Get the Most Out of Spotify

Optimize Your Spotify Usage Now!

Music streaming services like Pandora, Deezer and Spotify are powering the second coming of how people listen to music. The first wave was of course Apple and its powerful iTunes ecosystem that allows users to preview and purchase millions of songs via its iTunes Store. With the advent of high-speed 3G and 4G LTE mobile data networks, it has opened the floodgates to a plethora of services being quickly adopted by consumers. Most prominent and useful of which are smooth internet radio and music streaming to enjoy your tunes as though you were playing them off your local device.

If you have read our introduction to Spotify, you would know that the music streaming service offers you access to over 20 million songs (depending on your location). Aside from the sheer number of songs available, you also get to create and share playlists with your friends. While it is rather straightforward to use, there are some tweaks and tips to consider to make the most out of the service. We list 8 such options that you can apply on the desktop application to better enjoy Spotify:-

1) Top Lists on Desktop Application

Looking to explore what's popular on Spotify right now? On the left sidebar of the Spotify desktop application there's a feature called Top Lists. What you get here are top lists based on artists, albums or tracks. You can further refine the lists based on location.

2) Organize The Mess with Folders

With so many songs and the ability to create playlists, you will probably end up with more playlists than you can handle. Fortunately Spotify lets you create folders to organize your playlists. You can even create sub-folders in an existing folder. Go to File and click the New Playlist Folder to get started.

3) Import Your Own Music

Spotfiy does have a large library of music, but if you can't find what you're looking for, you can always import your own music so it can be added to your Spotify playlists. Go to Edit > Preferences, find the Local Files section, click on Add Source and navigate to the folder where your music is stored. All the files that you have imported can be easily found under "Local Files" in the left pane of the Spotify application.

4) Spread the Love

Sharing what you're listening to is as simple as dragging or copying and pasting the songs from your Spotify app into your instant messages or emails. This will create a simple link for your friends so they can also enjoy what you have been listening to.

5) Visit the Spotify Apps Library

Spotify also has its own app library. Just click on the App Finder option in the left pane. These Spotify apps help you to get more out of Spotify, like find lyrics or discover new music. One of the more notable apps is TuneWiki, which provides the lyrics to the song you're currently listening to, and it will be synced to where the song is currently playing so you can even sing along.

Another favorite app of ours is Digster, which provides playlists based on scenarios or situations such as a playlist containing the best electronic music of 2012 or a playlist for Irish rock songs.

6) Share/Hide Your Musical Tastes

You may not know this, but when friends and other users click on your public Spotify profile, they can view your followers, who you're following and the artists you have been listening to. You can also share what you're listening to with your friends on Facebook. But if you're embarrassed to let your friends know you listen to Justin Bieber, then you can choose the Private Session option when you click on your profile (as seen below). This option is however temporary and if you really don't feel like sharing your music tastes at all, go to Edit > Preferences and uncheck the options in the Privacy section of Activity Sharing.

7) Work Together on Playlists

Not only can you share your music preferences on Spotify, but you can also work with your friends to create a playlist for your next road trip together. Just right-click on a playlist and select Collaborative Playlist and then share the link with a friend to start your partnership.

8) Power Up Your Search

You may think that Spotify's search bar is limited to just searching for keywords, but you can do more with it if you know what to do. If you're looking for a particular genre of music just type the operator genre: followed by the genre. For example, maybe you're a death metal fan, so typing genre:deathmetal will bring up all the associated bands and music.

You can also use other operators like track, artist, or if you're looking for music released during a particular year or date range by an artist, you can type artist year:year. A search for Killswitch Engage year:2013 will bring up the music released by the band, Killswitch Engage, during the year 2013.