Spotify has launched its latest social feature, Jam, allowing multiple users to curate a shared playlist in real-time. Building on the technology behind multi-user playlists like Blend and Duo Mix, Jam is designed for social gatherings, enabling participants to collectively contribute to a shared queue of songs to be played next.
Jam: Where Everyone Has a Say
Unlike traditional setups where one person controls the party’s music, Jam empowers everyone to have their say. This innovative feature is available exclusively to Spotify Premium subscribers, while both paid and free users can contribute to the playlist. Users can select the playback device, such as a phone or speaker, and those on the same Wi-Fi network are automatically invited when they open the Spotify app.
Easy Sharing and Collaborative Control
Users can invite others to join the Jam through Bluetooth connections, QR codes, or by sharing a link via social media, iMessage, SMS, and more. As participants add songs to the queue, their profiles appear next to the track. Up to 32 people can engage in a private jam session simultaneously.
While the default host maintains control over the music and participant list, Spotify offers the option to enable “guest controls,” allowing anyone to manage the playlist. Additional features will be added to Jam over time, with the possibility of a voting mechanism to prioritize songs.
Personalization and Unique Recommendations
Beyond group listening, Jam incorporates Spotify’s personalization technology. It considers the preferences of all participants and suggests tracks based on everyone’s tastes. This technology, also used in Blend, has generated over 45 million personalized playlists. Spotify users have collectively enjoyed more than 200 million hours of collaborative playlists.
Even when group members have diverse musical tastes, Spotify’s recommendation technology adapts, drawing on various data points, including listening history and user behaviors. Details of this process remain proprietary, ensuring a unique experience for each user.
Brian Roy, Design Director at Spotify, explains, “We can create great personalized recommendations thanks to our dynamic systems that take into account a variety of data, such as what you listen to, what songs you add to your playlists, what other users with similar tastes are listening to, etc. And at Jam, we’ve refined our recommendations to provide real-time listening.”
NIX Solutions adds that Jam is available to all Spotify users worldwide starting September 26th. Try it out and experience the future of social music sharing.