Spotify Launches DMs… But They Had This Feature 10 Years Ago
Spotify announced the launch of a “messages” feature in late August of this year. The feature promises to make sharing music with family and friends more seamless. Basically, you don’t need to exit the app and text your loved ones your new favorite tune because it’s now available internally. The feature is limited to users aged 16 years and older, likely to discourage any inappropriate messaging to younger audiences on the app. After you accept a message request, Spotify explains that you’ll “be able to react with emojis [and] send texts” in addition to sharing music, podcasts, and audiobooks.
If you’re a Spotify veteran like me, however, you probably already know that this direct messaging launch isn’t new. Aside from my memory, a Redditor has critiqued Spotify’s marketing of this feature as shiny and new, and shares an old screenshot of the UI, which the music-streaming app removed in 2017 due to “low engagement”.
hoserfx on Reddit
Additionally, the user shares a link to a Spotify Community thread where multiple users complain about “spam bots” in their messages. Spam bots are common on any social media platform’s messaging UI, but why is this even able to occur on an audio streaming platform? Better yet, why is Spotify revoking features, then re-adding those features at a premium and marketing them as innovative?
User Skepticism and Criticism
The audio streaming platform has garnered 696 million users and continues to gain more every second. The app is favored for its fun additional features, such as Spotify Wrapped and a spunky, friendly AI DJ named “DJ X.”
Even still, folks are criticizing the unnecessary additional functions that actually make their music-listening experience worse. A Reddit user under a thread about Spotify’s “Messages” launch writes, “Why is every app trying to be all other apps, what's next, Spotify stories?” The app is becoming a social media platform to an egregious extent that it shouldn’t be. Music lovers didn’t ask for an alternative method of sharing links to their playlists; they want actual algorithmic improvements. Listeners unimpressed by the “Messages” feature urge Spotify to reinstate the “like” and “dislike” buttons, improve shuffle recommendations, and prioritize a high-resolution audio option. Instead of prioritizing its users' qualms with the increasingly dysfunctional UI, Spotify continues to prioritize social elements and deprioritizes the reason the app was created. Now, some Spotify users are throwing in the towel.
Why Bring It Back?
The reintroduction of direct messaging on Spotify is likely for many reasons, most of which have nothing to do with enhancing users’ audio listening experiences. First and foremost, an increased amount of time in-app across Spotify’s user base will aid in the app’s overall long-term success. Not that Spotify needs the extra help, but it’s no secret that many Spotify users have switched over to Apple Music because of their music-first approach to streaming. Audio streaming services, like Apple and Tidal, offer enhanced audio and easier methods of adding local music files to their music libraries.
Additionally, Spotify might be trying to justify its global price increase, excluding Canada and the United States. But the main reason, in my opinion, might be Spotify’s (likely) ability to access more user data, a digital goldmine under a marketing-forward capitalist structure. Will Spotify sell your data? Who knows, because who reads the long scroll of user terms and agreements? So, this begs the question: Does Spotify’s access to more user data ACTUALLY personalize your music-listening experience?
The App Always Had (Annoying) Social Media Components
Curious music lovers can check out what their friends are listening to under the “Friends” tab on Spotify’s web player, can keep up with their favorite artists’ new releases, and can share their own and others’ playlists with friends through alternative messaging apps. Even still, as someone who just wants to enjoy their tunes, this feels like too much.
Call me corny, but listening to music is sacred. We spend too much time performing for others in the digital and physical world, and making music-listening another method of performance, aside from concerts, feels wrong. Having all eyes on our playlists, listening history, and Spotify Wrapped round-ups makes the experience of listening to music feel disingenuous.
Though Spotify allows users to make their playlists, listening history, and other music-related data private, all data is public by default. So, if you’re a private person but you’re not careful enough, you might welcome Spotify stalkers.
Have you ever checked to see if a crush or situationship was listening to a love song while they were actively texting you? Or, have you ever stalked an ex’s “sad” playlist to see if they’re adding more somber tunes to it, which obviously means they’re thinking about you? Spotify stalking is real, and many social media users admit to using the app as a tool to figure people out. With this in mind, would you change your listening habits? Or, do your listening habits exist in this dreadful performative jail?
user_679871 on TikTok
A person’s music taste is personal, and curious loved ones (and strangers) are eager to know everything about everyone, thanks to social media’s normalization of information overload.
not86kevinn on TikTok
Not everyone feels the need to pretend to like The Smiths or Radiohead. In fact, most people actually do like the artists they listen to. With the performative male discourse on the rise, however, you start to wonder if anyone is ever doing anything for themselves or if they have an alternative agenda. How do we break the shackles of music performativity? It definitely doesn’t begin with introducing Spotify “Messages.” The people yearn for a day free from the jail of social media judgment, where they can embrace a listening experience that is unabashedly unique to who they are. Whether that’s a lifelong punker enjoying Sabrina Carpenter or a classic violist getting down to Papa Roach, music is for every soul.
Thumbnail courtesy of iwaseatingwould on TikTok
