Gustav Söderström, Spotify's co-president and chief product and technology officer, shares insights into the platform's significant redesign. He discusses the shift towards a TikTok-like interface aimed at enhancing content discovery. Alex Heath, a tech journalist at The Verge, engages Söderström about the role of AI in improving user recommendations, the balance between user experience and business sustainability, and the challenges of adapting to artist needs in the evolving digital landscape. They also explore Spotify's innovative goals for content engagement.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Spotify's Mobile Beginnings
Gustav Söderström joined Spotify to lead mobile development when the company was small.
Offline mode was a key innovation, requiring new licenses and technical solutions.
insights INSIGHT
Org Structure Philosophy
There's no universally perfect organizational structure; focus on what's important.
Spotify prioritizes a synchronized approach, prioritizing simplicity over speed.
insights INSIGHT
The Importance of Discovery
Discovery is crucial for Spotify; users value finding new content.
Auto-playing feeds are effective for evaluating content quickly through audio.
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The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be
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Gustav Söderström has worked at Spotify for a long time; his first big project was leading the launch of its mobile app back in 2009. That makes him the perfect company leader to talk to about Spotify’s recent redesign, which introduces a visual, TikTok-like feed for discovering new content on the app’s homepage. As his boss CEO Daniel Ek put it last week, it’s “the biggest change Spotify has undergone since we introduced mobile.”
With the title of co-president and chief product and technology officer, Söderström is responsible for not only how Spotify looks and feels but also all the AI work happening behind the scenes to power its increasingly important recommendations. According to Söderström, it turns out that improving those recommendations is actually at the heart of the big redesign. “I think companies that don’t have an efficient user interface for a machine learning world are not going to be able to leverage machine learning,” he told Alex Heath on the newest episode of Decoder.
Decoder with Nilay Patel 
