Spotify has never been just about music. Social media has long been a part of the music streaming platform's DNA, from sharing playlists with millions of users around the world to seeing what track your friend is currently listening to.
Now Spotify is taking its social experience to a whole new level. The music streaming service introduced Top Tracks in Your Network, which is a new chart in the platform that shows the most played songs by the people you follow. Just like any top tracks chart, the more popular a song is among the people you follow, the higher up it is on the chart.
This new feature, which is available today for both iOS and Android devices, takes the Top 100 Tracks on Spotify's playlist and localizes and personalizes it. If your friends like a song so much, you're probably going to be more likely to enjoy it as well, or at least give it a listen. One out of five Spotify streams comes from a user listening to another user's music, according to the company's blog post announcing the update. It makes sense that if someone you know and probably respect recommends something to you, you're going to be more likely to give it a go.
This is a slight departure from Spotify's previous social efforts. Remember when it used to tell you on Facebook what your friends were listening to in real time? Instead, the music streaming service is now taking a more streamlined approach to social interaction by showing the faces of friends that listen to the same artists and playlists as you, according to TechCrunch. If you like what you see, you can tap on them and add them to the Top Tracks in Your Network playlist. Spotify then looks at the past week and pulls out the tracks played by many people you follow or that could have been played by one person multiple times. The playlist is located in the Browse section of the navigation menu.
"CNN tells you what's happening in the world. Twitter tells you what's happening in your world. Top Lists tells you what's trending in the world. Top Tracks In Your Network is what's trending in your world," Spotify product manager Miles Lennon told TechCrunch.
As TechCrunch also points out, the social aspect of Spotify, including this new update, could be its savior when Apple eventually launches its iTunes streaming service early next year. But as long as it keeps up its vast collection of music and makes it available for free, I'm sure Spotify will be just fine.
