Unlocking exclusive access is a long-standing promise of many NFT-based communities. And now Spotify is helping some of them realize that claim with tokenized playlists.
According to a series of tweets from Kingship, a metaverse group signed to Universal Music Group (UMG), the streaming company is piloting playlists that could be unlocked via NFTs in certain geographies. As part of the pilot project, Kingship released a special playlist accessible only to Kingship NFT keycard holders.
The group released a series of steps that involve linking a crypto wallet like Metamask, Trust Wallet, Rainbow, Ledger Live or Zerion to authenticate the NFT that unlocks the playlist. Kingship said that currently this experience is only available to Android users in the US, UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.
The fact that iPhone users can’t access the feature isn’t surprising given that Apple released a set of rules limiting NFT functionality last October.
As first spotted by Coindesk, aside from Kingship, other communities like SuzerainFluf and Kevin Rose’s Moonbirds also release playlists that could be unlocked by their token holders.
Spotify confirmed this pilot by commenting on tweets from Overload and Kingship without giving further details. The company told TechCrunch in a statement that this is one of several tests on the platform.
“At Spotify, we regularly run a number of tests with the aim of improving our user experience. Some of them end up paving the way for our wider user experience and others only serve as important learnings. We have no further news to share on future plans at this time,” a Spotify spokesperson said.
The announcement of the NFT-secured playlists pilot project comes just before Spotify is hosting its Stream On event on March 8. On Wednesday, Spotify also announced an experiment with an AI-powered DJ that curates music for users.
Tokenized playlists aren’t Spotify’s first rodeo with NFTs. In May 2022, the company experimented with a profile feature for artists to promote their digital art. Last year, it posted web3-related job vacancies in engineering and marketing departments.
But since then, global economic conditions have changed. Many companies, including Spotify, have laid off a ton of people and shelved several projects. Additionally, crypto markets and businesses are facing tough times. In the midst of all this, many companies have stopped talking about their web3 ambitions.
This pilot indicates that Spotify may have technology ready to offer more content, including songs, albums, or podcasts that could be token-protected. Hopefully the company will talk more about it at its next event.
