It had earlier been reported that Spotify will be stepping up its podcast game as it looks to become the world leader in the market of streaming. The Swedish streaming giant had acquired New York podcasting companies Gimlet Media and Anchor FM prompting industry experts to believe that Spotify wants to become a major-league player in the podcasting world. The company is now moving ahead with their plans with the latest update to its application.

What's New?

According to a report by Music Business Worldwide, Spotify is officially rolling out a completely redesigned and revamped library for its premium users to enhance experience and put greater emphasis on podcasts. The main goal, according to Spotify, is to make it easier to move between Music and Podcasts and find podcast shows and episodes you want to hear.

The report also states that the new update will allow premium users to swipe or tap to switch between music and podcasts. The podcast section will now also feature three sections for management: Episodes, Downloads and Shows. According to the report, the 'Episodes' tab will let you seek new episodes or resume the podcasts you’re already listening to, picking up where you left off. It will also make it easier for you to find other newly released episodes from the shows you follow. The 'Downloads' tab will let you manage the episodes you’ve saved for offline listening. The 'Shows' tab will help you manage podcasts you follow and check out their earlier episodes. In this section, podcasts will be ranked by ones that have the newest episodes. Spotify's official YouTube channel put out a video explaining the changes: The music section, on the other hand, has been updated to make it easier to get to the content you want to access. With the new update, premium users will now be dropped directly into the Playlist section. What's different this time is that the update hardly focuses on video content. Spotify has instead doubled down on podcasts in order to shift radio advertising over to its application by offering better targeting. In a statement released by the company, Spotify said, “Starting today, we’re introducing a new version of Your Library to Premium users that mixes form with function. Everything about the reimagined Library is designed to get you to the content you want faster. It also makes getting started and staying up-to-date with podcasts on Spotify a seamless, personalized experience. Right away, you’ll notice that Your Library is streamlined, and all it takes is a tap or swipe to toggle between new tabs for Podcasts and Music. Under each of those sections, you’ll see how quickly you can control and access the content you want.” The report also mentions that Spotify is launching it own news podcasts. The company has posted an advertisement for a job for a 'New York-based News & Documentary Podcast Producer' who will be part of a team “focused on developing a diverse slate of original news and documentary podcast programming”.