After introducing its Blend playlists last year, Spotify announced Friday that it’s expanding the feature to include K-pop artists — and yes, that includes the mega-popular boyband BTS.
Spotify is ‘blending’ your playlists with K-pop stars
In case you wanted to know what music BTS listens to
In case you wanted to know what music BTS listens to
Image: Spotify
is a senior reporter and author of the Optimizer newsletter. She has more than 13 years of experience reporting on wearables, health tech, and more. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine.
Spotify’s Blend playlists are an easy way for users to create shared playlists based on each user’s listening preferences. In March, the company released updates for the music discovery feature that include the ability to “blend” with up to 10 people or with musical artists. This new K-pop expansion is an example of the latter.
The K-pop Blend artists include BTS, Stray Kids, ENHYPEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Nmixx, and AB6IX. The feature will mix your favorite tracks with those of the aforementioned bands. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Spotify feature if it didn’t include some data, either. After blending playlists, you can receive a “share card” that displays “taste-match” scores identifying which songs you have in common. The cards can then be shared on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, or Twitter.
Part of the reason K-pop has become a global phenomenon in recent years is the fact that the bands are incredibly active online. Idols are encouraged to interact with fans on various social media platforms, which, in turn, encourages parasocial relationships with fans. Spotify’s Blend feature slots nicely into that dynamic, as it creates the sense that you know something about a particular group or idol.
Whether the playlists Spotify generates are on point is another matter entirely. My BTS Blend playlist seems to suggest BTS and I would like to listen to a lot of Post Malone... and I’m good.
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