Anchor co-founder Michael Mignano resigns from Spotify

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Spotify's podcasting tech chief and Anchor co-founder Michael Mignano will leave the company by the end of June. Spotify confirmed that he submitted his resignation last week, making him the latest high-profile departure from Spotify's podcasting business. He follows after the head of studios and video Courtney Holt and Gimlet Media director Lydia Polgreen left. Holt was the one who cut blockbuster deals with Joe Rogan and the Obamas.

Mignano co-founded Anchor in 2015, which Spotify bought in 2019 for over US$150 million. The streaming service brought in Mignano to head its podcast tech division. As The Verge pointed out, Anchor hasn't produced any big stars. Still, it has become one of the most-used podcast hosting platforms, with one out of four new podcast episodes done through Anchor (according to Livewire Labs).

Spotify lets you create Blend playlists with artists like BTS, Lauv, Megan Thee Stallion

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Wonder if your music tastes match your favourite artists? Spotify will now offer you Blend playlists with supported artists like BTS, Megan Thee Stallion, Lauv, Diplo, Charli XCX, AB6IX, etc. You just have to head to these artists' pages and find your Blend playlist there. This feature was first launched to merge your taste with a friend. You can also check your taste-match score on the playlist and share the result on social media.

Spotify has also improved the feature for you and your loved ones. Spotify will let you create Blend playlists with up to 10 people. Just search Blend within the Search tab and Invite the users you want to make the playlist with. There is a custom share card you can use for social media sharing, too.

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Netflix, Spotify can now link to their sites for payments on iOS

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Apple is now giving "reader" apps on its platform the option to link to their website for payment and account management. The company defines reader apps as applications that "provide previously purchased content or content subscriptions for digital magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video." 

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Spotify can use own in-app payment option in new Android pilot

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Google and Spotify will be giving you options on what payment system to use. The search giant introduces this new pilot program to counter the concerns of app makers about its high fees and alleged anticompetitive behavior. So, when users download Spotify from the Play Store, they will get an option of either Spotify's payment system or Google Play Billing. This option will be available in some countries in the coming months. 

The pilot involves a small number of participating developers, beginning with Spotify. "This pilot will help us to increase our understanding of whether and how user choice billing works for users in different countries and for developers of different sizes and categories," Google said in a blog post. 

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