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31 Spotify Tips & Tricks

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Master Spotify with this list of helpful Spotify tips and tricks that show you how to use Spotify, pay less for your family and find new music while using the service to its full potential. With the Spotify tips below you can learn how to use Spotify on your iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows or Mac without stumbling through a boring help document or poking around aimlessly in Spotify settings.

You’ll learn how to listen to higher quality music, use your phone as a remote for Spotify on another device, listen to music that Spotify doesn’t offer for streaming, where to find comedy on Spotify and even learn a new language with Spotify.

Fresh for 2016 we’ve updated this list of Spotify tips to match new features and to remove several cool options that Spotify took out.

This guide will teach you the important things that you need to know about how to use Spotify on any device so that you get the best experience and your money’s worth. The step-by-step guides will make it easy to learn more about the Spotify features and settings that you need to change.

Use these Spotify tips and tricks to get more from your Spotify subscription.

Use these Spotify tips and tricks to get more from your Spotify subscription.

Many of the Spotify tips and tricks are features that most users never discover without digging through settings or stumbling upon them with an accidental tap. You’ll learn these Spotify tricks and hidden features in our guide and once you know where they are located it is easy to remember how to use Spotify like a pro.

Many of these Spotify tips and tricks are free to use, but about half of them require the Spotify Premium service that is $9.99 a month. Without the Spotify Premium service you can’t pick any song, download Spotify songs or listen to high-definition music. Spotify Premium also removes all ads from the service. You can try a 60-day Spotify premium free trial without any commitment using this link.

Here are the essential Spotify tips and tricks that will help you learn how to use Spotify like a pro.

Store Music Offline, Save Data

If you pay for Spotify Premium you can download music to listen to offline. This makes it possible to listen to Spotify on your iPad without a WiFi connection or listen to Spotify on your iPhone while on a plane or without cell phone coverage.

You can download your playlists and playlists that you follow. You should download Spotify songs on WiFi so that you don’t use your monthly data up too fast. Downloaded files are often bigger than streaming a song.

Save a playlist for playback offline.

Save a playlist for playback offline.

When you follow a playlist or are looking at one you created, you can tap the Available Offline toggle switch to download those Spotify songs to your device.

You can also go to an Album, tap Save and then Available Offline to download the album. You can not download songs without adding to a playlist or saving to your songs.

Make Spotify Sound Better

You can control the Spotify sound quality in the menu to choose between Normal, High, Extreme sound quality. You can choose a different quality for streaming and for syncing. Higher quality songs use more space and take more data to stream.

Switch to higher quality music in Spotify.

Switch to higher quality music in Spotify.

If you have a large capacity iPhone or iPad you can choose Extreme for Sync and stick with Normal or High for streaming your music.

Tap the three lines in the upper left -> Tap on Settings -> Tap on Music Quality -> Choose the quality you want to listen to for streaming and syncing.

Use the Spotify Web Player

You can use the Spotify Web player to listen to Spotify when you can’t install the Spotify app on your computer. This is handy at work or in a computer lab, and it can save your iPhone battery so you aren’t playing from it all day.

Use the web player to listen to Spotify anywhere.

Use the web player to listen to Spotify anywhere.

Go to Play Spotify to use the Spotify web player in Safari, Internet Explorer or Chrome. You get a very similar experience as on the app that you install on a computer.

Discover New Music

If you want to listen to new Music you can use the Spotify playlists to find new music that you might like. There are other ways to try this, but we like to use the Browse option to find playlists that match our mood, genre or activity.

Discover new music with playlists.

Discover new music with playlists.

Tap on the three lines in the upper left or swipe from left to right and then tap on Browse. You can scroll down to see different categories and then tap on one of these to find playlists that you can listen to, save and share.

Add Your Own Music to Spotify

Sometimes Spotify doesn’t have the song you want to listen to. You can add your own music to Spotify so that you can add songs from Taylor Swift or your favorite indie artist to your Spotify playlists. This is an excellent way to mix the music you love and own with the music you are checking out on Spotify.

Sync Taylor Swift to Spotify.

Sync Taylor Swift to Spotify.

Use this guide to add you own music to Spotify. You need an iPhone, iPad or Android and a Mac or PC that is on the same WiFi network. You also need a local DRM free copy of the song or album you want to add.

See What Your Friends Listen To on Spotify

If you are connected to Facebook or you add friends on Spotify, you can see what they are listening to. This is a cool way to find new music to listen to. It works best when you add that one friend who always has the best music playing.

Find your friends and what they like to listen to on Spotify.

Find your friends and what they like to listen to on Spotify.

