Since we’ve been banished from the Windows 10 Groove app and ushered to Spotify through some backroom deal users had no say in, here at OnMSFT, our new angle of auditory entertainment coverage now includes updates and press releases about Spotify.
Spotify launched today its new Spotlight feature, which is a new podcasting format that seems to be a hedge against the umpteenth attempt from Google to combine both visual and audio entertainment from its YouTube and Google Play Music content silos and put them into one easily accessible package for subscribers, while also putting a foot forward in an area Apple Music has yet to figure out.
The newer Spotify rollout of Spotlight may sound familiar but the company has once before used the term Spotlight when introducing a new feature: The difference is that previous Spotlight was an attempting to cater to the content creators while this newer Spotlight is an attempt to cater users who like listening to podcasts.
More specifically, Spotlight is being described by TechCrunch as a “new multimedia format that adds visual elements to podcasts.” What does that entail exactly?
Spotify is putting into place hooks that will allow dedicated podcasters the opportunity to add more engaging components to their podcast, including dynamically rotated album artwork, bookmarks of highlighted sections of the podcast, embedded links to external media, and hi-quality image uploads.
For now, Spotlight is a US affair and should be rolling out to devices over the coming hours. Despite Microsoft adding new equalizer settings to Groove today, it’s clear that those of us exiled from the Groove app, arguably have a better solution in Spotify than we might have ever had with Groove. As much as it pains me to say, I’m finding Spotify to be a more feature rich experience, especially in the podcasting arena.
