Is Spotify Turning Social?

What makes an app a social media platform? Does it involve user profiles? Does it allow users to interact with both content and each other? With apps like Facebook and Instagram considered the top social media platforms in the space, it can be odd to think of Spotify as part of the group. After all, it’s a music streaming app that lets users listen to their favorite tunes under a monthly subscription; you’re not commenting on people’s photos or posting a viral meme.

In terms of music streaming, there’s also a lot of validity in the Apple Music vs. Spotify debate – the largest platforms in the space. It’s a bit like sites that review different sweepstakes casino apps to find one that is right for you. Sure, Spotify might not boast Dolby Atmos or a direct link to tech giant Apple, but there are many reasons why someone would pick Spotify over Apple Music and vice versa. Audiophiles instantly shun the idea of subscribing to Spotify altogether, considering the benefits of Apple’s audio quality. Still, Spotify is known to foster music discovery on another level, with a recommendation algorithm that works like a charm. It also has a bunch of social qualities, which we’ll be talking about here today.

The Evolution of Spotify

Spotify was created in response to the issues of rampant piracy in the early 2000s. The internet gave us unprecedented access to media through file-sharing clients, and people started getting used to accessing dozens of artists and their discographies without spending a dime. While this might’ve been convenient for the everyday person, it was (a) illegal and unethical and (b) led to a loss of revenue for those artists and the overall music industry.

The only way to beat piracy at its own game was to offer a better service, and that’s how music apps were born. There was Tidal, iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, you name it. However, only a few of them continued to become widely used and resilient. These apps were able to offer people an extensive library of just about every song they wanted to listen to at a much higher quality without the illegality. All they’d have to do is pay a monthly subscription if they didn’t want the ads or wanted to skip through songs.

Other than its user-centric experience, another reason why Spotify excelled beyond other music apps and could differentiate was through social integration.

Spotify’s Social Features

Even in the early days of Spotify, the platform sought to capitalize on the fact that music has always had an intrinsic social component. It offered a range of extensions and services to unify the music experience – Billboard for charts and TuneWiki for lyrics, for example. It had partnerships with some of the best companies in the music industry, such as Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. Within the app itself, the main initial social feature was the ability to connect to a Facebook account and add friends to your network. You could now see what your friends were listening to in real time and check out their playlists.

From then on, the user experience was amplified through alliances with other social networks like Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter (now X). Sharing music and showing off your carefully curated playlists was much easier than it had ever been before. Artists could gain more listeners through recommendations to users who might like their music and foster deeper relationships with their fans through exclusive merchandise. Users could create collaborative playlists with friends and even become part of a Blend to get song recommendations based on multiple people’s listening tastes. Most recently, the company introduced a feature that allowed users to comment their opinions on podcast episodes, driving that social interaction and social-media-like experience even further.

When it comes time for Spotify’s yearly Wrapped feature, you’ll see social media platforms littered with everyone’s top tracks, top artists, and all sorts of interesting insights into listening trends. Considering all these social developments throughout the years, the trend is only increasing for Spotify to solidify itself as a social media platform.

There are future plans to attract more users, perhaps enticing those using other music apps to switch to Spotify. While these plans mainly focus on lossless music quality, mixing capabilities, personalization through AI playlists, and voice translation for podcasts, there’s no doubt that Spotify’s focus on social features will only continue. Will we see dedicated user profiles that can be personalized, much like those on Myspace could be? Will live-streaming become integrated into the platform for virtual concerts? What about live Q&A sessions with bands and artists inspired by Reddit’s AMA?

How Does This Change Things?

Remember back in the day when people used to post song lyrics or put songs as their statuses? Well, Spotify today is the modern-day version of that, but in overdrive. Spotify is all about letting its users share the joys of music and connect over shared preferences by adding a social dimension to music streaming through which users can express their personalities.

 It has delivered much more than its initial offering, which was to provide easy music streaming on digital devices and become a social ecosystem centered around music.

Spotify’s classification as a social media app not only changes the user experience but also the wider landscape of social interactions online. This means that social media will no longer be limited to posting images and text-based posts and seeing highlights of your friends’ lives, but also to sharing experiences through music.