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Spotify’s latest Premium feature is a strange flex for 2022

In This Article

In This Article

Spotify has watered down it’s Premium features in recent years, but for once the company is adding a little exclusive benefit back for its paying customers.

And when we say little, we mean little. The company is separating the play and shuffle buttons on playlist pages. Yep, that’s it. It’s a strange flex from Spotify in 2022 isn’t it? Especially when its long-promisedSpotify Hi-Fioption is still nowhere to be seen.

Nevertheless, Spotify had been using a combined play and shuffle button, meaning the default experience had been to commence playlists on shuffle. Now a change is rolling out on iOS (I’ve had it for the last couple of weeks), while Android users will get it in the coming weeks.

“This new change will allow you to choose the mode you prefer at the top of playlists and albums and listen the way you want to,” Spotify says in ablog post. “Whether you love the joy of the unexpected with Shuffle mode, or prefer listening to tunes in order by simply pressing Play, Spotify has you covered.”

The change comes as Spotify moves away from the prominence of the shuffle mode, somewhat.

Last year it honoured a request from Adele toremove the shuffle buttonfrom her album page and it ended up being removed from all album pages. Of course you can still access it from the playback screen, but taking it off the album page discouraged its use somewhat, so listeners were guided towards listening in the manner the artist intended.

She wrote on Twitter: “This was the only request I had in our ever changing industry! We don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended. Thank you Spotify for listening.”

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Chris Smith is a freelance technology journalist for a host of UK tech publications, including Trusted Reviews. He’s based in South Florida, USA.  …

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Why trust our journalism?

Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.