Spotify brings brand sponsorships to Release Radar playlist

You might soon be seeing brand-sponsored content on Spotify's Release Radar playlist, at least if you have a free account. This is the third playlist Spotify is offering for ads, joining On Repeat and Discover Weekly as avenues for potential brand sponsorships. Disney+ is the first partner for Release Radar in the US. It's promoting the Billie Eilish film Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter To Los Angeles. 

Free users of the service will see ads in audio, video, and graphics and direct them to the playlist. Once there, logos will appear on the playlist art and messages from the sponsor at each ad break. Spotify is opening this opportunity to all companies interested in this kind of sponsorship. The company is making this playlist available for advertising in 31 markets around the world.

Source: Engadget

Philips can sync your Hue lights with Spotify

Turn your room into a party room with this new feature from Philips. The company's Hue lights can now be linked to your Spotify account. It's already possible to get your lights to do this with the Hue Sync tool for PC, which can capture what you're listening to and translate that to the light script. Philips now promises a deeper integration and a "unique immersive" experience you can activate through your mobile device.

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Spotify starts rolling our offline playback support on Wear OS

Spotify will let Wear OS users listen to their tunes without an internet connection with support for offline playback. The music streaming service has begun rolling this feature out. But there are caveats to this feature. You need a Wear OS 2.0 or newer device, and only Spotify Premium subscribers can download albums and playlists for offline listening. As for podcasts, both paid and free users can download these for offline playback.

Source: The Verge

Spotify will support AirPlay 2 on its iOS app

After we initially reported that Spotify might not support AirPlay 2 anytime soon, the company clarified somehow that it would be coming. But the streaming giant wouldn't say when it will arrive; it did promise updates "when they become available." It will make it easier to stream music to HomePods and other Apple devices when it does arrive. 

Source: Engadget