The popular on demand music streaming service Spotify has today announced a major evolution in its platform.
Spotify launched in late 2008 and has not had any recent major changes until now. I have to say I am a regular Spotify user and love it so much so I actually subscribe to the premium version and pay the £9.99 subscription. This decision was mainly based around the fact I could use the Spotify app on my android powered phone and listen offline.
One thing I always felt was missing was some of the social aspects on the platform which they now seem to have rectified. The great thing about music is in it's very essence it is a social media; we love to listen and discover new music which we then share with our networks of like minded people. I always found it frustrating with Spotify that it was limited with how you could interact with existing social networks within the platform itself. O.k. there was a share function but it was very basic and you couldn't see what other people were sharing or liked within the Spotify interface which I think is a fundamental feature to have and which they have addressed. Just so you know it seems you have to go and re-download Spotify to add the changes.
So What have Spotify done? The answer is lots of cool things. They have added a fully editable Spotify music profile where you can publish playlists, artists and top tracks for public view. Now this is really cool as you are becoming your own DJ that you can now share with the world. They have made it a lot easier to discover these profiles as well as they are utilising a direct connection with Facebook.
The platform is evolving with additional library functions so you can combine your own music library with your Spotify Library. This means you are able to spend more time in the player. This is clearly what they want you to do more time in spotify more opportunities to market to you as a user exactly the strategy that Facebook and Google use, everything you need in one place.
This is a really good opportunity for companies to utilise Spotify as a social marketing platform; there have already been some really interesting examples of playlist creations to compliment marketing campaigns. To give you an example I am attending the Great Escape Festival in Brighton on the 15th of May. Thing is I don't really know many of the bands that are playing so I created my own Great Escape Festival 2010 Saturday playlist in Spotify of most of the bands playing that day and shared it through my networks. Interestingly the Great Escape has done their own playlist as well which is very prominent on their website which I also added to my list.
Why is this good? I have a constant reminder within my preferred music platform of that gig! How cool is that and am I more likely to go yes? If I like the music it will probably stay in my list until next year as well. Plus with the new social features in the platform it makes it even easier to share new playlists with my network.
So I recommend you check it out and think about how you can utilise the new features to spread some music love.
Here is My new Spotify profile if you want to check out my eclectic music tastes
You can find the official Spotify Blog post here that lists all the features and also has a video walkthrough.
