Can friends add songs to collaborative playlist Spotify?

Can friends add songs to collaborative playlist Spotify?

There are few things more hotly debated at a Fourth of July get-together than the events playlist, and who should be in charge of it. A party soundtrack is an important responsibility and one some people simply cant be trusted to handle. (Look, we all have our strengths and shortcomings.) I found this out the hard way over the holiday weekend, when a friend kept shouting Alexa, play Despacito at her barbecue... five times in a row. That was followed by a family boat ride where my mom decided to abruptly ruin each song by cutting them short. Mom also bafflingly put on Boyz II Mens Ill Make Love to You as the fireworks started later that evening. (If youre reading this mom I love you, but your playlist duties are revoked!)

Simply put, theres a better way to democratically maintain your events vibe rather than just switching whos in control of the Bluetooth, having a tipsy aux cord battle, or who can yell the loudest at Alexa or Google Home. In particular, both Spotify and Apple Music offer ways for multiple people to pitch in and share playlist duties on the fly, ensuring everyone gets to put their flavor on the party.

SPOTIFY

There are two options for teaming up on playlists with Spotify. One is the traditional collaborative playlist, and the other is Playlist Potluck.

To turn collaboration on for a playlist on desktop, right click (or Ctrl-click on Mac) the playlist in the left hand column and select Collaborative Playlist. If the playlist is currently playing, you can also select Collaborative Playlist by clicking on the three dots icon next to the play button in Spotifys main screen.

On mobile, select the playlist you want to share, then click on the three dots in the top right of the screen to select Make Collaborative.

You can now copy the link to the playlist and send it to friends. When a friend clicks on the link, it will open in Spotify and anyone with access can not only alter the playlist, but also pass the link on to others. All changes will appear on everyones screens instantly, and collaborative playlists will be identified by a hollow circle icon next to the playlists name.

Can friends add songs to collaborative playlist Spotify?
Spotify playlist collaboration for desktop and mobile
Screencaps via Spotify

Theres isnt a way to only give specific users access, but you can always turn off the playlists collaboration the same way you turned it on. (People with the link will still be able to view and play the list, they just wont be able to alter it.)

Playlist Potluck is a collaborative feature launched with Sonos as part of a promotional campaign. The difference with Playlist Potluck is that it encourages playlist creation ahead of the event, essentially making it part of the invitation. To initially set up the playlist on the Sonos website youll have to authorize Sonos Playlist Potluck to access your Spotify data, give some personal information like location and age, and then agree to terms and service.

Once this is done, youre given a link which can be shared with guests. When clicked, people are taken to a landing page where they can log into their Spotify and add a maximum of five songs. A section at the bottom of the page also shows recommended songs to add based on whats currently in the playlist.

APPLE MUSIC

While theres currently no way to collaborate on Apple Music playlists (this will be coming in the fall with iOS 11), there is a way to share your playlists with others.

On desktop, open a playlist, then right click anywhere or click the three dot icon and select Share Playlist. From there you can share the playlist directly to Twitter, Facebook, or Messages, or copy the link to share in another manner of your choosing.

On mobile, tap the icon with the three dots at the top of the playlist to select Share Playlist. Again, you can now share the playlist directly to a number of sharing services enabled on your phone or copy the link.

Can friends add songs to collaborative playlist Spotify?
Apple Music playlist sharing on desktop and mobile
Screencaps via Apple Music

Any changes you make on shared playlists will show up wherever it is shared. To make the playlist private again, select Stop Sharing under Share Playlist on desktop, and on mobile, tap the Edit button at the top of the playlist, then toggle Shared Playlist to off.

So, with Apple Music, while multiple people cant change the same playlist, a host could aggregate playlists from multiple guests on a single device.

Congrats, you should now be armed with the tools to make sure the music at your Fourth of July party is a vibe enjoyed by all. Sharing is caring, yall.

Comments

Collaborative playlists in Spotify are great, but they are not going to change the now playing list, are they?

The way I want to share music duties is to be able to have multiple people be able to add tracks to the now playing list, else you have to keep stopping and then re-queuing the playlist to reflect the most recent changes to the collaborate playlist, which is dumb.

I suppose its fine for chosing music days before your party starts, but who cares about that?

The changes actually are instant and theres no need to re-queue on Spotify! I just tested it to verify with a coworker added new songs to my collaborative playlist on mobile, and it was instantly updated on my desktop and on his phone.

The changes actually are instant and theres no need to re-queue on Spotify!

Did you test this with a playlist that was already playing when the new tracks were added?

If you are using the web client to access a shared playlist, it will need to be refreshed to show changes. If you are using the mobile or desktop app, all changes will happen on the fly with no play interruption.

all changes will happen on the fly with no play interruption

Of course, but the key requirement in this scenareo is the new tracks actually play. As the now playing list is actually a snapshot of the source playlist at the point it was queued up for playing, the two are now different. Hence the new tracks added never play until you re queue the source playlist.

I cant se how that can work wi

Yes the new tracks play. All scenarios have been tested by our staff.

I found a really neat service called Festify. It does exactly what youre looking for, and plays everything through your Spotify account.

Google music and youtube both have "add to queue" options available when chromecasting.

Yeah, this is what I expected to see when I clicked the link tbh that Apple Music suggestion sounds clunky as fuck.

Let me preface this by saying I dont think The Verge has any sort of overarching bias towards one company or another (Im sure specific reporters have their preferred ecosystems and devices, like Tom Warren and Microsoft, but thats a normal thing and nothing to be held against them).

That said, its so incredibly obvious nobody (or almost nobody) on their staff uses Google Play Music, which is crazy, because its an incredibly good service. Its almost never mentioned in articles about streaming music, unless its as a footnote, despite its featureset often playing right into what theyre looking for in an article (like here).

Absolutely! This is not to exclude the many other services that offer similar services, but Spotify and Apple Music are the two that most people are likely to have and use at a party.

You dont think most people have the YouTube app installed??

Ive never tried that on GPM because YouTube has always worked so well for this exact use case.
Going to have to give it a shot!

I wonder if Groove has anything like this.

Ive used this in the past
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.qcastapp.android

It works nicely and everyone can jump in easily.

As mentioned above, using youtube is really great as well. You kind of need to be cross platform for this kind of thing.

Thought for sure YouTube was going to be option 1.Ive been doing it this way for what seems like years!

I also loved using QCast but, much to my dismay, it has been all but abandoned.

View All Comments