Following the steps of Instagram and Twitter, Spotify, a service of music streaming currently introduces its Story feature. The feature enables the users to watch special moments shared by the makers. However, different from Instagram Stories, Whatsapp Status, or Fleets, the Story feature in Spotify can just be made by musicians or the music labels. Meanwhile, the users can only watch the stories shared with them.
The presence of the Story feature on Spotify was firstly shared by a gaming Youtuber, TmarTn, via his post on Twitter. He just realized the feature is available in the music platform when looking for songs with a Christmas theme on the platform.
So, when he was opening a playlist namely Christmas Hits, TmarTn found a new icon located closely to the cover of the song playlist. He tapped the icon and an interface appeared. Well, the interface looks very similar to the Story feature in other popular platforms. Sure, the feature is not only found in the Christmas playlist but also in other playlists from popular musicians.
How to Use the Spotify’s Story Feature
Spotify Stories contain pictures and videos that are provided in a vertical format on the upper part of the page. There is an icon of a vertical line that indicates the number of songs or videos that have been posted. Similar to Instagram Stories and the same feature on other platforms, the users can just tap the area to watch the content.
History of the Story Feature on Spotify
Uniquely, although the presence of Spotify Story has only been known currently, the platform actually has provided the feature for a long time. Even in August 2019, one of the Spotify users saw it when opening his account.
But so far, the presence of the feature is still a trial until now. Therefore, it can just be accessed by some users only. Based on a statement from Spotify’s representative, the team does routine tests regularly to find the best formula and features for the platforms. The results of the tests are used as the reference to develop Spotify into the better one.
Interestingly, the Story feature is one of the most popular features used by many social media users currently. Many famous social media have introduced theirs to the public. So far, they obtain positive reviews from the users. The presence of the Story feature was firstly introduced by Snapchat in 2014 and the popularity is booming when Instagram uses it also. Currently, some social media with the most-used story features by users are Instagram, Whatsapp, and Facebook.
Is the Story feature really relevant on Spotify?
But undeniably, the same formula, when it is used multiple times, can just cause boredom for the users. The same thing is also for the Story feature. When it is booming via Instagram, undeniably, people just love it. Some moments may only need to share for a while and the feature just provides the facility of it. Additionally, Instagram Story is indeed relevant since it is a sort of social media that is used mainly to share daily activities in the form of pictures and videos.
Then, the same formula is done also by WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter. For WhatsApp, people still love it because this platform is a little bit more private than the others. If they just want their stories to be seen by close people, WhatsApp can be used. When the Story feature is available on Twitter and Facebook, it looks like people just start to be bored with the same formula. But at the same time, they can still tolerate it because, well, the feature is still relevant to those kinds of social media.
But when it comes to a music platform like Spotify, is it still relevant? Spotify is a platform to play and listen to music as well as to share the playlist with the public. Therefore, it is not exaggerating that the presence of Story sounds weird. Meanwhile, the feature is probably important but it can be not also. The only people who can share stories are only musicians. So, it is just placing the users as the audience. Sure, there is still a possibility that the feature may be developed in the future.
But no matter how it is, the Story feature in Spotify is currently just the trial version. There is still no official statement when the platform will launch widely for the general public. SO, it is expected that Spotify may add or lessen something to make the feature more relevant and important for the users.