Using a music streaming service to discover new content is one thing, but if you want a friend’s perspective things might not be that simple.
But Spotify looks to be fixing that with a new feature called “Tastebuds”. The new addition will make it easier than ever for Spotify users to check in on their friends’ musical tastes. The upcoming feature, which Spotify is prototyping, was initially discovered by app researcher Jane Manchun Wong (via TechCrunch).
Tastebuds will be present in a navigation option along with the Library and Home/Browse options. There is a functioning landing page for the upcoming feature, and it says users “can discover music through friends whose taste you trust”. Users that select the pen option will be able to navigate through the friends they already follow, see the songs that person has been playing the most, and then add songs from their friends’ lists to their own library.
Technically speaking, Spotify has always had the ability to see what your friends are currently listening to thanks to the Activity Feed — but that feature is regulated to the desktop app, and not available in the mobile apps. Sharing music has a focus on social media in general.
Spotify is working on Tastebuds, letting users discover music through their friends pic.twitter.com/uqUXmRvEKo
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) December 18, 2019
For those keeping track of this sort of thing, this does seem very familiar, at least in scope, to the Friends Weekly playlist that surfaced last year. Spotify never got around to launching that feature, though, so it’s possible this could be that playlist, just rebranded.
And of course, this would be similar to Apple Music‘s own Friends Playlist.This is a playlist that’s available in the “For You” section, and collects songs that your added friends are listening to. It’s updated every Monday, and makes it easy to add songs and artists you might not have been aware of before.
If you use Spotify, do you think you’d be interested in this feature?