Hey there!
I do use spotify quite a lot in the desktop app and I have to acknowledge that my followers and the people whom I follow contribute are almost indifferent to my listening experience. I mean, I check out what are they hearing and everything and I think its cool when eventually some friend have a similar taste for a less known artist, but that's about it. It's quite a poor interaction, I guess you would agree with me.
Here is how I think this issue could be improved: Create a feature that allows users to highlight artists.
How would it work?
Simple. You could point out up to 2 particular artists you are really enjoying listening at the moment by pressing a check-box, a button or whatever looks classy and functional simultaneously. By doing so, the tune that you play by these artists would appear in bold green, such as Spotify's theme colours, whenever it's shown to your followers in the right side of your app's screen (as it is today). So they can see that, from all the music you're taking time to hear, you would suggest that more people pay attention to those artists in particular. Therefore, I would probably use my friends more in means to get to now new music, and I would do so in a more efficient way. I suggest 2 artists 'cause 1 is too little, but more than 2 is too much - you don't want to have a lot of green bold music names in your screen, they have to focus in what really matters. So contingency is a key point, it makes users be very specific in their choices and just indicates what they are truly passionate about. Kindest regards,
Andre
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