At 12:12 AM on August 12, Times Square lit up with something new: a bright-orange-and-mint billboard featuring a Spotify code. Within minutes, fans were scanning, sharing, and listening.
To lead into the announcement of Taylor’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, Spotify launched a worldwide activation across 12 locations. Each one featured the same minimalist billboard with no text, only the code, linking directly to a playlist on Taylor’s official Spotify profile.
Whether you’re curating a playlist for your dorm, promoting an artist at a live show, or simply sharing your favorite album with friends, Spotify Codes make it easy to bring your listening experience into the real world. These scannable, QR-like tags allow you to quickly share and access any piece of content on Spotify, no typing or searching required.
Spotify Codes are unique visual tags that can be scanned using the camera on your phone or within the Spotify app. Once scanned, they instantly take listeners to the linked content, whether it’s a song, album, playlist, artist profile, or even a branded page.
You can adjust the color, size, and format to suit your needs, whether you’re designing flyers, posters, social posts, or stickers.
Spotify Codes are designed to make sharing easier and more visual. However, if you’re planning to use them on physical products for sale, be sure to get the necessary permissions from the appropriate rights holders.
Spotify Codes offer a seamless way to share what you’re listening to online and off. From building community through a collaborative playlist to spotlighting an up-and-coming artist, these codes bring your musical world to others with just a scan.
Among the most celebrated American artists of all time, Jean-Michel Basquiat left an indelible mark on the world. His paintings combined his own unique style with powerful commentaries on race, politics, and culture. And although he died over 30 years ago, the impact of his legacy can be felt throughout art and culture to this day.
As such, a new exhibit, Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure celebrates the iconic artist’s life and work with more than 200 rare and never-before-seen paintings, drawings, and artifacts from the Basquiat family collection. There are so many works on display that it required a 15,000-square-foot space nestled in New York City’s crowded downtown. The expansive location was designed by David Adjaye, the renowned architect who also worked on the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture.
As one of the exhibit sponsors, Spotify also helped curate an exclusive audio experience for visitors that offers further musical insights into the life of Jean-Michel.
Photo credit: Bella Newman
“I think the mission was really to provide a little more context to Jean-Michel’s life. There have been people who have spoken about Jean-Michel’s life before us, and they did so from the very narrow perspective of whatever time they spent with him,” Jean-Michel’s sister Lisane Basquiat shared with For the Record. “And so for us, it’s about sharing a perspective of Jean-Michel’s life that only his family could share. There’s really no one else that can tell this part of the story.”
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One of those perspectives emphasized through this exhibit is Jean-Michel’s connection to music and the way that it influenced his art. To hear it from his other sister, Jeanine Herriveaux, Jean-Michel’s love affair with music started at home during his childhood.
“We had a huge influence at home in terms of music. My father had a great stereo, and he played music from the moment that he either woke up in the morning on the weekend or when he came home from work. Music was playing until he went to bed. And the genres ranged from Latin music to jazz to Neil Diamond,” Jeanine revealed. “I know that had to have impacted Jean-Michel significantly. The reason I think that is because later on, he made many, many trips to Tower Records and purchased many, many albums. Music was very important to him.”
The immersive Spotify-curated audio experience starts with the Listen Like Basquiat destination, which features a series of playlists packed full of the songs he loved, as well as music from artists he inspired. The playlists were curated with the help of the Basquiat sisters and correspond with different stages of Jean-Michel’s life: Childhood, Studio, Nightlife, and Legacy.
Just last week, Spotify unveiled our 2021 Wrapped experience, which offers listeners an opportunity to reflect on their streaming habits from throughout the year. It’s also become a moment to enjoy—and maybe even judge—the listening habits of friends and family, thanks to the social sharing component within your Wrapped experience on Spotify.
Wrapped doesn’t stand alone in its capacity to bring people together. Social sharing continues to help friends, family, and fans connect from afar. Listeners have flocked to Spotify’s features, including Group Session and Collaborative Playlists, to share what they’re listening to—and to have a rockin’ good time.
But these aren’t the only ways to connect over your shared love of audio. Below, we’ve outlined five easy options for sending or showing what you’re listening to with those closest to you, literally or metaphorically.
Confident in your taste and ready for your friends to see? Your Friend Activity is the tool for you. The Friend Activity appears to the right of your desktop app, and you can use it to see the listening activity of those you follow on Spotify. (Those who follow you will be able to see yours.) To turn it on, head to “settings” and accept “Share my listening activity on Spotify.”
All new Spotify users on Desktop will see an empty Friend Activity—this will be filled with the listening activity of people you follow on Spotify. You can also find your friends on Spotify by connecting your Facebook accounts from the “add friends” button at the top right of the Friend Activity. You can turn off your sharing at any time.
We know that Spotify fans love to share their Wrapped cards on social channels like Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And new this year, we’ve added the ability to share 2021 Wrapped cards on TikTok.
Wrapped aside, Spotify makes it easy to seamlessly send a link straight to a song, album, artist, playlist, or podcast on most social media or texting apps. Simply look for the three dot menu (…) on your phone or desktop app.
Once you click or tap those three dots, scroll down to the “share” option. From there, you’ll be prompted to share to one of the many apps you have on your device—from Facebook and Instagram to Snapchat and SMS. Or, simply use “copy link” to send it wherever you choose.
You can also share Canvas videos to Instagram and Snapchat, as well as podcast timestamps. Read how.
Looking to share something you’re listening to “IRL”? Perhaps you’re making a shared playlist for your dorm, workplace, or club, and want to spread the word. You can easily create a Spotify Code, a QR-like “scannable” tag that can be used to quickly share or access a piece of content, within Spotify. Spotify Codes can be created for artist profiles, brand profiles, playlists, albums, and songs. And you can access them like you’d access any QR code: with the camera on your phone.
To create a Spotify Code, you’ll need to grab a Spotify URI. To find one, right-click and hold “option” on Mac or “alt” on PC—or tap or click the handy … to the right side of the screen— then select “Share” and click “Copy Spotify URI.” From there, you can paste the URI into this site to generate a URI, pick a color or design, and save it for use anywhere.
Note: Spotify Codes should not be placed on physical goods for sale without permission from relevant rights holders.
Collaborative playlists are a great way to swap podcast recommendations, share your latest music discoveries, and build the perfect playlist—together. Easily invite others to contribute and then see who added which songs or podcasts, and stream together or apart.
Pick the playlist you want to collaborate on, then tap the “Add user” button in the header to make the playlist collaborative. From there, you can start inviting others to add songs and podcast episodes on social media or messaging apps, or simply by copying and pasting the link. You can read more about collaborative playlists here.
Note: You also have the option to block people from your collaborative playlist or from viewing your activity on Spotify. Head over to our Support pages to find out more.
Music and podcasts are always better when enjoyed with friends and loved ones—together or afar. Our Group Session functionality allows Spotify Premium users around the world to tune in to the same playlist or podcast simultaneously. So no matter the distance, you and the members of your squad can each listen to the same content at the same time on your own devices, as well as control playback.
Groups can use this feature at once by sharing a “join” link via messaging apps or social media with each other. Read more about this feature and get inspiration for how to use it here.
We’re constantly evolving the Spotify experience to meet listener needs and working to provide the best possible audio experience for listeners around the world. There are so many ways to share your latest jams or that must-listen podcast—letting friends, family, and even followers fall in love with the same stuff you’re listening to.
Can’t get enough of your friends’ great taste? Try creating a Blend playlist to merge your two distinct musical tastes into one shared playlist made just for you both. Learn more here.
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