing playback speed tools to music

Over the last few weeks Spotify has spoiled us with a number of new tools including its partnership with Peloton, and it shows no signs if slowing down any time soon, with two more new features apparently in the pipeline.

In Android Authority’s latest deep dive into the Spotify app, the outlet came across a line of code referring to a ‘Bulk Download’ feature, an upgrade users have wanted for a while, and which could fix a small, yet frustrating problem for many.

As it stands, Spotify allows you to download music for offline playback at five different audio-quality settings; low, normal, high, very high, and lossless. But when the platform unveiled lossless back in September 2025, users noticed that switching your offline download quality to lossless would only apply that change to future downloads, and wouldn't automatically upgrade your existing ones, even though Spotify automatically does this for non-lossless tiers.

This can be quite a tedious task, especially if you have a rather large library of downloaded music, as you have to remove content from your downloads and then redownload them one by one to upgrade to offline lossless listening.

So the addition of Bulk Downloads would be a welcome improvement, removing this hassle for Premium subscribers who want offline lossless streaming across all the music in their downloads library.

Android Authority also spotted code strings referring to warning notifications for data usage and storage space — and a popular podcast feature that could be on the way for music playback.

Is playback speed for music on the way?

Spotify already lets you change the playback speed for podcasts, and in another teardown Android Authority found code suggesting that you’ll soon be able to change music playback speed too.

At the moment there aren’t any further details that suggest when it will arrive, or what speed options it will offer. With podcast playback speeds, you can choose from a range between 0.5x to 3.5x, so we might get the same options for music — but whether it’s a feature users will actually want is another question.

I've often made use of the playback-speed feature while listening to podcasts when traveling, speeding up playback when conversations are too slow, so that I can get through an episode quicker.

But what benefit does this bring to music playback? I know it’s become a popular practice for artists to release sped-up and reverbed versions of their songs that go viral, but even then, those versions are no match for the original recordings. As a passionate album-listener I couldn’t think of a less satisfying way of listening to a body of work, or a single track for that matter.

Perhaps there are some people who might want to get through an album faster, rather than just enjoying it at its original length, but I just can't see it. If Spotify does in fact introduce such a feature, it'll be interesting to see how the streaming giant tries to pitch it to users.

Choosing the right music streaming service for your needs can be tricky, as there are plenty of options to choose from. In my opinion, that decision has just been made easier than ever thanks to a tantalising offer from Apple Music, which gives you three whole months of access for just AU$1.99. That’s not AU$1.99 per month, but for all three — which is insane value if you ask me.

I’ve been using Apple Music for the last 10 years, ever since it launched in 2015, and I’ve never seen a reason to switch. It has a huge library of songs — over 100 million, in fact — and offers easy access to Lossless audio and Dolby Atmos spatial audio at no extra cost. Throw in a number of other enticing features, including music videos, exclusive album drops and DJ mixes, a raft of global radio stations (including some not available anywhere else), and a simply gorgeous, intuitive UX, and you have what can only be described as a near-perfect service.

And all of this can be yours for a full three months for less than AU$2 if you subscribe before May 29, 2026. And it even plays well with Android.

A worthy investment

What makes Apple Music even more appealing, in my opinion, is the low ongoing cost of AU$12.99 p/m for an Individual plan. The comparable option from Spotify costs more at AU$15.99 p/m, and while this does include access to a range of audiobooks, I don’t personally feel it offers enough to justify the higher price.

The one area where I do have to give Spotify credit, however, is its ‘Connect’ feature. This lets you cast audio to a range of speakers and AV components, which then stream music directly over the internet. Your phone, tablet or computer acts purely as a controller for selecting songs.

Apple Music doesn’t have a similar Connect feature, relying instead on the widely supported AirPlay. While this works seamlessly, I don’t believe the quality of the transmission is quite as good. For everyday listening it’s perfectly usable — it’s just that Spotify Connect is technically superior.

If you’re interested in learning more about the quality of music playback via wireless transmission, you can check out an in-depth case study from my colleagues at What Hi-Fi?

Spatial sounds

Another big drawcard for Apple Music is its extensive support for Dolby Atmos music. The easiest way to listen in the spatial audio format is with a pair of AirPods, or via an Apple TV 4K connected to an Atmos-supporting sound system — including the best soundbars.

To be honest, I’m not totally sold on Atmos music. I’ve realised I prefer a more direct approach to playback, especially when listening through my AirPods Pro 3. I do occasionally enjoy it through a Sonos home theatre system, but it’s not something I use often.

If you’re keen to subscribe to Apple Music for its Atmos playback however, then my colleague Rowan Davies has recently penned an article detailing his top 5 Dolby Atmos albums for newcomers.

Considering Apple Music is just AU$1.99 for three months right now, it presents the perfect opportunity to take Dolby Atmos music for a spin.

