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Do you want to be comfortable even when you are separated? Spotify has created a new feature called "Social Listening" that allows multiple people to add songs to a queue they can all listen to. You've just scanned a friend's QR Code Spotify Social List List, and then everyone can add songs to the playlist in real time. Spotify could potentially extend the functionality to synchronize playback so that you hear the same notes at the same time, but for the moment, it's just a shared queue.
Social listening could give Spotify a new viral growth channel, as users could urge their friends to download the app to sync it. The intimate experience of co-listening can lead to longer sessions with Spotify, improved reading of ads, or retention of subscriptions. In addition, it could differentiate Spotify from Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal and other competing streaming services.
A Spotify spokesperson told TechCrunch: "We are always testing new products and experiences, but we have no other information to share at the moment." Spotify already offers collaborative playlists that friends can add, but Social Listening is designed for real-time sharing. The company refused to give more details about the prototype or its eventual launch.
This feature is reminiscent of Turntable.fm, a 2011 start-up that allowed people to play in virtual rooms on their computers and join them, chat, vote for the next song, and watch everyone's avatars dance. . But the company struggled to properly monetize its ad-free subscriptions and close its doors in 2014. Facebook briefly released its own version called "Listen With …" that allowed Spotify or Rdio users to synchronize music playback. .
Spotify Social Listening has been detected for the first time by a reverse engineering witch and by frequent TechCrunch tips. Jane Manchun Wong. She discovered the feature code buried in the Spotify Android app, but for the moment, it's only available to Spotify employees. Social listening appears in the menu of connected devices that you can open while playing a song next to the nearby Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices. "Connect with friends: your friends can add tracks by scanning this code – You can also scan a friend's code," explains the feature.
A help screen describes social listening as "listen to music together. 1. On your phone, listen to a song and select (Connected devices). You will see a code at the bottom of the screen. 2. On your friend's phone, select the same icon (Connected devices), press SCAN CODE, and then point the camera at your code. 3. Now you can control the music together. "You will then see the friends that are part of your social listening session listed in the Connected Devices menu. Users can also copy and share a link to join their social listening session that starts with the URL prefix https://open.spotify.com/socialsession/ Note that Spotify never explicitly says that the reading will be synchronized.
Streaming apps having largely the same music catalog and a similar premium rate of $ 9.99 per month, they must compete with the discovery and the user experience. Spotify has long been in the lead with its custom Discover Weekly playlists, quickly copied by Apple and SoundCloud.
Strangely, Spotify has removed some of its own social features over the years, eliminating the email inbox built into the app and pushing users to share songs via third-party email applications. The foregrounding of discovery by friends conveniently focuses on Spotify-owned playlists. This gives him an advantage over the labels during their tariff negotiations, because it is those who influence the songs that will become hits, so if the labels do not play well, their artists may not be promoted via playlists.
That's why it's good to see Spotify remember that music is an inherently social experience. Music touches us physically by its vibrations, and when people listen to the same songs and are literally moved by it, it creates a feeling of solidarity that we are too often deprived of on the Internet.
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