If you came here to pick a nicer Spotify username, the field you want is the display name, because that is the only one of the two Spotify publishes a way to edit.
Two identifiers sit on every account, people assume they are one thing, and most of the frustration on this topic comes from trying to change the one Spotify offers no control over.
What Spotify says a Spotify username is
Short version, in Spotify’s own words: your username “is designed to identify you on Spotify, and you don’t need it to log in”.
The display name is the other half. Spotify describes it as the thing that “replaces the username where it shows on your profile, app, and playlists”, and adds a hard limit on it: you cannot use a display name to log in.
| Username | Display name | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Identifies the account | Shown to other people |
| Where you see it | Account page, and at the end of your Spotify URI | Profile, app, playlists |
| Documented way to change it | None | Yes, in the app |
| Accepted at login | Not needed | No |
What Spotify does not put in writing
Its help pages describe what the username is for and never say where to find it, never call it generated, and never say it cannot be changed. They also give no procedure for changing it, which is a meaningful absence on a site that documents procedures for everything else.
Spotify’s community FAQ fills that gap and should be read as staff guidance rather than documentation: accounts now receive an automatically generated string of letters and digits, older accounts may carry a readable name chosen when that was still possible, and the generated string is not editable.
I would treat that as reliable and still worth stating for what it is. If the difference matters to you, the safe reading is narrower: Spotify offers no way to change it, whatever the reason.
Where to read yours
The account page in a browser shows it in the profile block, alongside the email address on file. The app does not surface it anywhere, which is a real gap rather than a menu I failed to find, and it means a phone-only listener has to open a browser for a value their own app already holds.
There is a second place it appears, documented on the developer side. Spotify defines a user ID as the unique string identifying a user, found at the end of that user’s Spotify URI. The identifier at the end of a profile link is the same string as the username, which is why a profile URL and a username look related.
Login uses neither of the things you might expect
Spotify lists the methods plainly: your email address and password, or whichever method you signed up with, such as Apple or a phone number.
The username is not on that list, and the display name is explicitly excluded. Anyone who has forgotten which email they registered with should chase the email rather than the username, because the username will not get them in.
Changing the part people can see
On mobile, tap your profile picture, open View profile, tap EDIT, tap the display name, and save.
On desktop, click your profile picture, choose Profile, click the profile name to edit details, then click SAVE.
That change reaches followers and your public profile. It does not touch your login, the identifier at the end of your profile link, or anything Spotify holds about the account.
One limit before you rename yourself: display names are not unique. Two people can hold the same one, search results show that, and a common name makes you harder for friends to pick out rather than easier.
Sources
- Spotify, Username and display name
- Spotify for Developers, Spotify URIs and IDs
- Spotify, Your Spotify profile picture
- Spotify Community, Numeric and alphanumeric usernames FAQ
- How to Make a Spotify Playlist Private and Public Again
- Four Ways to Share a Spotify Playlist and When to Use Each
- How to Upgrade to Spotify Premium and Choose Who Bills You
- Go Offline on Spotify: Two Switches That Do Different Jobs
- Remove a Song From a Spotify Playlist and Undo a Mistake
- Delete a Playlist on Spotify and Get It Back Within 90 Days
