Ah, Spotify Lossless. It's all anyone has been talking about since the long-awaited hi-res streaming feature dropped. I say "long-awaited" because it took nearly four and a half years for the company to join the big leagues. This might be a controversial opinion but I couldn't care less about Spotify Lossless, only because I primarily use wireless headphones which aren't great for hi-res streaming anyway.
We've all been so wrapped up in the fact that Lossless is finally here that Spotify dropped another very cool feature quietly, and one I only paid attention to a week ago when it randomly appeared on my app.
I'm talking about Spotify Mix, which is Spotify's answer to Apple Music’s AutoMix. It basically makes you feel like a DJ by letting you create transitions between songs. "What's fun about transitioning between songs?" I hear you ask. It sounds like a no-frills feature but boy, it's fun!
I've been playing around with quite a bit and, honestly, it's the only thing that's keeping my from canceling my subscription. Let me show you why.
Nailing the basics
Before I got access to Spotify Mix, I relied on Spotify's fading feature which let me transition from the end of one song to the beginning of another, so as to not break my immersion. Spotify Mix is like that, but on steroids. It gives you a ton of control, and the user interface is straightforward and easy to understand.
It's important to note that the Mix feature isn't compatible with Spotify-curated playlists, such as On Repeat, Liked Songs and Daylists, and is instead compatible with personal playlists only. All you need to do is go to a personal playlist and tap on the Mix option, located next to the other playlist control buttons.
This brings up the transition tab where you can decide where you want the transition to occur in a song, adjust the equalizer and volume, and transition presets (Auto, Fade, Rise, Blend, Wave, Melt, or Slam). You can also choose the length of transitions — 2 bars, 4 bars or 8 bars. Personally, I loved making longer transitions as they sounded more natural.
Spinnin' like a DJ
So, it sounds great on paper, yes, but does Spotify Mix actually work well in practice? Indeed it does. I loved experimenting with different kinds of transitions, and finding new ways of enjoying my favorite artists.
I tried recreating transitions I'd heard Twenty One Pilots make between songs when I saw them live a few months ago — and it was a walk in the park. I made 'Paladin Strait' go into 'Bandito' right before the break in the first song, and it sounded divine, as did going from the end of 'Paladin Strait' to 'No Chances.'
I'd also heard the Ohio duo transition ever-so-smoothly from 'Heathens' to 'Next Semester' so I replicated that too, and it made me appreciate the Mix feature even more. You see, you can choose where one song ends and another begins, so I set the end point to the end of Heathens and the start point to right before when the refrain in 'Next Semester' where Tyler Joseph harmonizes, and it felt like I was back at the gig again.
My partner and I experimented with Lana Del Rey's and 070 Shake's similar-paced songs too, such as 'Music to Watch Boys To' by the former and 'Into Your Garden' by the latter, and we came up with a very funny mix. I think this is a great tool for exercising your creative muscles and while you may not always create the greatest mix of all the time, sometimes it's nice to just have a laugh.
With some caveats
Spotify is a great streaming service but like with any other tech product, it's far from perfect, and that applies to its Mix feature too. While you get some creative freedom and control over how your playlists sound, there are some caveats that you should be aware of before getting overly attached to this feature.
The first caveat is that you can't mix all songs. If you've got a really slow song right after a heavy rock one in your playlist, Spotify will warn you that song mixing isn't possible. That's because the two songs must be of a similar key and have similar beats-per-minute (BPM). This is easily fixable, though, by simply changing the order of your mix.
Another caveat is that the feature isn't available on Spotify Desktop yet, so I couldn't use it on my laptop, but Spotify says it's working on it (at the time of writing). But perhaps my biggest gripe with the Mix feature is that you can't see the mixes other people have made. This feels like a missed opportunity, as it would have been nice to see the kind of mixes those I'm following are creating. And we could learn a thing or two from one another.
Overall, though, I think Spotify Mix is a fantastic addition to the app. I'm sure Spotify will remedy some of my issues with it in the future, but for what it is right now, it's amazing, and I can't get enough of it. Have you tried the Spotify Mix feature yet, and are there any cool transitions you've created? Let me know in the comments below!
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