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Spotify’s major desktop and web-player redesign was announced on June 20, 2023. It brought a mobile-inspired Your Library sidebar, library-only search, category filters, pinning, drag-and-drop organization, and a customizable Now Playing panel to larger screens.
The result is closer alignment with mobile—not identical features. Spotify’s current support documentation still says that setting a custom order for your playlists requires the installed desktop app, while the resulting order appears across devices.
What changed in Spotify’s desktop redesign?
The redesign reorganized Spotify around three persistent areas:
- Your Library: a left-hand panel for saved playlists, music, podcasts, audiobooks, and other available library categories.
- Main content: the central browsing and playback area.
- Now Playing: a right-hand panel with information about the current song or podcast.
Spotify said the June 2023 update was designed to make desktop browsing, curation, listening, and organization more consistent with the mobile app. The practical improvement is less about appearance than retrieval: you can search and filter your own saved collection without first searching Spotify’s entire catalog.
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Your Library is expanded by default, but you can click the library button at the panel’s top-right to collapse it. You can also resize both the library and Now Playing panels, then switch the library between grid and list views.
Spotify’s announcement is available in its official redesign overview.
Search only the music and shows you saved
Use the library search when you know an item is already in your collection:
- Open the Spotify desktop app or web player.
- Expand Your Library if it is collapsed.
- Select a category such as Playlists, music, podcasts, or audiobooks, where available.
- Click the search icon at the top of Your Library.
- Enter a title, artist, podcast, or other search term.
- Apply additional filters, such as a content type or By you, when those controls are offered.
This is different from Spotify’s main Search page. The main search searches the wider Spotify catalog; the library search narrows the results to items in your saved collection. The available filters can vary by content type, account, country, and current interface rollout.
On mobile, the basic workflow is similar: open Your Library, choose a filter or the search icon, and use the sort control to change the order. Desktop provides more room for managing many playlists at once. See Spotify’s current sort and filter instructions for the labels available on your account.
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Pin frequently used library items
Pinning puts high-use items near the top of Your Library. On desktop:
- Find a playlist, album, artist, podcast, or other eligible item in Your Library.
- Right-click it.
- Select Pin.
Right-click the item again and choose Unpin to remove it. On mobile, swipe right on the item—or tap and hold it—and choose Pin. The exact categories eligible for pinning may change with Spotify’s interface and account rollout.
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Change the way Your Library is displayed
Use the layout controls to match the job:
- Grid view: useful for visual browsing when cover art helps you identify albums and playlists.
- List view: better for text-heavy collections where titles and metadata matter more than artwork.
- Expanded panel: shows more library information while you browse.
- Collapsed panel: gives the main content more horizontal space.
- Resized panels: let you prioritize the library, the current track, or the central content.
On a small laptop screen, the mobile-like sidebar can feel crowded. Collapse or narrow it when browsing a full-screen album or playlist; enlarge the Spotify window when columns or controls are hidden.
Set a custom order for playlists
Playlist order in Your Library is separate from the order of tracks inside a playlist. To arrange the playlists themselves:
- Open Your Library in the installed desktop app.
- Select the Playlists filter.
- Click the sort arrow.
- Choose Custom order.
- Drag and drop playlists into the sequence you want.
Spotify says this custom order must be set in the desktop app, although the resulting order is displayed across your devices. The web player and desktop app received the broad redesign, but they do not expose every control in exactly the same way.
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If you see a playlist in the wrong place on mobile, check whether you are looking at the playlist list or at the tracks inside an individual playlist. You may instead be viewing a different sort mode, such as Recents, Recently added, or Alphabetically.
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Reorder tracks inside an individual playlist
Track organization is a different workflow. In the desktop app or web player, editable playlists support controls introduced in Spotify’s earlier 2021 desktop and web experience update, including:
- Dragging tracks into a new position.
- Adding or editing playlist descriptions.
- Using a custom playlist image.
- Searching within a playlist while adding songs or podcast episodes.
- Editing the queue.
These controls do not reorder the playlists shown in Your Library. Playlist folders are another separate organization system. Spotify announced in May 2026 that playlist folders were coming to mobile, illustrating that platform capabilities continue to move in both directions rather than desktop simply copying mobile forever. Availability and rollout may vary.
Read Spotify’s 2021 desktop and web-player feature announcement for the playlist-editing changes.
What the redesigned Now Playing panel shows
The right-hand Now Playing panel can provide more than playback controls. Depending on the content and availability, it may show:
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- The current song or podcast.
- Additional song and artist information.
- Tour dates and merchandise information.
- Transcripts for selected podcasts.
Resize the panel when you want more context, or reduce it when library organization is the priority. Friend Activity was not removed entirely: Spotify said it remained accessible through the friends icon near the profile picture in the main content area.
Desktop app versus web player
The redesigned interface was announced for both Spotify’s desktop experience and web player. For everyday browsing, searching, filtering, pinning, and changing views, either may provide the controls you need.
Use the installed desktop app when you need advanced playlist organization—especially Custom order. Spotify’s current support documentation explicitly identifies the desktop app as required for setting that order. The web player should not be treated as a perfect substitute for every desktop control.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Does the redesign require Premium?
Spotify did not present the library redesign as a Premium-only feature. Free users can browse saved tracks, playlists, and podcasts, although the exact content and controls available to an account can depend on market, plan, content type, and eligibility.
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Check Spotify’s current plan information before subscribing, since prices and offers vary by country and can change.
If controls are missing
Spotify’s interface can vary by platform, window size, account, region, plan, content type, and rollout. Try these steps:
- Update the installed Spotify app.
- Restart Spotify.
- Expand Your Library and look for the search, filter, view, or sort controls at the top of the panel.
- Maximize the window; narrow layouts can hide panels and columns.
- Try the installed desktop app instead of the web player, particularly for Custom order.
- Confirm that you are in Your Library rather than simply using the left navigation shortcut.
- Check Spotify Support for the current device-specific instructions.
If you want the old layout back, Spotify’s official announcement documents customization but not a supported rollback. The closest options are collapsing Your Library, resizing the panels, and switching between grid and list views.
The practical verdict
Spotify’s desktop redesign makes large libraries substantially easier to browse: personal-library search, filters, pins, persistent navigation, flexible views, and drag-and-drop playlist management address problems the older full-width layout handled less directly. It is especially useful if you maintain many playlists or move between music, podcasts, and other supported content.
But “like mobile” means similar navigation and browsing—not complete parity. For custom playlist ordering, the installed desktop app remains the safest choice, and some audiobook, podcast, folder, and sorting controls may differ by account and market. Treat the redesign as a convergence of the platforms, not as proof that every Spotify feature now works identically everywhere.
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