Spotify Launches Tastebuds Social Feature

Over the past few years Spotify has become a leader in streaming services, constantly raising the bar by producing innovative ways to interact and listen. From artist curated content to Spotify curated playlist made just for you and more, the platform excels at providing personal touches.

Spotify is now testing a new feature called “Tastebuds,” which will act as a social tool that allows you to see what your friends have been listening to. While you can currently subscribe to other Spotify user’s playlists, Spotify has no features for directly interacting with friends within it’s mobile app after removing the inbox in 2017 and keeping it’s Friend Activity ticker restricted to the desktop player.

Despite its user friendly mechanics, many were worried that Spotify had too much control over what they were seeing on their feed. Tastebuds is designed to let users explore the music taste profiles of their friends and lives as a navigation option alongside your Library and Home/Browse sections.

Social is a huge, but under-tapped opportunity for Spotify. Not only could social recommendations get users listening to Spotify for longer, it also helps Spotify lock in users with a social graph they can’t find elsewhere, and makes them standout amongst industry competitors.

Source: techcrunch.com