If you’re a music lover, there’s no chance you didn’t use Spotify at some point. It’s a Swedish digital music and media service provider that gives you access to over 80 million songs, not just songs but also 4 million podcasts (and counting), many audiobooks and whatnot. So basically, there’s something for everyone out there.
Stream your favourite songs, download them, make a playlist, and read lyrics on the go with Spotify. Now, with a 3.6-star rating on Play Store from 3.19 crore users, it has 100 Cr+ downloads. It was founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.
As of June 2024, it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services, with over 626 million monthly active users comprising 246 million paying subscribers.
Spotify allows users to search for music by artist, album, or genre. It also doubles as a social media app, in a way, thanks to features such as the ability to follow friends and create listening parties called “Jams.”
The streaming giant’s annual revenue increased by a staggering 21% in 2022 to an impressive €11.72 billion. What’s even more striking is that it has tripled its revenue over the past five years, showcasing an unparalleled trajectory in the industry.
The Rise of Spotify App’s Popularity
- Instagram’s new Spotify integration lets you add songs to your library with just one click. This feature is growing among users who scroll on Instagram, find songs in the reels they want to listen to later, and even add them to their playlists.
This feature is especially useful since social media and music go hand in hand. Many Instagrammers will not want to use Spotify because they don’t have to navigate a different music app to add a song.
2. They introduced the Spotify Wrapped campaign, which has become a pre-Christmas tradition for internet users; it offers interactive year-end insights.
The campaign is based on three pillars: Favourite songs (also albums and artists), minutes listened, and most listened to playlists. Spotify Wrapped has been an enormous success, with the campaign increasing app downloads by 20% in 2020 and being shared over 100 million times on social media in 2022.
3. Operating as a freemium service, the app’s basic features are free, with advertisements and limited control. In contrast, additional features, such as offline and commercial-free listening, are offered via paid subscriptions.
So, no section of the audience base is ignored, and there’s something for everyone.
4. Spotify’s unparalleled User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) strategies have increased in popularity.
These include seamless playlist creation and sharing, simple navigation, cross-platform coherence, detailed market research, personalised playlists, dark mode, easy social interaction, and irresistible visual design.
From Data to Decision #UserFeedbackDecoded
- The rise in subscription prices is a significant issue with users. Spotify has increased the prices of its premium streaming plans in the United States for the second time in 2024. This can be because the company has been expanding into podcasts and audiobooks.
Spotify has not announced any price increases in India yet, but it plans to raise prices in several markets, including India, for the second time in a year.
2. One feature that used to attract Spotify users was the lyrics preview feature, but now, even this feature has a monthly limit. Also, playlists randomly shuffle when users don’t want them to.
3. Listeners fondly remember the much-loved heart button feature. This feature was satisfying, as it used to save the songs you loved quickly in the “Liked” playlists. However, Spotify decided not to keep this feature.
Yellow Slice designers huddled to determine where Spotify is right in providing a user experience and where they can improve. Users frequently compared the app with Spotify’s biggest competitors, like Apple Music and YouTube Music.
We gathered these reviews from numerous sources, such as Play Store and App Store reviews, YouTube videos of users, real-life interviews, Reddit pages, etc.
For one of the world’s largest music streaming platforms, a 3.6-star rating is very low, and there’s always room for improvement.
Spotify UX Review Led by Aadesh Padave, A Design Expert at YellowSlice
Reviewed by Sandra PV, Adisha Mandalik, Aashvi Sheth, Steve Nazareth, Srishti Maurya, Ishwari, Harshini, Shital More, Sonal Vishwakarma, Sagar Bhole, Samruddhi Pawar, and Ashesh Gohil
We gathered these observations through user reviews. Let’s find out how spot-on the Spotify app is.
Limited Features in the Free Version
With the rise in subscription prices, Spotify also limits many essential features of the app from its free users, which hinders the listening experience. With the free mobile version, you can only skip six tracks per hour, whereas Premium can skip as many as you’d like.
You can’t select specific songs for playback. Instead, you can select an album or a playlist and shuffle the songs. This is a major problem for users who want to listen to one particular song, but now they must listen to a complete album to get to that one song.
