As someone who listens to Spotify a lot through its desktop app while working, the fact that the world’s most popular streaming music service has never had a more discrete, configurable miniplayer you could tuck out of the way has always baffled me. Well, today the productivity gods are smiling upon us, with Spotify announcing the release of its new Spotify Miniplayer feature for its desktop app that allows users to listen to music and watch videos while using other apps and windows.
It’s rolling out today and available only to Premium subscribers at the moment. Once implemented, users can activate the miniplayer through an icon that will appear down at the bottom right next to the app’s volume slider.
When clicked, a floating “always on top” window will appear that can be resized as you see fit, even down to a slim, basic bar with nothing more than a play/skip button and an album thumbnail. The window can even be resized and moved around while you’re watching a video.
Music, podcasts, and videos can be played through the miniplayer, and you can also use it to choose and change tracks, choose playlists, control volume, and more. Opening the miniplayer doesn’t close the larger Spotify app (but you can), and you can switch back and forth if you like. Plus, clicking on an artist’s name, song name, or album art will open it in the main Spotify app
Spotify is currently the world’s biggest music streaming service with 602 million users, 236 million of those being paid subscribers. You can download the Spotify desktop app for Windows and Mac from the Spotify website.
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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