Spotify often tests new features with a small section of its user base before releasing them to a wider audience. Over the last few months, we’ve spotted several such features, like local Group Sessions, auto-refresh for playlists, saving podcast episodes, and more. Last month we learned that the music streaming service was also contemplating the idea of launching a subscription podcast service and introducing new artist-created Stories. Now, Spotify is reportedly preparing to add support for local music playback to its Android app.
This feature will essentially allow users to sync their offline music library to the app and play music without needing an active internet connection.
Once the feature rolls out, you will be able to head over to the app settings and turn on a new toggle under the Import section labeled ‘Show device files.’ Spotify will then scan your device’s internal storage for saved audio files and list them within the Your Library section on the app.
As of now, it isn’t clear whether the local music playback support will be a premium feature or not. However, given that YouTube Music lets free users play locally stored files, play uploaded songs, and download playlists containing uploaded music, Spotify should also offer the feature to free users. It also isn’t clear whether Spotify will let free users upload locally stored files for cross-device playback, but we expect the company to share these details once the feature is finally ready for primetime. We will update this post as soon as we receive more information about the upcoming feature.
