Spotify uses several little icons to help identify certain features of a track or playlist. The following table gives you a helpful little primer on what the most common icons actually mean.
| Symbol Descriptions | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Chain icon | You may see this icon next to a playlist track. It means you can’t play the track’s album in your country, but Spotify has found the same track on a substitute album, which you can play. If you want to know where the track came from, click the chain icon to go to this substitute album. |
| Rectangle that contains a music note | Seeing this icon next to a song means that the file is locally available on your computer. |
| Red, broken rectangle | Seeing this icon next to a local file means that the link (or path) to your local file is broken or not found. Perhaps iTunes moved the local file to a different folder. You can try to import the file again by browsing to the actual file and dragging it into Spotify’s Local Files pane. The broken rectangle link also shows up if a song is protected by digital rights management (DRM), so it can’t be played outside of iTunes. A notification bar appears if this is the case, and you’re prompted to remove all DRM-protected tracks from the Local Files pane. |
| Green music note with a dot next to it | This icon is shown next to a playlist and indicates that the play-list is collaborative, which means that multiple users can edit it. |
| Arrow with a line above it | Seeing this icon next to a track means Spotify has several versions of the track available under the same name, such as a radio-friendly edit and an uncensored version. Click this icon to see the different options appear in a list, connected by a bracket. |
| Green circle that contains a down-pointing arrow | The playlist is available in Offline mode. (This option is available for Premium subscribers only.) |
| Spinning arrows | The playlist is currently being synced so that you can listen to it in Offline mode (Premium subscribers only). |
| Music note | A playlist. |
| Dot with waves coming out from each side | The symbol for Spotify radio. |
| Rectangle with a music note on it, overlaid on another rectangle | Playlist folder. When you hover your mouse over this icon, it turns into a triangle pointing to the right, which you can click to access any playlists within the folder. |
| Open rectangle with an arrow coming out of it | Share the track. This icon shows up next to every track listing. Click this icon to bring up a pop-up window, which includes options to share the track to various social networks. |