Spotify is holding an event in New York on Tuesday, April 24 where the company will announce "what's next for [its] mobile app", according to an invite it has sent out. The event will feature presentations from chief R&D officer Gustav Söderström, vice president of product development Babar Zafar, and global head of creator services Troy Carter.
This follows an initial invite sent out two weeks ago that only carried an instruction to save the date, leading many to speculate what exactly Spotify had in mind, from updates to the app to possible new hardware. Now that we know it's something about the app, it’s clear the announcements will have to do with the former.
Spotify has been testing voice control with some iOS users, and it could expand that feature to everyone next week. If so, it would join Amazon Music as the second music streaming service to do so, which already has built-in support for Amazon's digital assistant, Alexa, popularised through its Echo range of smart speakers.
Meanwhile, a report from Bloomberg last week claimed that Spotify was looking to introduce a new version of its free tier that will be "easier to use, especially for customers on mobile phones". The revamped free version of Spotify will give mobile users "more control over what songs they hear on top playlists", per Bloomberg.
The changes are meant to drive growth for Spotify, which went public in an unusual yet record-setting direct listing at the start of April, being valued at $26.5 billion (about Rs. 1,73,877 crore) at the end of the first day of trading.
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