The ability to unlock exclusive access is a long-held dream of a number of communities that are based on NFT. Now, Spotify is helping some of them to realize this promise with playlists that have been token-gated.
Based on a string of tweets from Kingship, a metaverse-based band affiliated with Universal Music Group (UMG) the streaming service is piloting playlists that can be opened through NFTs for certain regions. In the pilot, Kingship has released an exclusive playlist that is available only to only accessible by Kingship key card holders who have NFTs.
The group has posted a set of steps that require connecting to a crypto wallet such as Metamask, Trust Wallet, Rainbow, Ledger Live, or Zerion to authenticate the NFT that allows you to access the playlist. Kingship stated that at present the experience is available only to Android users from the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.
The issue that iPhone users can’t use NFTs isn’t a surprise since Apple has released a plethora of regulations limiting the functionality of NFTs in October.
The first time this was discovered by Coindesk Apart from Kingship other communities like Overlord Fluf, Overlord, as well as Kevin Rose’s Moonbirds are also releasing playlists that are locked by their token holders.
Spotify confirmed the pilot’s success through a comment upon Overload and Kingship’s Tweets, but without divulging more information. Spotify told TechCrunch in an announcement that this was one of many tests conducted on the platform.
“At Spotify, we routinely run a variety of tests to help improve your user’s experience. Certain of them are able to pave the way to a better user experience while others serve solely as learning opportunities. We do not have any further information regarding future plans currently,” a Spotify spokesperson stated.
The company also stated that this service is only available to Spotify Premium subscribers only. The company also stated that the playlists will be updated over the 3-month test period.
This announcement about the pilot NFT-gated playlists occurs just as Spotify is scheduled to host its One event on March 8. On celebration on the 8th of March. The following day, Spotify also announced an experiment using an AI-powered DJ who plays music to users.
Token-gated Spotify playlists aren’t the company’s first experience with NFTs. As of May 20, 2022, the firm played with the profile feature, which let artists showcase their digital work. The previous year, the company published jobs related to web3 in its marketing and engineering departments.
However, since that time, the global economic climate has changed. Many companies, like Spotify, have cut a lot of workers and abandoned numerous projects. In addition, crypto markets and companies have been hit hard. In the midst of all this, there are many businesses that have put off discussing their web3 goals.
This test suggests that Spotify may be in a position to provide more content including albums, songs or podcasts that can be token-based. It is possible that Spotify will be able to talk more about this at the upcoming conference.
