Making the Most of Spotify

By Tracey Dowdy

When we moved back to Virginia after five years in Canada, one of the things that eased the pain of saying goodbye to poutine and ketchup chips was access to sites like Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, and Spotify. Of course Canada has Amazon, Netflix and Spotify, but the content is different and like everything else ‘Merican, well, your content libraries are bigger.

Spotify in particular has been a welcome addition – who wouldn’t love rolling through Spotify’s catalog of over 30 million songs, available through free or paid subscriptions? One of my favorite features is “Discover Weekly” – a customized list based on your listening preferences that gets updated every Monday. I’m guaranteed to pick up at least 2 or 3 songs a week to add to my playlists.

Spotify’s launched back in 2008, but even if you’ve been using it for a while these tips and tricks can help you make the most of the service.

1. If you don’t want the world to know your secret life as a diehard Belieber, make your listening activity and playlists private.

  • In desktop preferences, un-check “Publish my activity on Spotify”
  • Make individual playlists private by right-clicking the title and selecting “Make Secret”
  • Start a temporary private session under the main Spotify window on the desktop

2. Read lyrics in real time as a song plays so you can avoid “momming up” the lyrics and you’ll discover Taylor Swift isn’t actually singing about her list of “Starbucks lovers” in Blank Space.

3. If you use the paid version, you can import songs from iTunes and other places on your computer directly into Spotify. This is particularly useful for artists like Taylor Swift whose music isn’t available through the service. Tracks will be displayed under the Local Files tab under “Your Music” in the Spotify app.

4. Make your playlists collaborative by clicking the “…” icon next to “Following.” You’ll get a notification any time the list is edited by another Belieber, I mean another user. Ahem.

5. Get specific with Advanced Search. Go beyond searching by artist, genre, album or title and use common search parameters AND, NOT, OR. E.g. “Simon AND Garfunkel”, “Simon OR Garfunkel” or “Simon NOT Garfunkel.”

6. Easily recover a playlist you deleted. Not that that’s ever happened to anyone I know. Simply login to your account on Spotify’s website and select “Recover Playlists.”

7. Use “touch preview” to sample an album or playlists. Tap and hold the cursor over the album or playlist to explore, quite literally, without having lifted a finger.

8. Use your phone as a remote control to play music from another computer or your speakers. The technology also works with newer TV’s and some speakers like those from Sonos.

9. Organize your playlists into folders. On the desktop, go to “File” and then “New Playlist Folder” and sort and label away.

Tracey Dowdy is a freelance writer based just outside Washington DC. After years working for non-profits and charities, she now freelances, edits and researches on subjects ranging from family and education to history and trends in technology. Follow Tracey on Twitter.

Comments:

  1. GET PROFESSIONALLY VIDEOS AT AFFORDABLE PRICES

    We offer professionally produced videos at affordable prices.
    Our videos have the look and feel of a high quality television commercial, complete with professional spokesperson, background, text,
    images, logos, music and of course, most importantly, your company’s contact information for your theonlinemom.com.

    If you’re ready to reach more clients today, let us get to work on producing your company’s exclusive video.
    MORE INFO=> http://qejn39630.bloggerbags.com/8235085/get-videos-at-affordable-prices

  2. You nead Search engine advertising – Google AdWords campaigns from the expert team ONMA scout ?
    GOOGLE AD TIPS THAT MAKE YOU MORE MONEY.
    A properly implemented PPC campaign is vital for an advertiser to work for their conversions and profits.
    SEE HERE https://zeep.ly/FSuqG

  3. You nead Search engine advertising – Google AdWords campaigns from the expert team ONMA scout ?
    GOOGLE AD TIPS THAT MAKE YOU MORE MONEY.
    A properly implemented PPC campaign is vital for an advertiser to work for their conversions and profits.
    SEE HERE https://zeep.ly/FSuqG

  4. YOU NEED REAL VISITORS FOR: theonlinemom.com ?

    We Provide 100% Real Visitors To Your Website.
    With this traffic, you can boost ranking in SERP, SEO, profit from CPM…

    CLAIM YOUR 24 HOURS FREE TEST HERE=> https://zeep.ly/ka3Ur?84980

  5. You are looking for Free Backlinks then you came to the right place.

    We offering you a free trial to try out our link-building service.
    This can be used to link out to your website, inner page, google map, video, to any link you want to help power up and get more relevance too.

    We want to prove to you that our backlinks work and so we’re willing to prove it to you risk-free.
    Please create an account and then watch the video and submit your order details and let us help you get found online.
    FREE TEST HERE: https://zeep.ly/pKjOP?83258

  6. Howdy, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just
    curious if you get a lot of spam comments? If so how do you prevent it, any plugin or
    anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it’s driving me crazy
    so any support is very much appreciated.

    Take a look at my web-site https://bantenglive.com/

  7. Thanks for your personal marvelous posting! I certainly
    enjoyed reading it, you are a great author.I will ensure that I bookmark your blog and definitely will come back someday.
    I want to encourage you continue your great job, have a
    nice evening!

    Take a look at my website :: betayam.com

  8. Hello there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and
    found that it is really informative. I am gonna watch out for brussels.
    I’ll be grateful if you continue this in future. A lot of people will be
    benefited from your writing. Cheers!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *