Spotify has social features, but they suck. I wonder why don’t they improve those. Being able to send songs to another person’s Play Queue, repost songs, chat with your friends, share photos and moments with music (à la Instagram stories), etc.
Instagram has music features, but they suck. I can’t play a song without wanting to add that to a post or story, I can’t create playlists. I can favorite songs when I see them on a post or story, I can follow artists, etc.
I would have thought that both would be competing in both fields by now. Since this doesn’t seem to be the case, they should allow for deeper integration. I already since last month can add a song in Instagram to my Spotify favs without leaving Instagram, but this integration could go so much deeper.
Think synced listening now in Instagram, song lyrics, live karaoke, synced algos, seeing posts to songs in Spotify, continue playing a song you see in Instagram (on a post f.ex.), etc.
The ecosystem upside for Spotify
Spotify’s No.1 advantage over other providers is its wide reach. Everybody has Spotify, right? And being able to follow your friends, listen to the playlist of the gym class you visited that happened to be public and joining Spotify jams with friends are reasons people can’t just ditch Spotify. More in-depth social features would just reinforce that competitive advantage they have.
And if I were Spotify I’d really push on to this ecosystem, it’s a big reason people can’t switch to Apple Music that easily. Just saying.