For grumpy Generation X-ers, one of streaming music’s saving graces is the lack of enthusiastic influencers bursting out of the screen at them. Look away now, if you’re in that group: Spotify is testing a way for influencers to add video of themselves into their playlists on the service.
TechCrunch first reported the test, with fashion/beauty influencer Summer Mckeen one of the first influencers to try the new feature. It lets them film a video introduction to their playlist, as well as sprinkling video clips with “small song snippets and the album art” within it. The emphasis is reportedly on influencers and celebrities, but not musicians at this point in time (although TechCrunch claims Spotify “isn’t ruling out letting artists try the Stories product in the future”.
The test is interesting though: a sign that Spotify is shifting a little from a curation strategy almost-entirely focused on its own editorial and algo-personalised playlists. For if it’s going to encourage influencers to put more effort into their Spotify playlists, surely it will also be putting more effort into promoting those third-party playlists on its platform too…
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Tools: Kaiber
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