Breaking down your favorite music platform’s annual gift.

By: Sophia Bradner

          Spotify has recently introduced an interactive in-app experience that allows you to pick your top five favorite Kendrick Lamar projects and share them on social media through a visual that you can customize. 

          Another feature added is Blend, a tool on the app that allows you to create a collaborative playlist with anyone. Blend syncs your music taste with your friends’ tastes and combines songs into one shared playlist. 

          Additionally, the play button and shuffle button on your playlists are now two separate tools that allow you to choose whether you want to shuffle a playlist/album, or listen to it in chronological order.  

          Likewise, Hideo Kojima, a Japanese game creator, launched a Spotify original podcast called Brain Structure. Brain Structure revolves around Kojima’s process, thoughts, methods, and techniques for his creations. 

          The new music releases this month will bring excitement to listeners of all genres. Primarily, pop-folk singer Taylor Swift will be releasing “Midnights”, and the alternative/indie rock band Arctic Monkeys will be releasing “The Car”. Likewise, the 1975 is releasing “Being Funny in A Foreign Language,” and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are coming out with “Return of the Dream” Finally, Labrinth is releasing the anticipated album, “Ends & Begins”. 

          The most surprising new Spotify feature of this month is audiobooks. Audiobooks are now available for purchase on Spotify through the web player, but can be played via the mobile app once the book is purchased. On September 20th, 300,000 audiobooks became available on Spotify, including many recognizable titles such as Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us and Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses.  

Top 25 Hits on Spotify (as of the end of September)

“Unholy”- Sam Smith, Kim Petras

“As It Was”- Harry Styles

“Titi Me Pregunto”- Bad Bunny

“I’m Good (Blue)”- David Guetta, Bebe Rexha

“Super Freaky Girl”- Nicki Minaj

“I Like You”- Post Malone, Doja Cat

“I Aint Worried”- One Republic

“STAR WALKIN’”- Lil Nas X

“Shut Down”- BLACKPINK

“Calm Down”- Rema, Selena Gomez

“About Damn Time”- Lizzo

“Quevedo: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52”- Bizarrap, Quevedo

“Hold Me Closer”- Elton John, Britney Spears 

“Late Night Talking”- Harry Styles

“CUFF IT”- Beyonce

“Vegas”- Doja Cat

“La Bachata”- Manuel Turizo 

“SNAP”- Rosa Linn

“Sunroof”- Nicky Youre, dazy

“Left and Right”- Charlie Puth, Jung Kook, BTS

“DESPECHA”- ROSALIA

“Bad Habit”- Steve Lacy

“B.O.T.A.”- Eliza Rose, Interplanetary Criminal

“Forget Me”- Lewis Capaldi

“Numb”- Marshmallow, Khalid

Published 11/30/2022 – October Edition