Spotify Just Made It Easier Than Ever To See What All Your Friends Are Listening To
"Because we think music is inherently social, we think that what your friends are listening to could be a really, really compelling path to [music] discovery," Spotify product manager Miles Lennon tells Business Insider.
Lennon says one of the most common ways he's seen people use Spotify is by looking at its playlists. Spotify already lets you see lists of top songs in your country or in the world. But starting Thursday, Spotify users will see a new playlist, Top Tracks in your Network.
The list, updated daily and displayed in Spotify's Browse section under Top Lists, shows you the most popular songs among the people you're following on Spotify from the past seven days. The more popular a song is with your friends, the higher it is up the chart.
The playlist also shows you a drop-down menu of all your friends listening to those songs. If you have Spotify Premium, you can select and listen to those songs. If you use Spotify for free, you can shuffle the playlist.
"What we've been searching for is something as frictionless as seeing what people are listening to with all the meaning of receiving a song right from a friend directly," Lennon says.
Spotify is rolling out the Top Tracks in Your Network feature on mobile and tablet first. If you use Spotify on a computer, you can visit an artist or album page and see which of the people you're following are plugged in and listening.
"Discovering music through friends has always been core to what we do at Spotify," says Charlie Hellman, VP of product at Spotify. "One out of every five Spotify streams comes from a user listening to another user's music, whether that's checking out an artist you saw your friend listening to, or seeing that your gym buddy has created the perfect workout playlist."
This is just the latest social push by Spotify. A few weeks ago, Spotify announced a partnership with Uber, allowing Uber users who also have Spotify Premium accounts to DJ their own Uber rides in 10 cities: London, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York City, Mexico City, San Francisco, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney and Toronto.