Meta and Spotify Collaborate on a Novel Feature for Sharing Music Socially

Meta and Spotify are delving into enhanced music collaboration within the Instagram application. They are evaluating a functionality that would enable users to share the tunes they are listening to on a continuous basis through Instagram’s Notes feature.

This potential new feature was uncovered by reverse engineering specialist Alessandro Paluzzi, known for discovering features in development. However, it’s common for Meta and Spotify to explore new ideas, which means this feature might not be released anytime soon.

A screenshot shared by Paluzzi on Meta’s Threads platform reveals an option enabling users to “continuously share” their Spotify broadcasts, offering an alternative to choosing a single song from Instagram’s existing music options.

“You can stop sharing at any time,” the feature also notes.

Should it be launched, this feature could expand on an existing functionality introduced just over a year ago, which allowed Instagram users to share 30-second snippets of songs in Notes. Since its debut in 2022, Notes has enabled users to post short updates or statuses, visible above their Instagram inbox. The inclusion of song snippets had been globally available in areas where Instagram secured music licensing agreements.

Partnering with Spotify might allow for automatic updates of such music shares, enriching Instagram’s content even when users are otherwise engaged with another application.

This initiative resembles existing social sharing options within Spotify itself, which permits connectivity with Facebook to view friends’ music activities. Spotify has also been working on a “Community” feature aimed at showing live streaming activities of others on the mobile application, though this feature has not been launched as of yet.

While Spotify has been enhancing its social functionalities, recently adding features like podcast commenting and more detailed user profiles, it recognizes that music discovery frequently happens on social platforms where users have established their networks and frequently interact.

There are further hints of an ongoing partnership between Meta and Spotify. Tech analyst Chris Messina reported to TechCrunch that Instagram had integrated a “SpotifyiOS.framework” into its application, a change observed following the update to version v.338.0, over a month ago.

Previously, Messina highlighted a feature that allowed users to embed music on their profile, which officially debuted last week in a collaboration with artist Sabrina Carpenter. He speculated that such integrations could position Instagram to more effectively compete with TikTok in the realm of music discovery.

Meta and Spotify have a track record of partnering on music-related features, including a mini player within Facebook for direct Spotify streaming in 2021. Both companies also collectively face challenges with Apple’s App Store policies, which they perceive as monopolistic, hindering their control over in-app payments and distribution. In addition, Apple’s privacy feature introducing app tracking transparency has negatively impacted Meta’s advertising strategy, and Apple Music stands as a direct rival to Spotify.

Requests for comments from Spotify and Meta went unanswered.