As mentioned, this offer — available to new subscribers only — is live until May 29.

The competition between the best music streaming services has become increasingly tough over the years, and new entrants to the sector have their work cut out when it comes to competing with the big players.

One such startup is Vocana, the independent-only streaming platform that’s challenging Spotify’s payment system at a time when music fans are criticizing music platforms for the unfairness of the pro-rata system.

Vocana’s journey began in 2021 when Dale Chorba and Dave Petruziello joined forces to build a platform designed to "fix what’s broken in streaming". Its President is Neil Sheehan, who joined Vocana shortly after it was founded, bringing his experience in live music promotion and indie label management to the table.

The Vocana app entered public beta three months ago, and Sheehan is driving plans to expand the platforms offering by enlisting more artists, onboarding more users, and launching live subscriptions to take the indie-centric platform to new heights — all while keeping the brand’s ethos at the forefront of everything it does.

No major labels allowed

“It’s the brainchild of these two businessmen that were live music aficionados,” Sheehan tells me. “They would go to live shows and see tip jars on a stage, and they were like ‘why are these artists, if they have Spotify and they're playing shows, need a tip jar?’, assuming all artists that are on a stage or have streaming numbers are making money. What they kept hearing from artists was that they don't get paid well from streaming services. So they thought ‘why can't this be rectified?’”.

Payment was one of the trio's top priorities. “Spotify and most of the other Digital Service Providers (DSP) pay in a pro rata model, so your $10 subscription goes into this big pot. It doesn't matter who you listen to, Drake, MGK, and Taylor Swift are going to take the majority because they are listened to mostly by everybody. So we wanted to do a true user-centric system,” says Sheehan.

Equally, Sheehan wanted to eliminate the unfairness of the competition — but how do you do that? You exclude major labels, that’s how. “When you're on these DSPs, nine times out of ten the algorithm or the playlist, whether it's editorialized or not, is going to prop up some major label artists or the ones that are getting listened to the most,” Sheehan observes.

“So we said let's be independent-only, meaning we’re just going to license content from true independent distributors where almost every time you get a song, it's pure discovery. There are millions of these artists out there, but they're not being propped up. So you're not going to get major label content. Everything that's going to come to you is most likely going to be discoverable that you've never heard before,” he adds. That said, it doesn’t mean that Vocana is shutting out the big artists that you love listening to altogether. Sheehan tells me that, despite his popularity, Snoop Doog qualifies for a Vocana artist page as he’s technically signed independently.

Though Sheehan has had a long four-year run at Vocana so far, this is just the beginning: “It’s been quite a journey for myself,” he tells me. “There are a lot of artists now who are getting their masters back, and then going to an independent distributor. They own their own masters, they own their own publishing, so they can do whatever they want with it. I think you'll see a lot of these artists that are leaving the major label world on our platform”.

Human curation goes a long way

As it stands, Vocana is still in public beta and is awaiting a wider rollout, but it already has 40 million tracks and 2 million artists, as well as all the music features you can imagine.

“We took the basic idea of streaming and kept it so that you can queue songs, you can have your playlists, and you can have your catalog selection,” Sheehan tells me. This is where Vocana spins the social features on its head. “The features that we prop up are community-focused like the old Myspace, but we also have shortform videos like TikTok”.

There’s one thing that Vocana does differently to other music streaming giants, and that’s reinforcing the idea that music is supposed to be discussed. “We also have what we call ‘Hubs’,” says Sheehan

“These are private groups that you can join, so they could either be by city, or you can create one like ‘emo guys in Liverpool’ for example. Whatever you want to make, you could make that hub and then people could talk privately in those groups,” he adds. At the same time, these Hubs aim to offer listeners music discovery on a level that’s not just algorithmic. “Hopefully people now are talking and not just relying on something pushing them somewhere,” Sheehan says.

As far as algorithms go, Vocana’s structure doesn’t rely on AI models to do it all for you like Spotify does. If anything, it’s a simple model that does what it needs to do, and that’s use your listening habits as one of the bases for your new music recommendations. But the Hubs tool is Vocana’s true catalyst for driving discovery: “We pride ourselves on human curation,” Sheehan tells me, and it’s music to my ears.

“What I mean by that is, I brought up Myspace in the past where we are leaning into allowing fans to discover music, and then share that music with other people. I’m a firm believer that people move in tribes. If you are in an emo tribe, you follow those people and that's how you’d discover new music, because those people are now talking about it,” he continues. “So we are encouraging people to share as much music as possible within their hubs, on our system. We don't have an algorithm that's going to spit out music to you”.

Looking beyond the US market

Vocana has pretty much laid the groundwork for all future expansions. It has a solid brand image and a structured app interface with the features to go with it. So how is the company planning to climb the ladder of success from here? The short answer is; marketing.

