With Spotify’s recent launch of podcast comments, the streamer is taking another step toward building a social networking experience into an app primarily known for music. With comments, podcasters can now engage with their listeners directly on Spotify, as they can with other interactive features like polls and Q&A. Combined with the app’s 2023 update, which added a TikTok-like discovery feed, artist profiles where creators can sell merchandise and concert tickets, and the ability to post to stories, Spotify’s app is shaping up to be a social a network centered around all things audio, not just a music streaming app.
After this week’s addition of support for comments on podcast episode pages — a social networking feature if ever there was one — the question now is whether Spotify will add something similar for music artists in the future. This could be an even more compelling addition to the app, as fanbases around musicians tend to be larger and more active than those around most podcasts.
When we spoke with Spotify’s VP of Podcast Product Maja Prokhovnik about the launch of comments, we ventured to ask a question about adding comment support to artist pages as well.
Prokhovnik did not directly deny that such an idea was being considered, instead initially declining to comment before adding that: “I can see a world where we expand [support for comments] to other formats on Spotify, but we always want to do whatever is right for the format and these types of creators and artists.”
It’s worth noting that the idea of building a social network into a music app has been tried before by Spotify’s biggest competitor, Apple.
In 2010, Steve Jobs introduced the new iTunes social network Ping as “Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes”, calling it “the social network for music”. Clearly, Jobs was on to something, but Ping never took off during the Apple founder’s lifetime. Shortly after Jobs’ death, Apple shut down Ping in 2012, a rare setback for the iPhone maker. Apple later tried again with a social feature for musicians, Connect, which also failed.
Even today, Apple continues to half-heartedly embrace social networking in its Apple Music streaming service with an added feature that will periodically check your device contacts to recommend new friends to follow so you can see what they’re listening to.
However, unlike Apple, Spotify has never made a bold statement that it’s building an audio-focused social network.
Rather, the company has quietly and slowly rolled out a series of features that simply make the app more social for both creators and their fans. With last year’s redesign, for example, Spotify added in-app video feeds to its home pages, including the Music, Podcasts and now Audiobooks sections. Although the design of these feeds has changed since launch, the move served as a signal that Spotify took lessons from Gen Z’s social network of choice, TikTok, when designing its own product.
Spotify CEO Daniel Eck talked about TikTok’s impact during the company’s Q1 2024 earnings call, telling investors that TikTok and others have “enhanced the user experience” and that the industry is “learning about these trends and trying to to improve our products’.
“… We’re no different than anyone else in that we’re trying to learn from the market,” Ek said, hinting at the app’s inspiration from TikTok. “We learn what consumers like. We’re trying to improve it and make it the best user experience possible.”
Last year, the company also added new ways for artists to reach fans through a Spotify Clips feature that works similar to Stories on other social networks. Here, artists can add 30-second videos to their profile and album pages.
Artists can also get fans excited about new releases with countdown pages, and fans continue to hear from favorite artists via video messages through the company’s annual Spotify Wrapped campaign. In the meantime, Spotify users can continue to follow creators and friends on the platform to keep up with the latest music and events and see what friends are streaming. They can collaborate on playlists with others in many ways, including in real time. The company has previously been spotted testing a community feature that will allow users to see in real time what others are streaming.
With the addition of comments, Spotify envisions an app where users don’t just play audio and then put their phone back in their pocket, but an app where they are actively engaged, sharing their thoughts, feelings and opinions as they would on a traditional social network network.
Combined, these features begin to add up to an app that isn’t just another music streamer, but one that aims to compete for users’ time — and ultimately, ad dollars — spent on larger social networks.
