Have you ever hopped on a plane, expecting to use the in-flight Wi-Fi, and found out that the plane you are on is still in 1999 and there is no Wi-Fi? Even worse, it’s supposed to have it but the pilot announces that it is broken for your flight.
While that sucks, at least you can listen to some music on your phone, right? But — oh, no! You also forgot to download any of your music! You’re now stuck on a flight with no Wi-Fi and no music, a fate worse than death.
That’s where Spotify wants to soar in and save your butt. The company is currently testing a new playlist that will automatically download recently played music so that, if you get caught in a location without any connection, you’ll still have some music to fall back on.
Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, took to Twitter to share a preview of “Your Offline Mix,” the offline playlist that could be coming soon to the music streaming service.
Since, by Ek’s own admission, the playlist is currently being tested, there is no guarantee that Spotify will actually release it. It’s also unknown that, if they do, when it will actually show up as an option for users.
Both of those things aside, I really hope Spotify makes this one a reality. While services like Apple Music and Spotify will automatically download some things, users mostly have to manually elect when they would like a song, album, or playlist to be downloaded for offline listening.
A playlist that automatically updates itself with recently listened to music is a solid idea that, as an Apple Music subscriber, I hope Apple steals immediately.
While Apple Music doesn’t have this feature yet (and technically, neither does Spotify), Apple did add a ton of new features with iOS 17.