“We have another 90 days in public beta, and we're about to allocate a large marketing budget,” he says. “We did some small marketing during the public beta. We started a ‘Pay the Artists’ concert series in New York, and we’re about to start it in Nashville and Dallas as well, but you will see a fairly robust online digital marketing campaign as well”.

That’s just one of the components to Vocana’s long-term plan — it wants even more users to join the family. “Our goal is to onboard 50,000 users in the next 90 days and get a lot more artists to come claim their page. So that's kind of the 90 day roadmap, and then the subscriptions will be turned on and we’ll see what happens after that,” he adds. Then there’s the matter of international expansion, which Sheehan admits will be an even longer journey.

“The reason we started with the United States is because we're based here,” he puts it simply. “Publishing was a little easier here, but we’ve looked at several different areas to expand fairly quickly, at least in Mexico, Japan, UK, to all our big connoisseurs of music, especially independent music,” he shares, so going internationally isn’t off the cards for Vocana.

“It’s been something we've talked about numerous times every week for the last three months,” Sheehan reveals, adding “because we have so many people overseas asking to either be on the platform or they've tried to log in and they can't” (I’m one of those people). Before we bade farewell, Sheehan left me with a glimpse of what to expect in the coming months; “You’ll probably see in the next 12 months hit half a dozen markets outside of the United States”.

Although Spotify is my music platform of choice, I do enjoy what Apple Music has to offer. Last summer I signed up to Apple’s music service for the first time, and I’m testing the waters once again — mainly to make the most of Dolby Atmos-supported listening.

I’ve been using Apple Music on and off for the past couple of weeks after signing up for one of its latest deals, and as soon as I logged back in, I immediately started making a playlist centered around essential Dolby Atmos listening. The best part about my brief return to Apple Music is that I’ve had enough time away to really notice and appreciate the way my favorite records sound in Dolby Atmos compared to Spotify Lossless.

Then it got me thinking, which Dolby Atmos albums would I recommend to new Apple Music members? There are five supported records I’ve had on constant repeat lately because, when I compare listening to them on Spotify Lossless, Apple Music is the clear winner.

Don’t know where to start? Here are my top Dolby Atmos album picks.

Homogenic, Björk

I knew that Björk would make the list, but selecting just one album was almost an impossible job. I was torn between the earthiness of Debut and the urban Post, but as far as electronic albums go, Homogenic is the one that truly shines in Dolby Atmos.

I first got into Björk around 10 years ago and have been listening to Homogenic ever since, but it’s only now that I’ve started picking up on elements I never knew lurked between the layers of each song. Not only that, the album’s orchestral components don’t get lost in the thick cyber forest. Instead, they come front and center just where they belong — balancing perfectly with the album’s electronic core.

3D Country, Geese

Although Getting Killed would’ve been a solid choice, Geese’s album 3D Country is incredibly dynamic, and one that I’ve been listening to non-stop. It’s a fun album to listen to if the blend of indie alternative, rock 'n roll, country, and blues intrigues you.

It sounds like an overstuffed concoction on paper, but listening in Dolby Atmos really allows you to pick out the influences one by one, and then throw them all back together. One of the best parts about the listening experience is getting to hear Cameron Winter’s vocals in all their robustness, which does wonders for showing off his vocal control.

The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Chappell Roan

Of course, I had to throw in a pop album, and Chappell Roan’s 2023 album is the record I’ve noticed the biggest differences with when listening to it in Dolby Atmos form — the main ones being its punchier bass and synth clarity.

However, like 3D Country, this is another album where the vocals are one of the stars of the show. Chappell has a voice that really works for a pop vocal album like this, but you don’t notice how polished her sound is and how much vocal layering she does until you stream it on Apple Music. As far as pop albums go, this one sits at the top when it comes to essential Dolby Atmos listening.

Grace, Jeff Buckley

Every time I listen to Grace by Jeff Buckley, it sends shivers down my spine and fills my eyes with tears, so naturally it had to be included. If you thought that his raw voice and acoustic instrumentals were hard-hitting, just wait until you press play on the title track in Dolby Atmos.

Buckley’s musicianship is spotlighted in every isolated guitar pluck, which will make you realize just how many different types of guitars he uses in a single song, let alone the whole album.

Orquídeas, Kali Uchis

If you’re looking for an album with rich production to kick-start your Apple Music/ Dolby Atmos experience, allow me to point you to Kali Uchis’ Orquídeas, a Spanish-language record that explores reggaeton, R&B, and funk in all its glory.

This is another album that’s packed with influences, but again, it doesn’t feel stuffy in Dolby Atmos. If anything, its groovy rhythms, underwater-sounding acoustics, and seductive trap beats are balanced perfectly. One doesn’t overpower the other, and the echo of her angelic vocals is the cherry on top.

