Best Apps to Improve Spotify’s Horrible User Interface
A lot of people are currently unhappy with Spotify’s user interface. Some of these are just the inevitable complaints that come with a redesign, but a recent article by Kyle Chaika in the New Yorker lays out these complaints better than I can. In short, however, each interface change hides music under more and more unrelated suggestions until it becomes impossible to find the music you’re looking for.
In response, some people are ditching Spotify entirely, trying alternative streaming services instead. If you’d rather use Spotify but use a different interface, you’re out of luck. There are tools to customize Spotify’s user interface, as well as other tools that allow you to completely or at least partially replace it. Here are a few I found.
Spicetify lets you customize your Spotify interface
Before you delve too deep into the world of third-party clients, which can be overwhelming, I suggest you first learn how to customize Spotify’s user interface . A free app called Spicetify allows you to do just that. It will take some work to set up, as I described in a separate article that I linked in this paragraph, but if you do it, it will give you access to custom themes and scripts for Spotify on your desktop. Scripts allow you to do things like remove audiobooks and podcasts from Spotify entirely, which is great, and there’s also a way to move the library back to the central panel. If you have a specific complaint about Spotify’s UI change, there may be a way to reverse it here.
The main drawback: you have to use the command line to install it, and Spotify updates sometimes break things, forcing you to reapply patches.
Use Spotify from Raycast
I’m a big fan of Raycast, a Mac app that lets you do all sorts of things with just a few keystrokes – just launch the app with a keyboard shortcut, type in what you want to do, and you’re done. In the past, I’ve talked about Raycast’s best extensions, including its excellent Spotify integration . With it, you can search the entire Spotify catalog for any artist, album, or playlist, and then start playing in a couple of keystrokes. This means you don’t have to look at Spotify’s UI at all if you don’t want to, which is a win in my opinion.
Use Spotify entirely from the command line
If you really want to go full nerd, you can use Spotify entirely from the command line . An app called Spotify-Player lets you browse your Spotify library and search the entire catalog using just keyboard shortcuts. What’s great about this app is that it can do almost everything you can do in Spotify, from managing playlists to browsing “For You” stations – just learn all the keyboard shortcuts.
There is currently a slight authentication issue with this app due to changes made by Spotify. A fix is reported to be on the way.
Think of your Spotify account as an iPod
Are the next two clients in this article stupid nostalgia bait? Yes. Am I going to delete them? No.
Developer Tanner Villarete has created a browser-based copy of the iPod that you can connect to Spotify and use to browse your library and then play music. This is a meticulously recreated version of the classic iPod with an on-screen scroll wheel. I recommend trying this on your phone – it feels like the real thing, give or take the haptic feedback. I’m not sure many people will use it as an everyday music player, but it points to how different Spotify can be in the hands of the right programmer.
Think Spotify is Winamp
Here’s another silliness, this time from developer Remy Gallego . It’s called Winampify and is a browser-based version of the classic Winamp UI with the ability to browse your Spotify library. Almost all the buttons in the Winamp interface work exactly as you remember, and it’s even compatible with a Winamp skin—just go to the Winamp skin library , download your favorite, and drag it into Winampify to use. I wish someone would release this as a desktop app.
Use a tiny player instead
Sometimes you want to see what’s currently playing at a glance without leaving the entire Spotify window open. Apple Music has a great mini player for this. Spotify recently released a Winamp-style mini player , although it annoys me. First of all, it always floats on top of other windows and it’s a little ugly.
The good news is that there are alternatives. Lofi is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and allows you to see the cover art, artist and track title at a glance. It even supports some basic visualizations (but unfortunately not on Mac). Another app I like is Silicio , which is exclusive to Mac and works with more than just Spotify. Of course, apps like these don’t replace the Spotify interface, but they do allow you to keep track of what’s playing without looking at it.