In honour of its 20th anniversary, Spotify recently launched a celebratory new campaign looking back at its golden years, and with it came a new app icon. While at first I was blinded by the logo's glitzy disco ball design, I've become increasingly disgruntled by its presence on my carefully curated home screen, and it turns out I'm not alone.
You might be thinking that an app icon change isn't a big deal, but the logo design has proved surprisingly controversial. Prioritising sparkle over scalability, it has been the centre of confusion and derision for many users who are calling for the reinstatement of the classic Spotify logo, and it seems our prayers have been answered.
The controversial design transforms the Spotify logo into a green disco ball, with sparkly flourishes and skeuomorphic shading lovingly dubbed 'discomorphism'. All's well until it's shrunken down to app icon size, where the details feel dull, messy and indistinguishable, resulting in a visual sludge.
My personal gripe with the app icon stems from the highlights of the logo, which, at a glance, appear to resemble Apple's update icon overlay. While I admit it's a small, easily ignorable detail, I've been caught out by this design flaw enough for it to bother me. Will I do anything other than whinge about it online? No, probably not, but it feels good that I'm not alone in my criticism.
Alright, we know glitter is not for everyone. Our temp glow up ends soon. Your regularly scheduled Spotify icon returns next week.May 17, 2026
"Whoever designed this needs to be fired immediately," one disgruntled X user wrote, while another added, "This is terrible. Keep thinking the app is installing an update." Spotify soon released a statement addressing the backlash, clarifying that the design was merely a fleeting affair for its anniversary celebrations. "Alright, we know glitter is not for everyone. Our temp glow up ends soon. Your regularly scheduled Spotify icon returns next week," it confirmed – at last, peace is soon to be restored.
For more design news, check out Spotify's custom Wrapped logos that perplexed music lovers or check out these Gorillaz x Spotify ads that are hiding something really cool.
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