Spotify now lets Premium users decorate their desktop with new Miniplayer

Spotify may still be working on its lossless high-quality audio tier and there is no clue when it will be available. It will likely be available to Premium users, but the wait is long. For now, the paying subscribers of Spotify are getting a new feature that will remove distractions and streamline music on a desktop. A new Miniplayer with three adjustable sizes for its widget is now available for Spotify’s desktop app. The company says the Miniplayer will let users control music without letting the workflow disturbed.

What does the new Spotify Miniplayer look like?

The Miniplayer comes in three designs, depending on the chosen size. Similar to how the Android widget of Spotify’s app works, the Windows app will stay on top of all other app windows and feature playback controls. There are options to play, pause, play next, play previous, skip 15 seconds forward and backwards, and shuffle in the Miniplayer. It works in the picture-in-picture mode and is available for both music and podcasts. To switch the Miniplayer from the main Spotify app, users need to click the Miniplayer icon, as shown below:

This is the button users need to click to switch to the Miniplayer mode.

There are three widgets, a pill-shaped one and two the size of a big square. The former has fewer controls, but the other two offer pretty much all the controls users would need. The main app runs in the background, so it is always easy to switch to it from Miniplayer without disturbing the music flow. This could be helpful when a recommendation is not a preference or when the user wants to try out a new album. All of these widgets sit on top of other apps, eliminating the need to switch to and from the main app every time the music needs a change. This is what all three widgets look like:

Who can use the new Spotify Miniplayer?

In a post on its community forum, Spotify confirmed that the Miniplayer is now available to access on the Windows app. However, only for those with a Premium subscription. Customers with a Spotify Free subscription will not see the new Miniplayer icon in the Windows app. The Miniplayer joins a long list of features reserved only for paying subscribers. They include the ability to navigate the progress of a song, shuffle a playlist, play songs in a particular order, listen to songs in high quality, and an ad-free playback.