Creating playlists with your friends can lead to the discovery of a lot of great music, and today Spotify is trying to make that process even easier. Spotify announced today that it has given Facebook Messenger users the ability to create group playlists in-chat. The process of creating a group playlist seems pretty straightforward, as it centers around using Spotify's own Messenger extension.
Spotify has begun showing its free-tier users sponsored songs, something presented as part of a test that may see a wider rollout in the future. The sponsored songs are showing up for some users in both the mobile app and on desktop, showing up within existing playlists. The songs are opt-out, meaning users will see them unless they specifically choose not to. How widely the sponsored songs are being distributed isn't clear.
It is a time of miracles. Microsoft embraces Linux and open source. Apple creates a somewhat upgradeable iMac. And Taylor Swift brings her albums on Spotify. Yes, you read that right. In the name of celebrating the "1989" album's milestone achievements, the artist who waged war on most, but not all, streaming services is thanking her fans by putting her catalog back on all streaming services. And, yes, that does include Spotify.
Spotify has announced the acquisition of Niland, a machine learning startup based out of Paris. The music company made the announcement itself this week, explaining that Niland shares its 'passion for surfacing the right content to the right user at the right time.' Spotify plans to use the company's technology and know-how to improves its own recommendation abilities, doing so with the power of artificial intelligence behind it.
Next Monday, Spotify will offer details on a new tool for sharing music called Spotify Codes. The codes are designed to look like an audio wave, and when scanned they offer the recipient either a music track, a playlist, or an album, depending on what it points to. Though Spotify won't be detailing the codes until next week, images of them, as well as some primary details, have surfaced ahead of the formal debut.
Even with competition coming from giants like Google, Amazon, and Apple, Spotify still seems to be the go-to music streaming service for a lot of people. That may no longer be good enough, though, and Spotify could be looking to break into the hardware game as well. That's what a new job listing suggests, at any rate.
Jay Z fans may find their options a bit slim when it comes to streaming his music this weekend. The hip hop star has had his catalog of solo albums pulled from both the Apple Music and Spotify services, seemingly in favor of Tidal, the music service he co-owns. The removal of albums was made without prior notice, but Spotify reps have confirmed it was done at the request of the artist.
Things are changing at Spotify, at least for free users. After years of rumors about such plans, the music streaming service has inked a deal that, among other things, may result in some albums being released for Premium-tier members before they're made available on the free ad-supported tier. The artists themselves can make the decision about whether to limit their album to Premium for the first two weeks of its release or make it available to both tiers immediately upon launch.
If you've ever been stuck in Los Angeles traffic, you know it can be a long while before you're finally free. A single trip from A to B can take well over an hour, and that's just enough time to create an entirely new piece of music...at least if you're one of the artists featured on Spotify's new 'Traffic Jams' show. The show features two artists who have never worked together before meeting up in a car and creating a masterpiece before traffic starts moving.
The wait for new music from hip-hop star Drake is finally over, as his new album, errr, "playlist"/"project" as he prefers to call it, has finally been released. Titled More Life, the 22 tracks were premiered on Drake's Beats 1 show, OVO Sound Radio, on Saturday without warning. The really great news for fans though is that More Life is available now to stream on just about every major music service, and not exclusive to Apple Music.
There's little doubt at this point that Spotify is the leading service when it comes to streaming music, but the company has just further cemented its position with its latest milestone: 50 million paid subscribers. The company revealed the achievement earlier this week, but what makes it really impressive is the fact that it was only back in September when Spotify topped 40 million paid users.
The days of low-quality audio streaming may be behind us, at least as far as Spotify is concerned. Screenshots from the service have appeared online detailing a not-yet-available “Spotify Hi-Fi” service that gives users access to lossless CD-quality audio for an additional $5 or $10 per month. Users aren’t yet able to sign up for the service and the pricing seems inconsistent at this time.
