How to make Spotify a music entertainment destination
Spotify is one of my favourite products that I use on a regular basis. Its killer feature is the way it makes discovering music incredibly easy with all of its curated playlists based on artists, genres, activities, time periods, special occasions, other playlists, and even my past user activity. I can use it on all my devices such as my phone, smart speaker, and it even has a desktop app which makes curating my own playlists easier. Spotify promotes itself as a music streaming platform, but it has the potential to be the ultimate music entertainment destination if it provides some additional features that will surely propel the product to a whole other level.
Here’s a few thoughts:
Song lyrics
As a kid who grew up in the 90s, I remember owning cassette tapes and CD albums. They always came with lyrics in paper form. There will sometimes be the desire to look up the lyrics of a song because you’re really not sure what they are. Or perhaps you like a song so much that you want to read the lyrics and fully absorb the contents of the song. Or what about the ability to search for songs with certain lyrics because you’re looking for a song that mentions your city or relates to the theme of empowerment?
Karaoke
As an extension to the song lyrics, what about turning songs into karaoke songs automatically so the lyrics appear during the progression of the song? This is a great way to enable the user to sing along to their favourite tunes. Since it connects to smart TVs too, you can also use the feature for parties.
Music videos
Currently, I see some music video clips on the phone app, but why not include full music videos on the web, desktop app or smart TV app? I see no reason why a user wouldn’t want to consume music videos on Spotify if they have their curated playlists already there. Watching music videos of the new songs you discover can be a great way to learn about the artists.
Online party games
In the quarantine era, it’s a no-brainer to combine the features of song lyrics, karaoke, and music videos to create some music-themed games for users to play together virtually. You can do online karaoke, or maybe it’s trivia-based games that can be auto-generated. I remember there were TV gameshows where contestants would try to guess the song being played. The opportunities to create fun games around the theme of music are endless.
The “live radio” experience
As much as I love all the curated playlists, I would love to add to my listening repertoire: live streaming radio stations that mimic the experience of a traditional AM/FM radio station. I’m unclear how Spotify could scale this efficiently, but given the popularity of Sirius XM satellite radio, there could be lots of interest in such a feature. As much as I love listening to podcasts, there’s something enjoyable about listening in real-time to a unique DJ personality who plays the music they’ve curated and layers in some fun radio talk with the occasional user call-in.
Closing thoughts
I loved music before I was using Spotify. But when I started using Spotify, I loved music even more. With some of the new features mentioned above, I think I can love music even more than I do now. Already with a catalog of millions of songs, Spotify has a great opportunity to be more than just a music streaming platform. It can become the ultimate music entertainment destination.
