Spotify update coming that's bound to court even more controversy – the disco ball was just the start

Spotify disco ball app icon running on iPhone — (Image credit: Rik Henderson / Future)

Quick Summary

Spotify has announced a number of features coming to the app this year, including an AI tool for remixing your favourite tracks.

The tool will allow fans to remix tracks and create cover versions using AI and share them on Spotify itself. There's a feature for reserving tickets too.

Spotify changed its app icon to a disco ball this week and it caused quite the scene. It seemed not many were fans of the redesigned logo – even though it was always attended to be temporary and merely part of the service's 20the anniversary celebrations.

But while you wait patiently for the previous logo to make its return, the music streamer has announced a couple of new features that could prove even more divisive, and these are set to be more permanent.

Revealed as part of its Investors Day 2026, Spotify and Universal Music Group have announced that they've reached “landmark licensing agreements” that will introduce a new tool allowing fans to use AI to remix tracks from participating artists and even create their own cover versions.

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The new tool will use generative AI and will be a paid add-on for Spotify Premium subscribers, so it won’t be included in the current monthly fee. Perhaps most controversially, the AI-generated versions can then be shared again on Spotify for others to stream.

It all sounds fun, but could end up filling the service with a whole tonne of AI slop.

Elsewhere, there’s a new feature for concert tickets, too. Reserve will be based on a user’s listening and targeted at true fans. The feature promises to hold two concert tickets so you can buy them, hopefully mitigating hours of waiting in virtual queues before general sale tickets are released.

Spotify posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Reserved would be coming to Premium users in the US but it didn’t specify exactly when. What we all really want to know for now, though, is when will the standard Spotify logo be back?

Britta is a freelance technology journalist who has been writing about tech for over a decade. She's covered all consumer tech from phones, tablets and wearables to smart home and beauty tech, with everything in between. She has a fashion journalism degree from London College of Fashion and previously did a long stint as deputy editor of Pocket-lint, but you’ll now find her byline on several titles including GQ, the Express, the Mirror, TechRadar, Stuff and iMore. You'll never find her without her Apple Watch on, aiming to complete her rings so she can justify the extra bar of chocolate and she loves a good iPhone trick.