The folks at Spotify have been hard at work over the past few months. Just over a week ago, the company rolled out a new type of playlist that uses its algorithmic smarts to create a playlist based on what your Spotify friends are listening to.

Now, the company has turned its focus on its mobile app interface and also its online digital audio workstation (DAW).

Music and podcasts, separately

With Spotify calling it quits on the Car Thing, it has more time and (human) resources to work on other things. One of those things happens to be its mobile app. Specifically, the Home page.

Before the update, every kind of audio you listen to was plastered on your Home page. The coming change will, among other things, make it a little easier to find what you’re looking for by creating separate feeds for music and podcasts. It will also allow Spotify to provide better recommendations, but it hasn’t clarified that part.

The improved Home feed started rolling out this week on Android devices with a launch on iOS coming “in the near future”.

Google Docs but with music

The other bit Spotify is updating is Soundtrap. We won’t blame you if you haven’t heard of it. It is Spotify’s very own DAW. If you’re still scratching your head, a digital audio workstation is music production software that allows artists to record, edit, and mix audio tracks on a PC. Spotify’s DAW is based online instead of being a program you need to install. Doing it that way means the company can now offer artists an opt-in beta to participate in collaborative sessions in real-time. If you’ve ever worked in Google Docs or Microsoft Word with someone else you’ll know what this will be like.

Unfortunately, Soundtrap is only available in the US at present. If you’re really keen on Soundtrap you might be able to get around the geo-restrictions with a VPN, though that often presents more problems than it fixes. It might be better to stick with one of the locally available DAWs and just email files between your ‘collaborators’.

Source: Engadget