Spotify has launched Discover, a news feed that allows users to see recommendations, songs and playlists based on their favorite music. The feature, which was first rolled out last month in a limited release, is currently available on Spotify’s new Web client and will eventually be launched in the music-streaming platform’s desktop and mobile apps.
Social discovery has been one of Spotify’s weak spots. Before the launch of Discover and Follow, users had to depend on Spotify Radio or find and follow their Facebook friends in order to discover new music, a daunting task considering that Spotify has more than 20 million tracks in its catalog.
Discover is part of Spotify’s efforts to increase music listening among its 24 million monthly users by finally incorporating a social discovery aspect into its platform. The introduction of Discover, which is powered by the same algorithms as Spotify Radio, and Follow, another feature that lets users see what their friends are listening to in real time, is especially important now as Spotify faces an influx of new competitors, including Twitter Music and Google Music.
In addition to recommendations from friends, the Discover news feed will also feature new releases from artists followed by the user, tour dates and recommendations based on the track currently playing.