Go to the Menu on the Spotify app -> Tap on Activity -> You’ll see the public activity for friends here. You can also follow friends from Facebook and follow artists.

Spotify Private Listening Mode

Sometimes you don’t want your friends to know what you are listening to. Maybe you are enjoying a guilty pleasure of teen pop or country music that doesn’t match your normal playlist. If you connect Spotify and Facebook or share your information publicly, the service can share your songs with others.

On the iPhone or Android you need to go to Menu -> Settings -> Social -> Private Session -> On. This only lasts for six hours or until you log back out.

Stop Sharing Your Spotify Activity on Facebook

If you don’t want to share your Spotify listening habits on Facebook, but you still want to use the service to easily login to Facebook and to find friends you can limit what Spotify shares on Facebook.

Control sharing activity on Spotify.

Control sharing activity on Spotify.

Go to the Menu -> Settings -> Social -> Turn off Show Activity on Facebook. You can also turn off Publish Activity on Spotify.  You may need to make this change on multiple devices.

Use iPhone or Android as a Remote for Spotify

You can use the Spotify app on your iPhone or Android device as a remote control for Spotify on your computer. This is called Spotify Connect and it can connect Spotify to your stereo, laptop, TV or other Spotify gear.

Use your iPhone or Android as a remote for Spotify on your computer, PS4 or other gadgets.

Use your iPhone or Android as a remote for Spotify on your computer, PS4 or other gadgets.

When you are playing Spotify on your mobile device tap on the small speaker icon and then choose where you want the music to play. That’s all there is to using this feature — assuming you have equipment to handle it. You need to be a Spotify premium subscriber to use Spotify connect.

Get Storage Space Back from Spotify

If you run out of storage space on your iPhone or Android and you need to recover some, you may need to delete and re-install the app.

There is no easy way to clear the Spotify cache on the iPhone app. This means after listening to your music for weeks you may be using too much storage. In our test removing downloaded music did not free up space and there is no option to clear the cache.

Preview Songs in a Spotify Playlist

You can quickly listen to songs from a Spotify playlist with a new touch and hold preview option that lets you figure out if this is a playlist you will enjoy listening to.

Tap and hold on a playlist and it will open up almost a dozen songs. Slide your finger across the screen to listen to the song you want to hear a sample of. As long as your finger is on the track you will hear that music. When you remove your finger.  you’ll go back to your current playlist.

Queue Spotify Songs

You can create an on the go playlist that lets you add another song to the queue to play next without creating a whole new playlist. This is perfect for when you want to hear a specific song or several songs next, without interrupting your overall playlist.

Choose what song plays next without making a playlist.

Choose what song plays next without making a playlist.

When you are on a listing for the song you want tap on the three dots to the right. Then tap on Add to Up Next. This will put this song next in your play order. After that song or songs Spotify will go back to playing the original playlist or album.

Copy a Spotify Playlist

Use this guide to copy a Spotify playlist.

Use this guide to copy a Spotify playlist.

You can copy a Spotify playlist so that you always have a copy of a great shared playlist, even if the author changes it, or just to use as a starting point for a new playlist. Use this guide to copy a Spotify playlist. You need to use Spotify on your Mac or PC to use this method.

Share a Spotify Playlist

When you create a Spotify playlist that is amazing you can share it with friends on Facebook, Twitter and Spotify. After you make the playlist you need to go to the song listing and tap on the three dots in the upper right.

Choose Share on this screen and then you can choose who to share this with, including social media, email, text or even just the link that you can paste into whatever method you want to use to share it.

Create a Radio from a Playlist

When you have an amazing Spotify playlist you can find similar music by creating a Spotify radio station from your playlist. This is better than just using one song, especially if your playlist has a theme.

Create radio from a Spotify playlist.

Create radio from a Spotify playlist.

When you are on the playlist tap on the three dots in the upper right -> Choose Start Radio. This will make a radio station based on everything in the playlist. This station will then show up under the Radio section.

Control Spotify With Your Headphones

If you are listening to Spotify on the iPhone or iPad you can use your headphones to control your music. You probably know that you can control the volume with the up and down buttons, but you can also control playback even more.

Press once in the center to pause the music and again to play. You can double tap to skip to the next track. You can triple tap to go back one track as well.

Import iTunes Playlists to Spotify

Import your iTunes playlists to Spotify.

Import your iTunes playlists to Spotify.

If you already have an awesome playlist library on iTunes that you want to listen to in Spotify on your computer and iPhone or Android you can import iTunes playlists to Spotify.

