Spotify is one of the most popular music apps on Android. The streaming music service is free for basic radio use, or has a monthly subscription for full streaming of the entire catalogue of more than 25 million tracks. In this tips guide we’ll show you a few ways to get even more from the Spotify app.
More powerful searches
Searching in Spotify can be a bit of a pain, frequently producing a list of tracks and artists not connected to what you were looking for.
With a little know feature it’s possible to search more precisely and more efficiently within the Spotify app. To do it you must precede your search term with a qualifier. So, artist:nirvana would return a list containing a list of tracks by Nirvana.
Here’s the full list of search qualifiers you can use:
- artist:[“artist name”]
- track:[“song name”]
- year:[year]
- genre:[genre] — see here for a full list of the genres in Spotify
- label:[“record label name”]
- isrc:[international standard recording code]
- upc:[universal product code]
- tag:new — this shows a list of new additions to the Spotify catalogue
When searching for a year you can also use a range, e.g. year:1969-1972
You can also use AND to include multiple search terms, and NOT to exclude things, e.g. artist:”rolling stones” AND year:1969-1972
Delete a radio station
The radio is one of Spotify’s most popular features, but when you’ve created one they tend to stay there forever.
It is possible to delete a radio station that you no longer need, or just to tidy up your app. Slide open the sidebar, tap radio then long press on a radio station. When the menu appears, hit delete.
Use Spotify overseas
You can continue to use Spotify even when you are on holiday overseas.
- to avoid roaming charges, download music from your chosen artists and playlists first. You can download up to 3333 tracks
- go to Settings and switch to offline mode. Spotify will now no longer try and go online
- you’ll need to login to your Spotify account every 30 days to keep your offline tracks
- last.fm scrobbling does not work in offline mode
Import playlist folders
If you’ve got a lot of playlists it can be easier to sort them into folders. There is no way of creating folders within the app, but you can create them on the desktop and they will appear in the app next time it connects.
You also need to manage the folder from the desktop, including adding playlists to it, as this cannot be done within the app. You can delete playlists in the app that are saved in folders.
Sing along
If you want to sing long with the music playing through the Spotify app, download Musixmatch from the Play Store. This app shows the lyrics from the currently playing song on your home screen, and works perfectly with the Spotify app.
Swipe to skip tracks
Spotify has the common forward and back icons to skip and replay tracks, but there’s another way too. When you’re viewing the main player screen, simply swipe left or right to play the previous or next song in your queue or playlist.
Identify music and play in Spotify
Unlike Google Music, which has its own built-in music recognition widget, Spotify relies on third party apps. If you hear a song on the TV or being played in public that you like but don’t recognise use the Shazam app from the Play Store to identify what the song is. You can then play the full track instantly in Spotify.