Spotify is testing playlists that can be unlocked by NFT holders

Image credit: Alexander Shatov / Unsplash

Unlocking exclusive access has been a long-standing promise for many NFT-based communities. And now Spotify is helping some of them realize that claim with token-gated playlists.

According to a series of tweets from Kingship, a metaverse band signed to Universal Music Group (UMG), the streaming company is piloting playlists that can be unlocked through NFTs in certain geographies. During the pilot, Kingship has released a special playlist that can only be accessed by Kingship key card NFT holders.

The group laid out a series of steps that involve connecting a crypto wallet such as Metamask, Trust Wallet, Rainbow, Ledger Live or Zerion to authenticate the NFT that unlocks the playlist. Kingship said this experience is currently only available to Android users in the US, UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.

The fact that iPhone users cannot access the feature is not surprising given that Apple released a series of rules limiting the functionality of NFTs last October.

As first discovered by Coindesk, aside from Kingship, other communities like OverlordFluf and Kevin Rose’s Moonbirds also publish playlists that can be unlocked by their token holders.

Spotify confirmed this pilot by commenting on Overload and Kingship’s tweets without releasing further details. We’ve reached out for comment and will update the story if we hear back.

The announcement of the NFT-gated playlist pilot comes just before Spotify is set to hold its Stream On event on March 8. On Wednesday, Spotify also announced an experiment with an AI-powered DJ that curates music for users.

Token-gated playlists aren’t Spotify’s first rodeo with NFTs. In May 2022, the company experimented with a profile feature that allows artists to promote their digital art. Last year, it published web3-related job advertisements in the engineering and marketing departments.

But since then, global economic conditions have changed. Many companies, including Spotify, have laid off loads of people and shelved several projects. In addition, crypto markets and companies are going through tough times. In the midst of all this, many companies have stopped talking about their web3 ambitions.

This pilot indicates that Spotify may have technology ready to offer more content, including songs, albums or podcasts that could be token-gate. Hopefully, the company will talk more about it at its upcoming event.