Spotify is currently experimenting with NFT on its platform. A few artists have been selected to promote their own NFT galleries, such as Steve Aoki and The Wombats.
NFT galleries on Spotify
While NFTs are coming to Meta, Spotify is currently testing a way for artists to display their non-fungible token collections. According to a company spokesperson, the music streaming platform just rolled out the feature to select users on Android in the U.S., and currently includes NFT previews for artists like Steve Aoki and The Wombats.
Eventually, Spotify may roll out this new feature on a large scale. The Swedish company said that users can view artists’ NFTs and even buy them on marketplaces like Opensea. In addition, the platform told Music Ally that “our teams are currently running a test where we are helping a small group of artists promote their existing third-party NFT offerings via their artist profiles.”
According to Music Ally, Spotify will not receive any commission on NFT sales made through the app and is only testing the integration. It is also unclear if the test has been made available to other artists or if it is limited to Steve Aoki and The Wombats for the time being.
However, it seems that Spotify does not yet support NFTs that are in GIF video format – Spotify only displays a static image of the NFT in the app, not the full video. It doesn’t include sound either, which is quite strange for a music streaming platform.
Spotify rides the NFT wave
More and more companies are trying to ride the NFT wave, but it looks like the movement may be running out of steam (at least for now). In addition, according to the Wall Street Journal NFT’s daily sales reportedly dropped 92% from 225,000 in September of last year to just 19,000 on May 3. The number of active NFT portfolios is also declining, from approximately 119,000 in November to 14,000 by the end of April.
However, there is no guarantee that this experimental phase will result in anything. Indeed, the Spotify spokesperson says, “We regularly run a number of tests in an effort to improve the experience for artists and fans. Some of these tests end up paving the way for a broader experience, and others are just learning experiences.
The data collected during this test should therefore help the Swedish firm to decide whether to deploy this feature for all artists. It should also shed light on whether Spotify should decide to launch something even more ambitious with NFTs in the future. This will not be the only way to collect data for the firm either. Indeed, some Spotify users are tweeting about a survey they received from the streaming service to get their take on NFTs:
so i got a pop up on Spotify asking for a survey but it’s actually about them implementing NFTs into their service wtf pic.twitter.com/O8iAf0ORXn
— whip shitties (@swiggity_swagg) May 13, 2022
