By Kira Schaefer
Spotify is my favorite form of social media, hands down. From its Friend Activity feature to the unique Daily Mix playlists, the app brings together a community of music lovers to share and discover new artists. Of course, seeing what my friends are listening to at any time of day is my favorite feature of the app.
At only $10 a month, Spotify offers members ad-free music, podcasts, and audiobook access, along with hundreds of thousands of artfully curated playlists covering genres like Disney and Gaming. According to BBC News, the app was created to battle the growing piracy problem the music industry was facing. It wanted to allow creative artists to live off their art and to allow consumers to enjoy it.
As mentioned above, the Friend Activity feature allows you to see the listening activity of anyone you follow on Spotify at any time. This creates a sense of community with your Spotify followers as you can guess the mood someone is in based on what type of music they’re listening to. Waking up every morning and seeing my best friend Nick blast his “I’m having a great day playlist” gives me a positive attitude. Likewise, working on a paper late at night and seeing the swarms of “Dark Academia Study” playlists fill my activity feed brings me comfort in knowing I’m not the only one who procrastinated on their homework.
The app even produces “Spotify Wrapped”—a summary of the user’s top five artists, songs, and minutes spent listening to music at the end of each year. When December rolls around, Spotify users swarm social media, posting their stats as they try to prove that they indeed have the best music taste.
Another incredible feature of Spotify is public playlists, a feature allowing you to create a mix with a fun title, cover picture, and access to everyone! No matter what mood, Spotify has you covered. Those “Post-Harry Depression” playlists have really been coming in handy.
Recently, I’ve been loving my “Songs to Twerk to in English class” playlist. Hence the title, this playlist is a collection of pop songs from multiple decades that you can listen to in any setting, even English class! It’s perfect to listen to on the walk to class, so give it a follow!.
Spotify stalking allows me to indulge in my friends’ music taste, as I can view their public playlists and recently played artists. Sending a quick text letting someone know you love one of their playlists is an instant day-maker and is one of the many enjoyments of Spotify.
Be sure to follow me for more fun playlists like the one mentioned above :).
Happy listening!
**Edited by Isabella Persky