Spotify is adding a more human layer to one of its biggest playlists, and that matters because editorial curation is becoming a bigger part of how listeners discover and save music. The company is now putting its editors on camera inside New Music Friday, giving the playlist a video format in which staff talk about some of the week’s tracks.
Editors move from behind the scenes to on-screen
The new video cameos are being rolled out only in the US for now. Spotify said the idea is not entirely new, since the same format began last September with a playlist called The Drop Weekly. Based on that earlier rollout, Spotify said the approach was successful enough to bring it to its new-releases playlist.
Spotify also said that listeners respond strongly to editor-led discovery experiences, with more than double the engagement through saves and likes. That makes the move significant for publishers, songwriters, and rights holders looking for more attention inside Spotify’s own discovery system, where saves and likes can help signal interest.
A playlist strategy Spotify is already testing
New Music Friday is Spotify’s flagship playlist, and the addition of video cameos suggests the company is leaning further into human-led recommendations rather than relying only on algorithmic presentation. For music rights holders, that means editorial placement is not just about inclusion anymore; it is also about how the music is framed to listeners.
Spotify has not said when the feature might expand beyond the US.
Another sign of renewed catalog momentum
In separate news, Spotify’s data team has been looking at Nelly Furtado’s 2006 album Loose for the company’s Substack. Spotify said the album has more than 4.4 billion streams overall, and that 940 million of those came in 2025 alone, its biggest year yet.
Spotify also said nearly two thirds of the album’s current streams come from listeners under 30. That adds another data point to the platform’s ongoing catalog story, showing that older releases can still find major traction with younger audiences.
What to watch next: whether Spotify expands the New Music Friday video format beyond the US, and whether the company keeps applying the same editor-led approach to more playlists.
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