Spotify recently announced a host of new features meant to improve personalization and discovery. Aside from the eagerly awaited Smart Filters, a pretty cool new Snooze feature is among their most notable additions. Such moves underscore the company’s drive toward personalization and its efforts to continue expanding its content library. On September 5, 2023, Spotify rolled out its most exciting—seriously!—announcements yet. The company is always pushing the envelope with new technologies to improve the experience for users.
The Smart Filters feature is currently rolling out to Premium users across several countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa. Smart Filters first rolled out to mobile devices— smartphones and tablets —so the experience was really seamless. Finally, they free users to curate their music libraries however they want. This special feature is designed to help you get more from your listening experience. It makes it easier to find songs that match what you’re feeling or what you’re doing.
Along with these Smart Filters, Spotify rolled out a Snooze feature at the beginning of this year. It covers a smart skip functionality that actively skips songs you’ve recently overplayed in your library, playlist or radio station. It’s doing it for 30 days in a row! In this way, Spotify hopes to shake up users’ listening habits and alleviate the boredom associated with overplayed songs. Together, these features mark the latest wave of Spotify’s long-term ambition to hyper-personalize music consumption to each of its users.
Expansion of Audiobook Offerings
Spotify is making some big moves to diversify its content strategy. The platform plans to grow its audiobook library even further using generative AI. One of the ways the platform hopes to do this is by using great technology to create better, more accessible audiobooks. Expanded audiobooks offering This service is a sign of Spotify’s recognition of the strong consumer appetite for audiobooks on its platform.
To make this broadening of horizons happen, Spotify has teamed up with ElevenLabs, a firm that’s known for AI voice narration. Our authors will have the opportunity to realize their works as audiobooks through this partnership. Consumers will benefit from a smoother, faster streaming experience. Audiobook narration AI voice technology will improve quality and accessibility of audiobooks on the site. This change will allow more creators to hook fans with immersive audio experiences.
Back in February 2025, Spotify surprised and thrilled the industry by releasing its first AI voice narrated audiobook. It’s an exciting and groundbreaking move for the audiobook experience in both production and consumption. Spotify is going all in on tech improvements. This strategy serves to solidify the company’s first-mover advantage in the audiobook market, even as it still looks to innovate in music streaming.
A Focus on User Control
The new Smart Filters and the Snooze feature add to Spotify’s recent emphasis on controlling the platform as a user. As consumers continue to demand more customized experiences, these attributes crack open the door for listeners to bring a bit of control to their own musical adventure. By making these changes to better align with what users want and expect, Spotify is showing that they’re making the user feel like a priority.
The rollout of these features comes at a time when competition among streaming platforms is heating up both in terms of price and content. Platforms are always in a race to keep users’ attention. By incorporating intuitive design characteristics, Spotify would not only improve user experience but enhance its market competitiveness.
