Spotify is testing playlists that might be unlocked by NFT holders

Unlocking unique entry has been a long-held promise of a whole lot of NFT-based communities. And now, Spotify helps a few of them understand that declare with token-gated playlists.

In accordance with a collection of tweets by Kingship, a metaverse band signed to Common Music Group (UMG), the streaming firm is piloting playlists that might be unlocked via NFTs in sure geographies. Beneath the pilot, Kingship has launched a particular playlist that might be accessed solely by Kingship key card NFT holders.

The group posted a collection of steps that entails linking a crypto pockets like Metamask, Belief Pockets, Rainbow, Ledger Reside, or Zerion to authenticate the NFT that unlocks the playlist. Kingship stated that at the moment, this expertise is barely accessible to Android customers within the U.S., the U.Okay., Germany, Australia and New Zealand.

The truth that iPhone customers can’t entry the characteristic is no surprise provided that Apple launched a bunch of guidelines proscribing the functionalities of NFTs final October.

As first noticed by Coindesk, aside from Kingship, different communities like Overlord, Fluf, and Kevin Rose’s Moonbirds are additionally publishing playlists that might be unlocked by their token holders.

Spotify confirmed this pilot by commenting on Overload and Kingship’s tweets with out giving out additional particulars. The corporate instructed TechCrunch in a press release that that is one in every of many exams on the platform.

“At Spotify, we routinely conduct quite a lot of exams in an effort to enhance our consumer expertise. A few of these find yourself paving the trail for our broader consumer expertise and others serve solely as vital learnings. Now we have no additional information to share on future plans right now,” a Spotify spokesperson stated.

The corporate additionally specified that this service is for Spotify Premium customers solely. It added that these playlists can be up to date all through the three month testing interval.

The announcement of the NFT-gated playlists pilot comes simply earlier than Spotify is about to carry its Stream On occasion on March 8. On Wednesday, Spotify additionally introduced an experiment with an AI-powered DJ that curates music for customers.

Token-gated playlists usually are not Spotify’s first rodeo with NFTs. In Might 2022, the corporate experimented with a profile characteristic that permit artists promote their digital artwork. Final 12 months, it revealed web3-related job listings within the engineering and advertising departments.

However, since then, the worldwide financial circumstances have modified. Many corporations, together with Spotify, have laid off a ton of individuals and shelved a number of tasks. Plus, crypto markets and firms are going through robust instances. Amid all this, a whole lot of corporations have stopped speaking about their web3 ambitions.

This pilot signifies that Spotify might need tech prepared to supply extra content material, together with songs, albums, or podcasts that might be token gated. Hopefully, the corporate will discuss extra about it at its upcoming occasion.