If you enjoy shouting out about your latest music discoveries, Spotify Codes is a rather funky way to share your new favourite tracks with friends and family. Here’s how they work and how to get started.
Spotify Codes are here to make sharing your latest music finds with the world even easier. Yup, now you can not only show off that you’re ahead of the game at spotting the best new music but you can do it with a slice of cutting edge tech, so you look like a total gadget guru too.
Showing off aside, the Spotify Codes are aimed at simplifying the whole music sharing process. It’s like Spotify has given every artist, album and track individual identities, which can be instantly accessed without the rigmarole of searching through that huge online database. You know, all that effort required to type in a name and then browse the results for the correct entry. Such a bore.
If you want to know more, here’s the full skinny.
What are Spotify Codes?
The most simple way to explain Spotify Codes is to compare them to good ol’ fashioned QR codes. Like QR codes, Spotify Codes are visually based and can be shared as an image and scanned with a camera.
Each code allows another Spotify user to open the exact track, album or artist you’ve sent, quick and easy.
How do I share and read Spotify Codes?
When you’re using the Spotify app, you can now share your top picks instantly using the new Codes option. Just bring up whatever you wish to big up and then tap the “…” menu icon. The code will appear right there in the menu.
Hold your phone up to a friend and they can scan the code right off your screen. That precise song, album or artist will then pop up on their Spotify app.
How do I use Spotify Codes?
Since the Spotify Code is visual, you can send it as an image from your phone, allowing others to access it from anywhere.
The Spotify app for iOS and Android now features a camera icon next to the usual search magnifier. This allows you to bring up the phone’s camera, to scan a code which will then open directly in the app.
Spotify Codes can be saved to the phone’s gallery, meaning you can share via whatever app is most convenient for you. The Spotify app also allows you to open codes direct from your gallery, so if you’ve been sent one (via WhatsApp for example) you can jump straight into the Spotify content.
What’s the future for Spotify Codes?
You’re probably asking yourself, what’s the real advantage of all this when you can just share a link through the current menu? Well, Spotify wants to make song sharing more straightforward, in a nutshell.
Bands, promoters, venues and beyond will now be able to slap Spotify Codes onto their gig posters, street ads and so on, so songs can be accessed more easily.
Will this new feature actually get used? We’ll have to wait and see. Shazam already uses a similar process in video adverts on TV, so perhaps this is another new way of blurring the lines between media platforms for easier sharing. All we know is, you don’t see QR codes that often these days – and even rarer is the sight of someone scanning said codes with their phone.
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