Spotify Tips & Tricks For Better Music Streaming - 2022 Method
Spotify Tips & Tricks For Better Music Streaming - 2022 Method
Let’s take a look at some neat tips and tricks every Spotify user should know to get more out of the service.
1. Utilize Playlist Folders
If you’re big on playlists, they can quickly become overwhelming after you create and follow a few dozen. It’s easy to reign in your Spotify playlist collection by making playlist folders that group similar ones together.
To do so, right-click anywhere in the Playlists section of the left sidebar and choose Create Folder. You can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + N (Windows) or Cmd + Shift + N (Mac) if you prefer.
Give your folder a name, and it’s ready to use. Simply drag and drop a playlist onto the folder to add it. Use the arrows that appear to the right of playlist folders to expand or collapse them as needed. With folders open, you can also drag and drop playlists out of them into another folder or the main list.
Click a playlist folder to show its playlists in Spotify’s main window.
2. Use Advanced Search Parameters
Most of the time, it’s easy enough to type a song or artist name into the search bar to find it. But when you need something more, Spotify has deeper search operators that let you drill down to exactly what you want to find.
Below are some of these:
- Genre: Search for a term only in certain music genres, such as “genre:rock darkness”.
- Year: Find music by year or a range. For example, “year:1965 beatles” or “year:1995-1999 foo”
- Label: Search by music label, like “label:domino john”
- Search by lyrics: If you don’t know the name of a song, type at least three words from the lyrics and Spotify can locate it with those.
- Exact search: Enter a query in quotes and Spotify will search for that exact string instead of using all the words to find matches.
- Boolean operators: Use AND (or plus) to search for a combination of two terms, OR to search for either of two terms, and NOT (or minus) to exclude certain terms. For example, “jazz AND guitar” or “pop-punk NOT blink”.
3. Add a Start Time When Sharing Tracks
You probably know that Spotify lets you share tracks using a few different options. But did you know that it’s possible to start a shared track at a specific time as well? This comes in handy if you want to skip a lengthy intro or highlight a certain solo.
In our testing, this only works using the Spotify URI option, which opens the track directly in the Spotify app on someone’s computer when they click it. To use this, right-click on a track and choose Share > Copy Spotify URI.
You’ll get a URI that looks like this:
spotify:track:4ZiAnGIZFFUybp0NZXIYEG
To add a timestamp, add #m:ss to the end. For example, the following will start the song at 1:10 into the track:
spotify:track:4ZiAnGIZFFUybp0NZXIYEG#1:10
4. Drag and Drop Tracks Everywhere
You can click and drag tracks in Spotify itself or outside of the app. Click on a track or album and drag it into a social media post, instant messaging chat, or similar to easily create a link that anyone who uses Spotify can click to check out the track.
This also works inside of Spotify. Click and drag a track or album into a playlist on the left sidebar to add it. Like in many other apps, you can hold Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) to select multiple tracks. Additionally, you can select one track, then hold Shift while clicking another one to select everything in between.
5. Listen to Popular Tracks From Around the World
If you’re searching for something new to check out, why not have a look at the top charts from other countries? To find them, click Browse at the top of the left sidebar.
From there, click Charts along the top. Here you can choose from the Top 50 and Viral 50 in both your country and worldwide. The Top lists collect the tracks with the most plays per day, while the Viral lists hold songs that have spiked in popularity.
Use the Top 50 by Country and Viral 50 by Country at the bottom of this page to select one for a certain region. These playlists update every day.
6. Take Advantage of Spotify’s Options
Spotify’s options menu has a couple of handy tools to help control the flow of your music. You’ll find it under Edit > Preferences (or Ctrl + P) on Windows and Spotify > Preferences (or Cmd + Comma) on a Mac. Scroll to the bottom and choose Show Advanced Settings to reveal all options.
Use the Crossfade songs slider under Playback to blend songs into each other for a smoother listening experience. You can also enable the Automix option, which affects certain playlists by skipping intros/outros and looping the ending to flow better into the next track.
If you like knowing when Spotify no longer has a track available, enable Show unavailable songs in playlists under Display Options. This will show unavailable songs as gray in playlists, albums, and similar.
Under Music Quality, you can enable Normalize volume to prevent one song from blowing your ears out after listening to a quiet one before it. You can also use the options under Volume level to adjust the sound for your environment.
And if you’re a Spotify Premium subscriber, make sure to turn the Streaming quality to Very High so your music sounds as good as possible.
7. Master Using Spotify Keyboard Shortcuts
When navigating around in Spotify, you can save time by using your keyboard instead of your mouse.
Most of those only work when you have the Spotify window in active focus. So if Spotify is in the background when you’re listening, it might be faster to use your keyboard’s media keys to play/pause or change the volume.
Master Spotify Tricks for Better Listening
Now you know some of the best tricks for a better Spotify experience. They’re easy to put into practice and you might not have known about them yet!
There’s a lot more to discover in Spotify, including great ways to find new music you’ll love.
Happy learning!
