Spotify's new Jam feature lets you listen to shared playlists with friends in real time
Spotify will now let multiple users in different locations enjoy the same collaborative playlist in real time. It's like sharing your own personally curated radio station, but without the talk breaks.
Rolling out from Sept. 26, Jam is similar to Spotify's collaboration feature in that it allows multiple people to share the same playlist, with anyone invited able to add, remove, or reorder songs. It will even show who has added which track, so you know who to blame for desecrating your K-pop playlist with the Glee cover of "Gangnam Style."
Jam also borrows some elements from Spotify's Blend feature, sprinkling algorithmically-selected song recommendations into the shared playlist. However, unlike either, Jam will sync everyone's playback so you're all listening to the same songs simultaneously.
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How to start a Spotify Jam
Though all Spotify users can be invited to join a Jam, only Premium subscribers can start one. Here's how to start a Jam on Spotify:
- 1 minute
- Spotify App
- Friends
Step 1: Open Spotify.
Step 2: If you are a Spotify Premium subscriber, select a song or playlist.
Step 3: Click the "..." to see more options for your song or playlist, or click the "Connect to a device" button in the bottom right corner.
Step 4: Select "Start a Jam."
Step 5: Invite other users to join your Jam.
You can invite other people to join your Jam by turning on Bluetooth and tapping your phone to theirs, asking them to use their phone to scan the QR code on your screen, or clicking "Share" to send them a link to the Jam via a messaging service. Starting a Jam will also invite anyone else on that shared WiFi to join in as well.
In addition to adding and removing people from the Jam, the host can reorder and remove tracks in the playlist. They can also enable "Guest controls" to allow everyone to rearrange or eliminate tracks, but be prepared to turn it back off if guests get into a passive-aggressive deletion war.
