A feature that creates shared, interactive music experiences
Spotify Listening Party | Feature Design
OVERVIEW
Timeframe
Nov - Dec 2024 (4 weeks)
My Role
UX Researcher
Product Strategist
UX Designer
Team
Stephen L. (Design)
Me (Design)
Tools
Figma
Notion
INTRODUCTION
“You have to listen to this song”
Music has always been a bridge between people— whether it’s sharing a favorite song with a friend or singing your heart out with the crowd at a live concert. It has the power to spark conversations and create little memories that you look back upon.
In recent years, Spotify has been leading the game in creating social features, such as syncing user’s music and seeing what their friends are listening to. However, many of these features remain passive.
PROBLEM
Passive vs. Interactive Music Listening
In the age of social media, Spotify has been aiming to increase app engagement. Simultaneously, users seek a shared and interactive way to enjoy music. How might Spotify offer an engaging, communal experience that brings users closer through music?
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
Enter Spotify Listening Party
Spotify Listening Party is for music enthusiasts who are looking for a more communal and interactive music experience.
By joining a session, users can connect with each other through a live chat and synced playback.
Skip to Final Designs
SPOTIFY’S ECOSYSTEM
Spotify believes in connection through music
Before anything else, it was important to understand Spotify and its goals in order to brainstorm how we can improve the platform’s collaboration features.
Vision Statement
“We envision a cultural platform where professional creators can break free of their medium’s constraints and where everyone can enjoy an immersive artistic experience that enables us to empathize with each other and to feel part of a greater whole.”
While introducing Spotify Jam...
The company mentioned in their news page that “There are few things more powerful than connecting over a shared love of music.”
Clearly, Spotify recognizes music as not only a solitary experience, but as a communal one.
Over the years, Spotify has demonstrated their commitment to building social features...
CURRENT SOCIAL FEATURES
Not that many interactive social features...
Passive Social Features
1
Profiles
Users are able to view each other’s profiles and public playlists. By following a user, the user gets added to their “Friend Activity” module.
2
Friend Activity
Allows users to view what their spotify friends are currently listening to/have most recently listened to.
Collaborative Social Features
1
Spotify Blend
Creates a personalized and up to date playlist that merges the music taste of 2+ users.
2
Collaborative Playlists
Users can create shared playlists where multiple people can edit, add to, and enjoy.
3
Spotify Jam
Enables users to host a real-time listening session where participants can join, queue songs, and listen together simultaneously either on the host’s speaker or their individual devices.
Interactive Social Features
1
Podcast Comments
Allows users to leave and read comments on podcasts, fostering discussion among the listeners in the community and the podcaster.
2
Podcast Polls
Gives podcasters a means to engage their audience by posting polls directly within episodes, encouraging interactive participation.
Examining the existing social features, it becomes clear that while many features actively encourage shared experiences, they remain passive or require indirect action (like queueing a song to a jam).
The only features designed for interactive social experiences are limited to podcasts, leaving a notable gap in Spotify’s offerings for interactivity within their music community.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
How are other music platforms fostering community?
Apple Music
Overview:
Apple Music is a popular streaming service known for its integration with the Apple ecosystem.
Top 3 Social Features:
Collaborative playlists
Users are able to add, listen, and react to a shared playlist.
SharePlay
Users can listen to music synchronically during FaceTime calls
Followers/Following
Users can view mutual friend’s playlists and music they’ve been listening to
Last.fm
Overview:
Last.fm isn’t a streaming platform, but a music discovery and tracking platform that collects individual user’s data from various music services to generate insights to share with their community.
Top 3 Social Features:
Shouts (User Comments)
Enables users to leave comments on profiles, artist pages, and tracks, fostering direct interaction.
Groups and Forums
Provides spaces for niche communities to discuss and engage around music.
Compatibility Ratings
Tracks users' listening history across platforms to calculate a compatibility score, displayed on profiles.
SoundCloud
Overview:
SoundCloud is a smaller streaming platform that emphasizes its creator-driven community.
Top 3 Social Features:
Track Comments
Users are able to leave comments on parts of a track, facilitating discussions/feedback
Reposting Tracks
Similar to a retweet on Twitter, users are able to repost certain tracks to their followers
Messaging
Users can send private messages to each other for conversations, sharing tracks, feedback, etc
It is clear that SoundCloud and Last.fm stand out in terms of their social capabilities. While using the platforms, the “Track Comments” and “Shouts” features stood out due to their ability to create a space for real-time conversations and connections.
USER RESEARCH
Learning about user listening habits through surveys & interviews
According to businessmodelanalyst.com, 71% of Spotify’s global users fell into the age range of 18-34, with majority of listeners either being from the United States or Europe. To learn more about user’s current experiences and wants, we surveyed 47 participants and conducted deep dive interviews on 6 participants who fall into Spotify’s primary target market.
Our survey composed of 11 questions, aiming to scope out user’s music listening habits for new albums and how to make the listening party feature cater to their needs. Some key insights were that users sought a way to connect with music, and would only want to occasionally engage with the discussion (not actively discussing and interacting)
Interview Questions:
Can you walk me through how you typically discover and listen to new music or albums? What does that process look like for you?