On your computer open the Spotify app and then click on File -> Import From -> iTunes. After a few seconds you will see a new iTunes folder in the Playlist section.

For a while Spotify removed this option, but it is back in the latest Version on Mac. Make sure you update your app.

Spotify Keyboard Shortcuts

When listening to Spotify on your computer you can control playback using keyboard shortcuts for more than just changing the tracks and volume using media keys on your keyboard. There are different Spotify keyboard shortcuts on Windows and on Mac.

Function Windows Mac
Create new playlist Ctrl-N Cmd-N
Cut Ctrl-X Cmd-X
Copy Ctrl-C Cmd-C
Copy (alternative link) Ctrl-Alt-C Cmd-Alt-C
Paste Ctrl-V Cmd-V
Delete Del Del, Backspace
Select all Ctrl-A Cmd-A
Select none Ctrl-Shift-A Cmd-Shift-A
Play/pause Space Space
Next track Ctrl-Right Ctrl-Cmd-Right
Previous track Ctrl-Left Ctrl-Cmd-Left
Volume up Ctrl-Up Cmd-Up
Volume down Ctrl-Down Cmd-Down
Show help F1 Cmd-Shift-?
Give focus to address/search field Ctrl-L Cmd-Alt-F, Cmd-L
Go back (browse) Alt-Left Cmd-Alt-Left, Cmd-[
Go forward (browse) Alt-Right Cmd-Alt-Right, Cmd-]
Play selected row Enter Enter
Preferences Ctrl-P Cmd-,
Logout active user Ctrl-Shift-W Cmd-Shift-W
Quit Alt-F4 Cmd-Q
Hide window Cmd-H
Hide other applications’ windows Cmd-Alt-H
Close window Cmd-W
Minimize window Cmd-M
Restore window (from hidden state) Cmd-Alt-1

The table above shows you the Spotify keyboard shortcuts that Spotify recommends using on Mac or PC. You can’t use these on the iPad with a Bluetooth Keyboard.

Turn on Crossfade in Spotify

If you like to listen to music without a pause between tracks you can turn on crossfade on the desktop version of Spotify. This allows you to make songs mix together as they switch with 1-12 seconds of crossfade.

Go to Spotify Preferences -> Crossfade -> On and then select the amount of fade to apply to the songs. You can also do this on your iPhone or Android in Settings -> Playback -> Adjust the crossfade time.

Organize Spotify Playlists

You can create Spotify playlist folders to organize your music for easier browsing and to keep your playlists from becoming a cluttered mess. You’ll need to do this on a computer, but the folders sync to your iPhone or Android. You can even use this to play all songs in a folder so you can combine playlists.

Create folders to organize your Spotify playlists.

Create folders to organize your Spotify playlists.

On your Mac or PC go to File -> New Playlist Folder -> Drag playlists to the folder. Within a few minutes this will show up on your mobile app.

Search Spotify like a Pro

If you ever get frustrated that you can’t find what you are looking for on Spotify you need to learn how to search Spotify like a pro. You can use search qualifiers to only search artists, titles, albums, genre or by year. SearchEngineWatch has all the details, but the most important options are below.

  • artist:Bob Dylan – only search the artist name field
  • album:Jay Z – only search the album name field
  • year:1979 or year:1990-1995 – tracks released in a specific year or range of years.
  • genre:punk – search in a specific genre of music

You can also use And, Or, Not operators and quotations to further narrow searches. Check out the full breakdown of how to use these features to search Spotify like a pro.

Collaborate on a Spotify Playlist

Share or collaborate on a Spotify playlist.

Share or collaborate on a Spotify playlist.

We already shared how you can share a Spotify playlist, but that doesn’t let others edit the playlist. You can collaborate on a Spotify playlist to share creating and editing responsibilities. This is a great way to crowdsource the playlist for a party, a shared playlist for the office or just a playlist that you and your love can both edit.

Create a playlist to start the process and then Tap on the three dots in the upper right and then choose Make Collaborative. That’s all there is to it. You can go to the same area and Make Non Collaborative if you don’t want to share editing responsibilities.

Save with a Spotify Family Account

If everyone in the house is using Spotify you can upgrade to a Spotify Family account and save 50% off the standard price.

With Spotify Family everyone in the house can get the same Spotify Premium features without the need to share a single account. That means no ads, but no sharing playlists and mixing music in between the accounts and everyone can stream at the same time.

Go to the Spotify Family page and choose to upgrade to a family account. It is $14.99 for 2 members, $19.99 for three members, and $5 more for each member up to a total of five family members.

Connect to Facebook

If you signed up for Spotify without a Facebook account you can still add this to your account. This makes it easy to log in and much easier to find friends to follow.

