Spotify Two Streams: A Concept Prototype

This is a concept, not a Spotify feature. I built it as a working prototype after Frank Bach tweeted about wanting Spotify to remember the album he was on when he jumps to a podcast.

The ask isn't really "play two things at once". It's "don't throw away what I was listening to just because something else took priority".

Podcast episodes already remember where you stopped. Music doesn't. Start an episode in the middle of an album and Spotify drops the album, the track and the second you were at. Getting back means searching, guessing the track and scrubbing, so most people don't, and the album gets abandoned.

One music session and one spoken-word session can exist at the same time. Only one plays. The other is held, frozen at the exact second it stopped.

Play a podcast and the album tucks behind it in the mini-player. Tap the small artwork handle and the album comes back to the front, on the same second. In Now Playing, the held stream is docked at the bottom: tap it to swap, or swipe it down to clear it.

The distinction I kept coming back to is between what you're listening to and what you're in the middle of. Spotify models the first one. This models both, without adding a second player or a queue to manage.

Built with React, TypeScript and Motion. Try it here: https://uzookafor.com/two-streams