Love Spotify? Here Is How To Make It Even Better
August 11, 2011
Do you love Spotify? Almost one and half a million Americans do. Yet, do you know that on top of being a better version of iTunes, Spotify is also an amazing music social platform? Using playlists, some great websites and even Facebook, you can make Spotify even better than it already is. Here is what you need to know:
One of the key features of Spotify is the playlists. Situated at the bottom left of the desktop app, and as the first tab of the iOS app, they're simply compilations of songs you like. You probably have noticed that you can create those playlists, and have them synced with your iDevice. You can even flip a switch and have them downloaded to enable listening offline. This can become really powerful because the playlists don't need to stay private. You can share them, and in turn, see what others are listening to.
The first way to do this is through Facebook, and you can simply activate that in the file menu. Your friends that use Spotify will then appear in a right tab called "Friends," and selecting them will grant you access to their published playlists. As for your lists, you can select which ones are polished enough to be made available to others by right clicking them and selecting "publish."
What's interesting is that you don't have to keep going back there to access their lists. By hitting +subscribe, you're signing yourself up for this person's playlist, and it will be added to your own playlists. Then, if they update it, their changes will reflect on your copy as well.
So what if your friends have horrible indie tastes and only listen to depressing songs? That's when the power of Spotify shows its full potential. There are some wonderful websites/services that let you share and access playlists. One of the best ones, sharemyplaylists.com, features almost 50,000 user generated playlists, which are ranked weekly and have enough range to cover any taste. You can access these right from your desktop or iOS using their universal app. You can browse and search for playlists, and by hitting play, it will launch Spotify and let you listen to all the songs it contains. If you like what you're hearing, you can subscribe. The lists vary in how dynamic they are. For example, you could just go for a static Rolling Stone Magazine 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time, or the continually updated week's top 50.
Another cool tip is that you can actually add anybody you want as a friend, even without Facebook, as long as you have their username. To access their profile, simply enter spotify:user:username in the search field. For example, to follow me you could type spotify:user:xonderx, but I wouldn't recommend it.
That's it for our Spotify tips and tricks. Did we miss anything? Tell us in the comments!