Spotify, After Massive User Backlash Over Disco-Ball Icon, Says Regular Logo Will Return Next Week

Haterade rained down on Spotify‘s 20th birthday party celebratory disco-ball icon — and, after acknowledging the backlash, the streamer says the old 2D logo will return to users’ phones next week.

Without warning, Spotify last week debuted the glowing green mirrorball icon for its mobile app for Apple’s iOS. It was meant to be a fun celebration of its first 20 years, connected with the “Spotify 20: Your Party of the Year(s)” mobile-only in-app experience that provides look back at your music listening history.

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But Spotify appears to not have expected the intense reaction from many of its users about the sudden appearance of the disco ball — with many slamming it as a visual abomination.

“The person who designed this logo should be fired,” one user on X posted with a screenshot of the Spotify disco ball. The official Spotify account responded on Sunday (May 17), saying: “We know glitter is not for everyone. Our temp glow up ends soon. Your regularly scheduled Spotify icon returns next week.”

Another irate user wrote: “This new update of Spotify what the hell is this ugly app??😭✋🏽,” to which the company replied, “Our birthday icon was a limited-time guest star 📷 Your regularly scheduled Spotify icon resumes soon.”

The disco-ball icon has “huge readability & brand issues,” because it uses a different color green (which is “too dark against the black”) and the “disco ball texture looks pixelated on a tiny phone screen,” creator and social media consultant Jack Appleby opined on Saturday. He added: “A kinda dumb mistake.” To that, Spotify said, “It’s our birthday so we’re in our party gear, but we’ll be back to normal when the lights go down.”

By the way, not everyone hates the Spotify disco ball. Michael J. Miraflor, global EVP of client services and strategic planning at WPP’s EssenceMediacom, commented on X about the brouhaha: “Look what you’ve done, dorks. You’ve bullied Spotify into reversing something fun and different (and temporary to begin with) for their 20th Anniversary. We don’t deserve nice things.”