Spotify Gains New 'Group Session' Feature With Shared Listening Queue

[MacRumors]

Spotify today introduced a new feature called Group Session, which is designed to allow two or more Premium users in the same location to share control over the music that's being played.

Akin to a sort of party mode, Group Session lets participants select what's being played in real time along with contributing to a collaborative playlist.

Many people are sheltering in place right now and are stuck at home, and Spotify told TechCrunch that this feature is ideal for groups spending long hours together.

Group Session can be used after the person in charge taps the Connect menu in the bottom left corner of the Play screen, sharing the scannable QR code with additional users. Participants can each scan the host's code with the Spotify app, and then with Spotify's controls, they can play, pause, skip, and select tracks to add to the queue.

Spotify already offers a feature for building collaborative playlists with friends, but this new option is designed for collaboration in real-time when people are gathered together. It supports up to 100 users.

Group Session is rolling out around the world for all Spotify Premium users as of today, but it is still being made available in a beta capacity, so Spotify plans to continue refining and tweaking it based on user feedback.

Article Link: Spotify Gains New 'Group Session' Feature With Shared Listening Queue

 

[routine_analyst]

Wasn't this an idea by Steve Jobs called iTunes DJ that Tim Cook axed?

 

[ChrisMoBro]

Every time I see Spotify in the title my heart races... and then I realise it’s not about offline playback on the Apple Watch

 

[TheSkywalker77]

Every time I see Spotify in the title my heart races... and then I realise it’s not about offline playback on the Apple Watch

Knowing Apple they won’t allow Spotify to add this, sadly.

 

[iBreatheApple]

I love Spotify but I’ll never forgive them from removing touch preview - the greatest music discovery tool of all time. Efficient, fluid, and seamless. All they’ve ever said about removing it was “it wasn’t a widely used feature” which is horses**t because it was amazing. 😭

 

[ChrisMoBro]

Knowing Apple they won’t allow Spotify to add this, sadly.

Other streaming services have added it and Spotify have publicly stated they have no plans to add the functionality, which is pretty crazy when you think of how many people want it.

 

[kenni417]

how about rolling out the lyrics features to the vast majority.

 

[itsmilo]

random, does Apple Music let you control music on one device by another device yet without interrupting whatever you are doing on that device (like Spotify Connect). Last time I tried AM it would bitch and stop the music. I was like WHAT

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

This sounds awesome for roadtrips. Right now we awkwardly switch who's connected to the car's bluetooth after each song, but we could just leave one device connected to the bluetooth and have everyone else connected to it adding stuff to the shared queue.

Maybe Tesla/Spotify will make it so the built-in Spotify player can play from the group session. Then no bluetooth interaction is needed at all.

 

[Vanilla35]

Wasn't this an idea by Steve Jobs called iTunes DJ that Tim Cook axed?

No one uses iTunes
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This sounds great for house parties. Shoot out an invite to the music playlist, and then they can throw in their own. Whenever you have a friend that says can I play music, you don't have to give them the entire connection, it becomes shared.

 

[Cosmosent]

That's a great idea !

 

[rmbpuser]

How are we supposed to Why isn't there an option to scan/share our friends' codes if they are not with us

 

[tom.humphrey]

How are we supposed to Why isn't there an option to scan/share our friends' codes if they are not with us

Yeah seems like they’ve balled this up during the current climate

 

[TheSkywalker77]

Other streaming services have added it and Spotify have publicly stated they have no plans to add the functionality, which is pretty crazy when you think of how many people want it.

Oh, I wasn’t aware of that.

 

[Zeke92]

random, does Apple Music let you control music on one device by another device yet without interrupting whatever you are doing on that device (like Spotify Connect). Last time I tried AM it would bitch and stop the music. I was like WHAT

It lets you control music from your iPhone on another device if that device is a smartphone hub. liken an appletv or HomePod. Otherwise it only lets you play from a single non hub device. Does that make sense?

 

[iBreatheApple]

random, does Apple Music let you control music on one device by another device yet without interrupting whatever you are doing on that device (like Spotify Connect). Last time I tried AM it would bitch and stop the music. I was like WHAT

No! Forever Spotify users have no clue what an awesome and seamless experience Spotify Connect is! I use it every day across many devices and I still take the time to appreciate it every time. It's just so easy and useful, you don't even realize it's a "feature".

 

[ateslik]

Every time I see Spotify in the title my heart races... and then I realise it’s not about offline playback on the Apple Watch

omg, my kingdom for offline playback on Apple Watch!

 

[xDENTALPLANx]

Wasn't this an idea by Steve Jobs called iTunes DJ that Tim Cook axed?

Yes it’s exactly that.

I still have no idea why they chose to remove that feature and I’d love for them to bring it back.

 

[cthart]

Can someone please wake me up when Spotify offers lossless compression?

 

[mattiasottosson]

Hm. This has been available since september or so, at least for Swedish users. 🤔

 

[cthart]

Hm. This has been available since september or so, at least for Swedish users. 🤔

Lossless compression? I haven't seen anything about it, anywhere. The supposedly official idea thread for it hasn't received an official update in over 2 1/2 years. https://community.spotify.com/t5/Li...Lossless-Streaming-16bit-44-1khz/idi-p/700006

 

[mattiasottosson]

Lossless compression? I haven't seen anything about it, anywhere. The supposedly official idea thread for it hasn't received an official update in over 2 1/2 years. https://community.spotify.com/t5/Li...Lossless-Streaming-16bit-44-1khz/idi-p/700006

Ah, no, that comment was targeted for the group session feature. Lossless streaming would be a really nice feature though.

 

[ignatius345]

Would be fun to have a remote version of this, where Spotify users in different locations could be listening to the same thing -- kind of like a little DIY radio station.
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No! Forever Spotify users have no clue what an awesome and seamless experience Spotify Connect is! I use it every day across many devices and I still take the time to appreciate it every time. It's just so easy and useful, you don't even realize it's a "feature".

I use this constantly, more or less seamlessly switching between headphones and speakers, controlling playback from any Mac or iOS device I happen to have in front of me.