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Spotify ad a redesign of its desktop app at the end of March, and the redesign has finally found its way to my Linux desktop – and maybe yours too!
The redesign of the user interface improves the main navigation of the music streaming client, in particular search access. In older versions of the client, the “search” function appeared and disappeared depending on the view. Now it’s in the sidebar, in all views.
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To hit the Made for you, Recently played, and other links that were previously in the sidebar that you are supposed to click Your library and find them there. However, they are not there for me (it is possible for a free user). To save you time watching, they are now in the Domicile section.
This update also makes it easier to access general functionalities of the service whatever bit of UI you are in, for example, playlists, search mode, play queue, etc. Users can create radio stations from any song via the “…”Menu; there is a simpler playlist creation; and listener profile pages now include top artists and tracks.
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I am a huge fan of playlists and create them often. This Spotify redesign dramatically improves the creation of playlists on the desktop. You can now write descriptions, upload images, drag and drop tracks into playlists, and finally search for new songs / podcasts from the “create playlist” page itself.
Overall, this redesign makes the Spotify desktop app look less cluttered and more modern, with simpler (albeit different) search and browse behaviors. The desktop app feels more connected to the Spotify mobile and web apps and less like a forgotten relic.
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So how can you get it?
It’s at Spotify. This change is server side, so you can’t just install an update to get it. If you’re running a slightly older version of the Linux desktop client, you can get the new UI as well – whether you like it or not! We have a guide showing you how to install Spotify on Ubuntu if you need it.
Spotify is my default music service. I have some 100GB of music on an external hard drive, but it’s been years since I’ve really rested on it. I can access most of the music (and a lot more) for free through Spotify (which is still crazy). The service could provide a potato of a user interface and there’s a good chance I’m still using it. But the redesign will benefit new Spotify users.
One thing to note: the redesign does not resolve the Spotify “missing artwork” issue in the GNOME Shell message bar. If you see a blank white square where the album cover should be a problem, install the GNOME Shell Extension for Spotify Artwork Fixer – it works a champion!
And if you need something awesome to listen to …
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