Spotify is testing a new “Featured Curators” feature that promotes popular user playlists alongside its official Spotify playlists, the company announced on Monday. The new feature is part of a limited-time test that is designed to amplify the playlists that users create on Spotify. The feature is also a way for listeners to discover more music on the platform.
The company says the curators it has selected for this feature are music lovers with established followings and popular playlists on Spotify. Users in select markets will start to see Featured Curator playlists recommended in-app and on their homepages. Spotify plans to tweak the new feature throughout the testing period.
“Our goal is always to make Spotify the number one destination for the best listening experience, and with this pilot, we’re giving listeners a new way to discover music from fellow fans who are as engaged as they are,” the company said in a blog post about the announcement. “We’re always testing unique and different listening experiences and programs for our fans, and we’re excited to watch this one unfold.”
The new feature should make it easier it to discover the numerous popular user-generated playlists on the platform. With this new test, Spotify notes that it’s experimenting with taking playlist creation and discovery even further following its successful launches of flagship playlists like Discovery Weekly.
The launch of the new test comes a few days after Spotify updated its popular playlist creation tool called Blend. The feature currently allows two Spotify users to see where their musical tastes overlap by mixing together their favorite songs to find those they have in common. This Blend then updates daily with new songs based on everyone’s listening habits. Last week, Spotify expanded Blend to allow users to create playlists with up to 10 people, or even with some of their favorite artists.
The company has partnered with several artists, including BTS, Charli XCX, Kacey Musgraves, Lauv, Megan Thee Stallion, Mimi Webb, Tai Verdes, Xamã and others to allow Spotify users to merge their musical tastes into a single Blend playlist where their own favorite tracks are matched with those from the artists. In addition to working with artists, Spotify has updated Blend to allow groups of family members or friends to create their own shared playlists.