In this tutorial, we will show you how to build your Up Next queue on Spotify so you can listen to your desired tracks in an orderly fashion.
Also see: How to manage songs playing next in Apple Music
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Spotify has been putting basic features that were once free behind a paywall. While it’s still better than services like Apple Music, which only offer paid plans, it sure upsets people who have been on the free Spotify plan for a while.
Building on that, the Spotify app on mobile and web browser no longer allows you to manually build your Now Playing queue if you are on the free plan.
However, at the time of writing this, I found that you can still add to the queue in the Spotify app on your Mac, even if you are on the free plan. I was surprised why this happened, so I manually checked my Spotify app on Mac for updates, and it was on the latest version. Furthermore, when you are listening to Spotify on your Mac in the free version, you can build your Up Next queue using the Spotify mobile app.
Manually build your Up Next queue on Spotify
When you play a track from a playlist (or album or artist) on Spotify, other songs from that playlist are automatically added to the Up Next (also called Play Next) queue. But you can manually add songs to your queue that you want to listen to next.
On iPhone
- Open the Spotify app and find the song you want to add to your Up Next queue.
- Swipe right on a song to add it to the queue.
- You can also tap the three dots icon next to the song and select Add to queue.
Tip: You can also tap the three dots icon for a playlist and add it to your queue.
On Mac
Similar to the iPhone, take your pointer over a song and click the three dots icon, followed by Add to queue.
See your Up Next queue
Once you have added a few songs to your listening queue, you can easily browse through them.
On iPhone
- Go inside the Spotify app and tap the thin Now Playing strip.
- Tap the Play Queue button from the lower right corner of the screen.
- You will see the “Next in Queue” section with the songs you have added to your Up Next list. Below that, you may see a “Next from your playlist/artist/album” section.
On Mac
Click the Now Playing bar from the bottom of the app and hit the Play Queue icon. You will see the “Now Playing,” “Next in queue,” and “Next from playlist/artist/album” sections here.
Rearrange the songs in your Spotify queue
Once you have built your listening queue, the songs you added first to the queue will be at the top of the list and will play next, followed by other tracks in an orderly manner. However, you can further decide the order in which they play by moving the tracks up and down on the list.
- Access your Play Queue list by following the steps mentioned above.
- Hold the three-line hamburger icon next to a song and drag it up or down. You can also move tracks from the “Next from playlist/artist/album” section to “Next in Queue.”
If you are on a Mac, you won’t see the hamburger icon. In this case, you can reorder your Play Queue by dragging a song up or down with your mouse pointer.
Note: Spotify has no Play Next option!
I love the Play Next button on Apple Music and YouTube Music. If I come across a great song, I can give it preferential treatment over my existing queue and have it play just after the current playing song ends. However, Spotify lacks this option, and thus, you will have to manually reorder your queue to move a song to the top. We have already shown you how to do this in the above steps.
Remove songs from your Spotify queue or clear it
If you change your mind and no longer like the existing queue, you can remove specific songs from it or clear it entirely. This also comes in handy if you want to start building a fresh Up Next queue.
On iPhone
- Go to the Now Playing screen in the Spotify app and tap the Play Queue button.
- Select the songs you want to remove from the queue and hit Remove.
- To clear the entire list, tap the Clear Queue button. Remember that this will only clear tracks from the “Next in Queue” section and not what’s under “Next from playlist/artist/album.”
On Mac
- Click the Play Queue button in the Spotify app.
- Click the three dots icon next to a song and Remove from queue.
- You can also hold the Command key, select multiple tracks, and then right-click, followed by Remove from queue.
- If you want to remove the entire queue, hit the Clear queue button.
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