Hello! Happy New Year and welcome to the latest issue of the Spotify Newsletter!

It’s a new year, and we are ready to deliver all the latest and greatest news from the Swedish audio giant.

With the start of a new year there’s lots of ‘what to expect’ type articles flying around focused on the music industry. Spotify is a big part of the conjecture.

Austin Staubus, who has written a nice variety of Spotify-centric articles in the past, published a solid top ten for 2023, which features Spotify throughout.

With Spotify in mind, he foresees a price bump in the U.S., as well as a move into AI-generated music and tweaks to the royalty system.

I have no doubt it will be another exciting year for Spotify. But surely there will be unforeseen bumps in the road, to go along with the hopefully more positive activity.

Perhaps Neil Young will jump from the shadows and spend a week screaming about Joe Rogan, or sound quality, or whatever he’s angry about.

I did predict his music would be back on Spotify before 2023, so I was wrong there, which is why I’m all thumbs with prognostication.

I’ll just put out good vibes and plenty of hope that Spotify delivers a dazzling feature or two to spice up the music streaming experience.

All I know is that I’m looking forward to a wild and wacky year of curating all the best Spotify news - and delivering it to the awesome subscribers every Friday. 😀

★In the SPOTlight★

🔥 Spotify’s new time capsule feature will let you revisit your musical taste a year from now

Spotify is introducing a new in-app experience called “Playlist in a Bottle” that is designed to let you capture your current music tastes and revisit them one year later. The streaming service announced on Wednesday that the new user experience will help users capture the moment by the time January 2024 rolls around.

🔥 10 controversial predictions for the music business in 2023

In an effort to increase security for its users, Spotify rolls out the ability for regular users to implement 2FA on their accounts. This cuts down on streaming fraud and user account hacking. 2FA for regular accounts remains the most “liked” thread on Spotify’s community forums to date.

🔥 The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” Is Now Spotify’s Most-Streamed Song Of All Time

“Blinding Lights” now boasts 3.332 billion streams on the platform, just slightly more than “Shape Of You.” The two tracks are the only ones to surpass the 3 billion mark on Spotify to date.

🔥 How Spotify’s ‘Case 63’ Went From Regional Hit to Unexpected Chart-Topping Podcast

The supernatural drama, which premiered in Chile in 2020, now appears around the world and topped charts in the U.S., U.K. and Canada.

🗣 Podcast Action 🗣

Spotify Ends Two Exclusive Shows Amid Podcasting Shakeout

Meghan Markle Used A Neumann Mic To Make Her Spotify Podcasts Sound Warm And Engaging

🎧 The Playlist List 🎧

Metallica’s Enter Sandman Hits One Billion Streams On Spotify

How To Get Your Music on Spotify Playlists

Top 10 most-streamed songs on Spotify - the all-time most popular tracks 2023

💡 Tips & Tricks 💡

Beatspend For Spotify: How To Get A Receipt Of Your Favorite Artists

Spotify Setting Tweaks That'll Change How You Listen to Music

🖌 Design Notes 🖌

Android's new Spotify and YouTube notification system sounds like a music streaming dream

Learnings from Spotify Mobile Engineering’s Recent Platform Migration

How Spotify could use your Apple Health data for music recommendations

💰 Spotify Stock 💰

Black Sheep Sue Universal Music Group Over Spotify Stock Sales

Spotify Stock Dropped By Almost 70% In 2022 — Will Things Turn Around During 2023?

🔥 Extra News 🔥

How many streams is a placement on “New Music Friday” really worth?

De La Soul's catalogue finally set to appear on streaming platforms

Spotify Celebrates the 10th Anniversary of Chief Keef’s ‘Finally Rich’

Kendrick Lamar Claims Spotify’s Most Streamed Rap Album Of 2022

🎵 New Adventures 🎵

If You've Got The Money I've Got The Time Percy Sledge

I Love You, Suzanne Lou Reed

I Feel Possessed Crowded House

If The Sun Doesn't Shine The Smithereens

Crowing Toad The Wet Sprocket

Bring On The Night - Remastered 2003 The Police

Carolina Shag - 2022 Mix John Mellencamp

White Dove Starsailor

** Thinking of the great Anita Pointer, who sadly passed on Monday.

Easy Persuasion The Pointer Sisters

I'm So Excited The Pointer Sisters

Slow Hand The Pointer Sisters

📧 Get in touch 📧

If you have a question, idea, request, or simply a desire to chat about Spotify, please email me at jeff.spotifynewsletter@gmail.com.

😀 Have a Nice Weekend! 😀