Spotify Free

2016 - 2017  &  2022 - 2023, Spotify 

Design Lead of Spotify Free redesign

Spotify has revamped its Free Tier twice, and on both occasions, I had the privilege of serving as the design lead for these large-scale projects. During these periods, I provided strategic direction alongside a cross-functional leadership team, guided and coached a team of designers, facilitated collaboration among multiple teams, and produced hands-on designs for various features and experiences.

Making holistic changes in an app that is already used by millions of people requires meticulous testing and validation. With help of both qualitative and quantitative research we were able to identify areas of improvement and ship an improved experience that has fostered significant growth of Spotify globally. 

Due to confidentiality I won’t share more details on the business goals or processes, but below you can see some of the experiences that have been shipped as part of the redesigns.

Faster personalisation

With tasteonboarding users get to choose their favorite artists as soon as they get started with the app, and get instant access to personalized playlists tuned to their tastes. The home view is personalised from day 1 based on user's selections. Users can easily go back and make more selections.

More playback control

Free listeners have gotten more control over their playback through on-demand playlists, enabling them to select and play songs without limitations. Sets that are restricted to shuffle playback are visually represented as track clouds, reducing confusion.

Improved feedback loops

Users are able to give feedback on the songs by liking them or by hiding them from the playlists. Those signals are taken into consideration both in the playback session and further recommendations. 

Better playlisting

Playlisting has gotten easier and a lot more fun with song suggestions based on what's already added to the playlist or what user has been recently listening. There is a clearer call to action to the creation flow and ability to preview songs, which is critical if Free doesn't offer on-demand playback. 

Selected Works

Spotify Free x 2How might we retain free users better?

Spotify IndiaProject type

Thoughtful ExecutionProject type

Nokia StorytellerProject type

Lumia phonesProject type

Nokia N9Project type