• 'Verified by Spotify' badge will roll out over the next few weeks
• Certifies that artist is real, not an AI creation
• No way to use the info to filter playlists, just yet

Spotify listeners are growing increasingly frustrated about the proliferation of AI slop in the streamer's library. The service has made a few steps towards addressing it, such as letting artists approve songs on their profile, but fans' more proactive AI blockers have fallen afoul of the streamers' ToS. But finally, Spotify is doing something with a more solid impact.

The streaming giant has announced 'Verified by Spotify', a checkmark badge that's due to start showing up on artist's profiles (and next to their name in playlists) over the next few months. It looks similar to the verification checks on other platforms, such as Instagram or X.

This badge doesn't explicitly tag an artist as a real person, but instead one who follows three principles: They need to have consistent activity over time (both from themselves and listeners); abide by Spotify's policies; and have evidence that they're a real person (or people).

The latter is the clincher; evidence such as concert dates, merchandise being sold, social media accounts linked, and more factors help Spotify decide if an artist is real.

According to the platform "At launch, profiles that appear to primarily represent AI-generated or AI-persona artists are not eligible for verification", later clarifying "we’ll continue to develop our approach over time." So a Verified by Spotify check hopefully means an artist is real now, but technically might not continue to mean that in the future, depending on how the service "develops" its approach.

Half measures

Music fans have been asking for filters, to stop AI music finding its way onto algorithmically-generated playlists, and so that they can support their favorite artists without money going to AI generators. This verification options seems like a good way to implement that — I'd like to be able to tell the system to only play verified artists in those kinds of playlist — but that doesn't seem to be an option right now, which just feels like a missed opportunity.

Instead of changes like that, we're having to publish advice on how to spot AI-generated music in Spotify, so you can avoid it yourself, as fans avoid some of Spotify's main features to get away from it.

The problem is proving fantastic for rival music streaming platforms, with Deezer seeing success with its AI detection tools and Qobuz surging up the streaming charts too. Even Apple Music is taking a stand against AI-generated music.

In previous comments to TechRadar, Spotify has stated that it removed 75 million AI tracks in the past year, but fans' continuing annoyance at the proliferation of slop shows there's more that really needs be done.

And while the Verified by Spotify tag might help in some way, it's not going to actively affect the kind of tunes that show up in your playlists — at least, not yet. But as a first step to helping users take control, this is a solid one.

• Pro-Ject announces two wireless upgrades for classic hi-fi gear based on WiiM OS
• Stream Box E upgrades your amp with streaming skills
• Wireless Box E turns any passive speakers wireless by connecting to the binding posts

Beloved hi-fi brand Pro-Ject hasn’t slowed down at all in 2026. After announcing a premium turntable in January and record cleaner last month, it has two more pieces of gear coming soon.

The brand has announced the Stream Box E and Wireless Box E, as part of its growing hi-fi ecosystem. They cost £159 (about $200, AU$300) and £199 (around $270, AU$400) respectively.

The Stream Box E is a wireless network streamer and digital pre-amp that can upgrade your wired audio system to allow for Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Qobuz. It can be connected to an amplifier, or directly to active speakers.

Then there’s the Wireless Box E, which also gives a tidy tech upgrade to existing gear. This time, it upgrades your passive loudspeakers, acting as a wireless receiver for them, meaning you can position them anywhere without needing to worry about running cable to them, giving you more flexibility over where you put them, or perhaps where you put the rest of your hi-fi setup.

You'll need one per speaker, of course, and each needs to be connected to a power outlet.

A WiiMsical choice

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the news, is that the Stream Box E and Wireless Box E will both run on WiiM OS. This is a platform primarily designed for the brand’s own tech like such as the WiiM Sound, but is also available to other brands, bringing their tech into the burgeoning WiiM ecosystem.

We’ve compared Sonos vs WiiM in the past to help you understand the differences, but the gesture is clear: this is part of a growing alternative to Sonos, and is clearly one that wants to be as flexible as possible based on these launches.

However, there's a big catch here for Apple users, which is not exactly a small portion of the world. WiiM has some kind of on-going issue with Apple that means that many of its products don't include Apple AirPlay 2 as an easy streaming options, and it's the same with these.

While support for the likes of Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect might mean you're actually fine with this, it also means these boxes are basically no good if you're an Apple Music user, or if you want to be able to use AirPlay's platform-neutral multi-room skills.

In this instance, Sonos absolutely still has the edge — it not only supports AirPlay fully, it's the only brand with a streaming amp that has native Apple Music support in its app for lossless listening.

The fast pace with which Pro-Ject is releasing gears shows that it’s only getting bigger and bigger in the home hi-fi game, especially with affordable options like these. Perhaps it’s found an ideal partner in the equally ambitious WiiM — we can't wait to see how well these work in practice.