Ads Overload
Many users complain about getting a lot of advertisements after every two songs they listen to or skip. Some users even said they were getting ads after every song, though this was because of a bug, and Spotify quickly resolved this.
Users understand that ads will be there, but they are upset about the frequency of the ads, which are also the same ads repeatedly without much variation.
Inconsistent Design Elements
The strength of the signifiers in the Spotify app’s user interface is problematic. Because of the design inconsistency across buttons, links, and other actionable items, confusion arises as to what indicates an active, inactive, or disabled item.
For instance, upon downloading the mobile application, users will encounter the first page. It allows users to sign up, log in through another application or enter a username and password. Five action items are on the first page, immediately redirecting to the next step.
However, while four action items have bold white text, the “Sign up” button has a different visual design: green. While discoverability is not a problem, the discrepancy between the action items prevents a clear indication of where users should act.
Lacks Hi-Resolution Audio
In February 2021, Spotify announced its plans to introduce a Hi-fi subscription for users listening in high-fidelity, lossless sound quality. The rollout for the Hi-fi tier has yet to be announced, but it has been promised since forever. Every single service in the market offers lossless streaming of some sort.
Music is Not Just Entertainment; It’s a Lifestyle
Here are a few suggestions for the Spotify team to up their digital game and achieve a higher rating.
Make Way For Free Users, Too
Free users should be able to play music in whatever order they want to; that’s the least any music-listening platform should provide. We understand the limits that Spotify puts on the app, but listening to songs that the algorithm picks for you all the time can be frustrating.
Find A Way To Make Ads Less Annoying
As the ads are too frequent on the app, and we understand that it’s a business after all, there must be some way to make the ads so annoying, like making them a little infrequent. Variations in ads can also keep the interest of the listeners alive.
Make the Design Consistent
Consistent design makes the app easy to navigate and predictable, which is a great user experience. For instance, the application has done a great job of designing with natural mappings, like the navigation bar, which remains at the bottom of the screen throughout the entire application.
It gives users a clear understanding and idea of how to accomplish different tasks and needs throughout the application.
However, on the navigation bar, if the inactive icons had a white outline and the “active” form a filled green icon, it might better indicate to users which page they are on. It would also be consistent with the rest of the app’s green colour palette.
Offer High-Resolution Audio, As Promised
Spotify Premium subscribers can stream music at 320 kbps, considered “high quality” for streaming. Free users can stream up to 160 kbps, but the option for lossless audio is still unavailable on the app. It’s high time Spotify delivered high-resolution audio like they promised years ago, as its competitors like Apple Music have this feature.
Expert Review by Aadesh Padave
I was more than excited to write this review because I am a Spotify user and have also used other music streaming platforms. Spotify has received a lot of backlash for revoking many features, but it has also received a lot of appreciation for bringing a community together.
Finding the discrepancies in the UI UX of a design product through research that I personally use was an enlightening experience.
Contact Yellow Slice’s design experts to help you craft your next digital project. Reach out to us to identify any gaps. We love analysing different design projects and helping enhance designs. We make sure your customers leave glowing reviews instead of complaints.
FAQs — Decoding the Spotify Experience
1. How can Spotify better serve the needs of its users?
Many users have been unhappy with the fluctuation of provision or revoking of a few features in the Spotify app. For instance, a while ago, Spotify barred free version users from accessing lyrics preview. Similar was the case with playing the song from the middle of anywhere.
Earlier, users couldn’t listen to play a specific part of a song again if they liked it. But now they can access lyrics preview and play a part of the song if they don’t wish to listen to the entire song, with a monthly limit of access.
This instability of features irritates users, as they don’t know what is available to them at what point.
2. What does Spotify do best regarding UI/UX design?
Spotify outshines all the other competitors, commanding a substantial 30.10% market share. Thanks to its user research and personalised song recommendations, Spotify’s uniform black-and-green user interface is the unsung hero in this narrative.
Spotify recognised that music doesn’t exist in isolation, so the social media aspect was integrated into the app. Users can create and share playlists or create a collaborative playlist for better social connectivity. Intuitive navigation, categorised, easy-to-find music categories, hands-free control and other features are the reasons behind Spotify’s success. 
