Spotify is testing an auditory timeline to help the user choose a podcast to listen to. Learn how this will change the podcast world in this article.
Spotify: from passive music app to audio curator
Once upon a time, Spotify was merely a music library for music listeners. Now it is the guide for all audio fans thanks to its curated playlists, algorithmic discovery lists and podcasts. In the case of the latter, Spotify seems to be taking an important step soon in which they will show you even more which auditory show suits you best.
Last year Spotify already took over the podcast discovery platform ‘Podz’. Now it has rolled out this technology for some (test) users. Here you can discover within a minute in the vertical ‘TikTok’ style whether the podcast is interesting or whether you scroll through to the next preview of a show.
Spotify makes discovery of new podcast easier with timeline
The startup Podz once created the first audionewsfeed†Here, users could scroll through a vertical timeline to listen to short clips from various podcasts. These take a maximum of one minute and are automatically generated by machine learning†Spotify’s takeover of Podz (and now the tentative launch of this podcast timeline) is another step in Spotify’s curatorship in the audio world.
After they have been telling you for more than five years which music to listen to, which artist is hip and which album you really shouldn’t miss, Spotify is now going to do the same for podcasts. Are you going to use the feature?
Chris Messina shared in a tweet a video of this new feature. If you go through this discovery feed scrolls, you see the picture of the podcast and you automatically hear the cut-out fragment of one minute. Also, the audio is transcribed in case you prefer to read the content. From this timeline, you can navigate to the podcast or save it to listen to later. It is unclear when Spotify will roll out this functionality for every user.