On your Mac or PC you need to open the Spotify app and then go to Preferences. Scroll down to the bottom and under Social Network you can link your account to Facebook. You will need to login to the Facebook account and you will be up and running.

Spotify Gapless Playback

If you like to listen to albums on Spotify you may want to turn on Gapless playback. This option lets you hear the songs without a pause of silence between tracks. You need to turn this on in the Spotify preferences of the desktop Spotify app or in the settings of Spotify on your iPhone or Android device. When you are in the settings go to the Playback options and toggle Gapless playback to on.

Use the Spotify Equalizer

Use the Spotify equalizer to make your music sound better.

Use the Spotify equalizer to make your music sound better.

You can control how the music you listen to on Spotify sounds with a built-in Equalizer. You need to go to Settings on the iPhone or Android device and then into Playback to choose an equalizer.

This is very handy since the iPhone’s built-in Equalizer doesn’t change music and sound for Spotify. You will need to change this as you go between genres as it doesn’t detect when you switch from acoustic to EDM.

Find Your Spotify History

You can easily see what you listen to on Spotify recently and what your top tracks are in the Spotify app on Mac or PC. This is an awesome way to figure out what song you heard while driving or working out earlier that day. You can then add to a playlist or save it and explore the artist more.

On the Spotify app on your computer click on Play Queue and then on History to see the songs that you listened to in order from for the last 50 tracks. You can no longer see your most listened to songs.

Embed a Spotify Song On Your Blog

If you want to embed a song from Spotify on your blog or website you can copy an embed code by right clicking on a song or playlist and then choose Copy Embed Code.

You can paste this into the HTML editor on a blog or other website service to share your favorite song or playlist with everyone, even if they don’t have a Spotify account or premium subscription.

Find Explicit Songs on Spotify

Sometimes it is a pain to listen to explicit albums on Spotify. The app often hides the explicit albums or defaults to clean albums, which leads to confusing and annoying lyrics.

If you don’t immediately see the explicit version of a song on a Spotify artist page you can tap on See All Albums where you may find a listing of the explicit albums. Some artists only provide certain albums, which is why you might not find the explicit album you want or the albums may be labeled odd.

Recover Deleted Spotify Playlists

You can recover a deleted Spotify playlist easily.

You can recover a deleted Spotify playlist easily.

If you accidentally delete a playlist you can recover deleted Spotify playlists by going online and logging in to Spotify. When you log in to your Spotify account you can go to the Account Overview and Recover playlists to add a deleted playlist back to your Spotify playlists listing.

You can use this link to go direct to the Spotify playlist recovery section. This is different from the Spotify Web Player.

Follow Artists on Spotify

You can follow any artist on Spotify to get notifications when they add a track to Spotify. This is especially handy if you want to know when a new album comes out or if you love to listen to artists who frequently work with others and put out a lot of music that you might otherwise miss.

Search for an Artist in Spotify then tap on Follow to start receiving notifications related to that artist. You can follow as many artists as you want for updates and fast access through the Artists tab under “Your Music” on the desktop or mobile apps.

9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. Mark Avery

    06/21/2015 at 9:43 pm

    Have a Commodore VF 2014 Spotify audio wont work in the car. Bluetooth is on and works on Samsung 5 Galaxy phone but cannot get it to work on car audio. Wife has same phone but has a Holden Civic and works beautifully. Any suggestions.

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    08/30/2015 at 11:54 pm

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  3. Michael

    12/20/2015 at 11:26 pm

    This is a great intro to Spotify but I want to delete from offline explicit songs but there seems no way to do this

  4. johnakline

    01/28/2016 at 5:30 pm

    link to specific spot in song does not work

  5. Debrasmoffitt

    03/20/2016 at 7:04 pm

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  6. Omnifield

    08/20/2016 at 8:02 pm

    I have free space in my family subscription! If you are interessted you can send me an email to: [email protected] (yes it is and US account and there isn’t a problem to add you)

  7. J

    10/24/2016 at 5:56 am

    Some of these comments SUCK… this is the worst help page with explanations how to find things… BE SPECIFIC and CLEAR please

  8. Tim

    07/01/2017 at 7:47 am

    Hey guys !

    this article inspired me a lot! Really interesting how many options are available for a better promotion for your own music.

    Thanks for the great insights and tips, I’ll def include this in my new strategy and hope for
    even greater results with my spotify tracks.
    I also found this here the other day, covering different topics than you did.
    https://thegentlefox.com/spotify-promotion/

    Just thought it could be helpful.
    Thank you again for the tips !
    Tim

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