Spotify is rolling out a feature that will allow premium users to share playing sessions with neighbors and anyone within their immediate vicinity.
The new feature named Group Session is rolling out in beta today and only works between premium users.
How it works: A host can share a scannable Spotify code from their app with whomever they want to share playback control, meaning that the host and guests can pause, play, skip, and select tracks in the queue, and add their picks to the list. The queue will update on everyone’s devices, and sessions will end after an hour of inactivity. Spotify has not put a number restriction on users who can join a session but it says it will “continue to evolve the experience over time based on user feedback.”
The latest feature is small but an incremental gesture for premium users. Over time Spotify has built additional features for its paying users, like allowing them to hide songs from playlists, to make the paid tier more appealing. In the past, it also offered free Hulu and a Google Home Mini to premium members.
The version launching today is the first iteration of the feature, and Spotify expects it will evolve over time as it learns more from user feedback. It may even expand beyond people sharing the same space in the future.
