Just in time for International Friendship Day, Spotify is adding yet another personalized playlist.
It’s called Friends Mix (opens in new tab) and it’s made by collecting songs from multiple Blend playlists and then throwing them all together in one big mixtape. It's another way, says Spotify, for people to people discover new tracks.
Recommended songs are thrown into Blends that match the creators' taste, but may result in people missing out on potential new favorites. The idea is as your Friends Mix grows, you discover new music, then you add those songs to a separate Blend playlist exposing them to other people. By finding new artists, those friends continue to add new songs to your Friends Mix thereby creating an endless loop of music discovery.
Made for you
The Friends Mix will appear in the Made For You hub, but you will need to create two-person Blends first. These playlists serve as the starting point.
Creating one is very simple: all you have to do is invite a friend you want to create a Blend with. Spotify will then automatically generate a playlist based on your and the invitee’s music tastes. Do this two more times and you got yourself a Friends Mix playlist. Spotify states Friends Mix is updated daily, so there should be something new to listen to every day, provided your friends update their Blends.
Where to get it
Friends Mix is currently available right now as part of a new Spotify update available for Free and Premium users globally. The update is on the iOS and desktop app, but not yet for Android which is rather strange.
Spotify features typically come out on Android and iOS at the same time, but sometimes iPhones get first dibs. Case in point, the swipe to queue was recently added to Spotify on Android after being on iOS for years, according to 9to5 Google.
We reached out to Spotify and asked if Friends Mix will be coming to Android. A representative got back to us and simply repeated the fact that it’s available on iOS and desktop. No information on Android support, at least for now.
Hopefully, Friends Mix on Android doesn’t take years to come out.
Expanding music discovery
Spotify’s latest updates have been really pushing the community side of things to expand music discovery.
Not long ago, the Community tab finally migrated over from the desktop app to mobile, so you can see what your friends are listening to at any given moment. And we can’t forget the tool behind Friends Mix, Blend, where you can potentially create a massive playlist with up to 10 people. But there is a third-party tool that people seemed to have forgotten.
The aptly named Forgotify is a discovery engine that digs up songs with practically zero plays on Spotify. For obscure music fans, it’s a great way to find those cool songs patiently waiting to be discovered. TechRadar's own Becky Scarrott tried out Forgotify and was exposed to an eclectic mixture of ska, concertos, and German house music.
For you music fans, we recommend checking out our recently updated best music streaming services for 2022 (opens in new tab).
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