Spotify

Managed accounts, which offer a music-only experience with parental controls for the under-13 set, were previously reserved for Premium Family subscribers. Now, free users can also create kids accounts, with their own playlists, suggestions, and wrapped experiences. It’s coming to Argentina, Colombia, Denmark, Italy, New Zealand, and Sweden first.

Spotify initially acknowledged there were “some issues” with the app at 12:49PM ET and gave the all clear at 4:57PM ET.

Organizing playlists into folders was introduced in 2010, but only available on the desktop app. Now it’s reportedly rolling out to mobile users. Tap the + icon in your library, and you should see a new “folder” option. You can even play an entire folder of playlists, or shuffle them.

The original from 2006 stands out like a sore thumb, but after that, it’s just flattening and tweaks to the font. To celebrate its anniversary, the service is taking a victory lap and talking design. It’s also shared all-time most-streamed lists. No surprises there — it’s Taylor Swift and Joe Rogan.

No more scaled-up mobile interface elements. The latest version of Spotify has a collapsible sidebar and specific portrait and landscape layouts on both iPads and Android tablets. There’s also the ability to browse in one pane, while a video or music keeps playing in the other.

Wuthering Heights being number one makes sense; it just got a blockbuster adaptation. But why is the 8-year-old self-help book from James Clear number two?

With the new integration, SeatGeek will join the dozens of other companies Spotify partners with to sell tickets within its app. SeatGeek will surface tickets for shows at 15 major venues around the US, which could appear as recommendations on an artist’s Spotify page or inside notifications.

It’s a new feature showing up in the app as part of the first iOS 26.4 developer beta, as reported by 9to5Mac.

During the company’s Q4 earnings call, Gustav Söderström revealed that Spotify had fully embraced vibe coding. AI is coming for a lot of jobs, and software developer is high on the list of those in danger. Still, it’s shocking that the top devs at Spotify haven’t written any code in 2026. Per Business Insider:

In its Q4 earnings report, the audio streaming service said it’s gained 38 million monthly active users (MAU) and nine million paying subscribers since its last quarter. Spotify now has 751 million MAUs and 290 million subscribers globally.

After debuting in New Zealand last month, Prompted Playlists are now available to Premium subscribers in the US and Canada. The feature lets you build a customized playlist using AI prompts, describing exactly what you want to listen to.

In a lawsuit spotted by Aftermath, Sega claims that someone with the username Ziodyne uploaded the Persona 3 Reload and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey albums to Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon before the company had a chance to offer them on the music streaming services.

The band was one of the higher-profile acts to leave Spotify over Daniel Ek’s war profiteering. But its songs briefly reappeared in the guise of an AI clone. An act called King Lizard Wizard uploaded seemingly AI-generated songs with the same names and lyrics as the real deal. That ran afoul of Spotify’s policies against impersonation and the songs were removed. In a statement provided to Australian site The Music, frontman Stu Mackenzie said he was: