I Can't Wait to Try Spotify's Newest Playlist Sorting Feature

Credit: Spotify

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Spotify's adding a new way to sort playlists for paying subscribers. The feature is called Smart Reorder, and it allows you to automatically sort your songs by BPM (beats per minute) and key. This is great for those who want to gradually bump up the intensity of the songs they listen to.

It's worth noting that this feature only works for playlists you've created or those you've mixed using the Spotify Mix feature, which lets you add or customize song transitions like a DJ would. Also, because Smart Reorder is an extension of Spotify Mix, you can't have one without the other. Spotify Mix hasn't yet been launched in all markets where the streaming service is present, including where I live, and as such, Smart Reorder isn't available in those regions yet. It's a shame, because I'm really excited to try it.

How to use Smart Reorder in Spotify

If you're a Spotify Premium subscriber, using the Smart Reorder feature is easy. Just open any of the playlists you've created or mixed, and tap the Edit button above the first song. Scroll to the bottom and select Smart Reorder. Spotify will automatically rearrange your songs by BPM, and you can tap the Save button up top to confirm the changes.

Smart Reorder should be a very useful feature for people like me, who prefer workout playlists that slowly bump up in intensity. I like to hear high BPM songs towards the end of my gym sessions or runs, but that might not be ideal for everyone. Some types of exercises, such as spin workouts, might be better off switching between high and low BPM songs as the intensity varies, and Smart Reorder wouldn't be great for those use cases. Some users on Reddit also suggested that you should create a copy of your playlists before using Smart Reorder on them, since you can't automatically restore playlists to their original order if you end up not liking the changes after saving them. To duplicate a Spotify playlist, open the playlist and tap the three-dots button above the list of songs. Select Add to other playlist > New playlist, then add a name for the copy and and tap Create.

This is another example of Spotify doing more with its AI DJ feature than Apple Music, where the AutoMix AI DJ feature has been more of a mixed bag for me. At the moment, AutoMix just handles song transitions, and Apple hasn't added any kind of custom playlist reordering to it.