Spotify will now notify you of new releases from your favorite artists
Tap the bell icon to see "What's New."
Spotify is introducing a feature to notify people when their favorite artists and podcast producers have a new release to check out. Taking the form of a bell icon you’ll find at the top of the app’s home interface, the What’s New panel collects new releases from bands, musicians and shows you follow on the platform. Spotify says the feature will update in real-time, with a blue dot overlaid on top of the bell icon indicating when the panel has been refreshed with new content. Spotify plans to roll out the feature to all Android and iOS users over the coming weeks.
In intent, What’s New is similar to Spotify’s existing Release Radar playlist. They’re both designed to surface new content for you to add to your Spotify library, but the way they go about that task is different. Like Discover Weekly, Release Radar uses a mix of human curation and software to highlight the songs you’re most likely to enjoy from a new album, EP or single. What’s New, by contrast, forgoes curation in favor of comprehensiveness. It also has the advantage of a dedicated interface element. As a playlist, it’s easy for Release Radar to get lost among all the other playlists you can add to your Spotify library.