How do you currently share or talk about music with others? Can you describe a recent experience where you shared or discussed music?
How does sharing music or listening with others make you feel? What do you think it adds to your overall music experience
Have you ever participated in any real-time music-related activities, like live listening sessions or reaction streams? What did you enjoy or find frustrating about that experience?
Are there any challenges or frustrations you face when trying to connect with others around music? How do you currently work around these challenges, if at all?
Who do you prefer to connect with when discussing or sharing music—friends, online communities, strangers, or a mix? Why?
Are there any other scenarios beyond album launches where you’d want to share or interact with others around music? For example, playlists, nostalgic albums or themed listening sessions?
ANALYZING THE DATA
Organizing our research through Affinity Maps
After conducting the interviews, we analyzed the transcripts by coding recurring ideas/themes. This process helped us uncover key insights, which we then organized into an affinity map.
The Affinity Map we created on Figjam!
INSIGHTS
1
The Power of Conversations and Sharing Music
The most prominent theme across all our surveys and interviews was that Spotify users genuinely enjoy connecting with others through music, whether that be discussing a song with other super fans on a subreddit thread or sharing their favorite track with their close friend.
2
Strong Interest in Revisiting Older Albums
We had initially brainstormed a listening session for new album releases, but our research heavily indicated that Spotify users are equally, if not more, interested in listening to music that is already out!
3
Challenges in Synchronized Listening Experiences
Building on the first insight, we discovered that when users attempt to listen to music together, they frequently encounter challenges such as coordinating suitable listening times, dealing with synchronization issues, and finding like-minded enthusiasts to join their listening sessions.
BUSINESS STANDPOINT
User needs tie in with the business objectives
Our initial user research heavily indicated that Spotify’s target demographic was interested in a community-focused way of interacting with music. However, to validate this concept, it was essential to explore how it aligns with Spotify’s business goals.
To make sure this idea aligns with both what users want and Spotify’s business goals, I looked into their objectives to find any overlaps and see if the concept could be validated from a business standpoint.
Deliver a seamless, cross-platform streaming
Strengthen social & community-driven features
Increase user engagement & retention on the platform
Drive continuous innovation and maintain market leadership
Business
Objectives
User Research
Desire deeper social connections through music
Want flexibility in discussing and sharing music
Face challenges with synchronized group listening
Seek more interactive and collaborative features
Build connections & community through music
Engage more with Spotify
DESIGN QUESTION
How might we create a seamless and engaging way for users to connect and interact around music, while accommodating varying social preferences and enhancing the overall listening experience?
INITIAL DESIGNS
An easy, low commitment, and customizable listening party
After validating that our findings from user research was in agreement with Spotify’s business goals, we started brainstorming how to solve our design problem.
We settled on an album listening party, fostering discussion and connection for music lovers.
Some key ideas:
Any user can create a party, indicating a start time and whether it was private/public (since somer users wanted to connect with strangers while others preferred talking with friends)
Participants are synced up while listening, and discuss the same song at the same time.
The feature shouldn’t be “in your face”. While our surveys showed there was interest, it was important to note that there are still plenty of users who prefer music to be a personal experience. Comments would only be available during listening sessions, not the rest of the time.
Low fidelity & mid fidelity prototypes of the listening party creation flow!
ITERATIONS
Changing the main listening party section
Listening Party Name
Album Name
Artist Name
Album • Year
Host Name
7.3k listeners
Leave
Reorganizing how we communicate album and listening party information
We got feedback that if the placeholder text was filled (ex: artist name --> Drake), it would be very difficult to understand which titles/info were for what.
We reorganized the top half of the screen into 3 distinct sections
Listening party name
In a similar position where a playlist name would normally go
The actual album information
Instead of cluttering the middle section with listening party info as well, we went back to only displaying the album details
Ensured design consistency across the listening party page and the album page
Listening party specific section
Visually grouping together all the listening party information and features helps users understand it better
Song Title
E
Artist Name
100+ chats
Song Title
E
Artist Name
77 chats
Song Title
E
Artist Name
Song Title
E
Artist Name
Song Title
E
Artist Name
Simplifying the track list view
The two main issues with our initial design were that the button-styled container took too much space if the song title was long, and gave the impression that the user had to click on the container to access the comment section (they can click anywhere).
We simplified the design by removing the container and just displaying the amount of chats. Also, we indirectly communicated that a track was “locked” by greying it out.
FINAL DESIGNS
Showcasing the Spotify Listening Party
Creating a Listening Party
Commenting/interacting with a song
REFLECTION
Learning to make business-driven design decisions
This was my first time designing a new feature for an already existing product, which brought an entirely new set of challenges and learning opportunities . It was really fascinating to design not only based on the user research, but the intersection between the user research and the business objectives of a well-established company like Spotify.
Throughout the project, I grew as a researcher and a designer-- ensuring that the final product could effectively benefit both the users and the company.
Thank you for reading!
Contact me and let’s journey together
© 2025 Portfolio by Satvik Shreesha
