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"Spotify has plans to make music discovery more personalized and more social.\nWe've always classified discovery as Spotify's Achilles' heel. Because Spotify's catalogue is so large, finding new music or rediscovering old favorites is difficult. \nFor a time, Spotify was happy to relegate discovery details to the service's desktop apps. And while Spotify will continue to leverage those apps in helping users find new music, discovery will now be an intrinsic part of the Spotify service on all platforms.\nThe new features \u2014 which will start rolling out in January \u2014 are the most significant product upgrades that have hit Spotify since the service launched in 2008.\nCheck out this video to get a look at what the company wants to do.\n\nThe Follow Tab\nThe core to Spotify's new experience is what it's dubbing the Follow tab. Think of the Follow tab as Apple's ill-fated Ping service, but done correctly.\nIn a view that looks similar to Pinterest, users can get real-time info on music their friends and influencers are listening to.\nMore than just showing the activity of your Facebook friends, the Follow tab is designed as its own network of sorts for Spotify users you want to follow. \nThe Follow tab will also be a way for influencers, celebrities and artists to share their tastes and song picks with an audience. Just as bands can share their favorite photos to Instagram, they can share their latest albums or their picks for what bands they dig on Spotify.\nThe Discover Tab\nThe second component to the next Spotify update is about music discovery. This tab will show users relevant artists and playlists based on what they have in their library, what the people they trust listen to, as well as listening history.\nThe Discover tab pumps in info from Songkick, Tunigo and Pitchfork to deliver information such as reviews, nearby concerts and related or similar acts.\nOther New Features\nSpotify is also rolling out some other improvements. One of the biggest is \"Collection,\" which is just what it sounds like. Rather than having to create a playlist for every album you want to save, you can just add it to a collection instead.\nRival services such as Rdio and Rhapsody have used the collection motif successfully for years so it's great to see Spotify catching up.\nSpotify will also introduce audio previews \u2014 a way to briefly hear a new song before deciding if you want to move away from the song you're playing now.\nAnother big move for artists is that Spotify will now offer mobile push notifications for new album releases for artists' users follow. For us, this has huge potential for artists and labels who want to use Spotify as a promotional strategy to work alongside traditional retail and digital releases.\nThe Future is Now\nThe Follow features will first appear on the desktop version of Spotify in the coming weeks. In the new year, the mobile apps and the new web app will get the features as well.\nWhen we spoke with the Spotify team, it was clear that everyone involved was excited about what the advent of true social discovery could mean for the service. With more than one million paying users in the United States and the support of artists such as Metallica, it's crucial that Spotify move quickly into personalization and discovery.\nWhat do you think of Spotify's new features? Let us know in the comments.\n\n\nSpotify Discover\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpotify Discover Tab\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpotify Discover\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUser Profile\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCollection View\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nArtist Notifications\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nArtist Discography\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nArtist Profile\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/12/06/spotify-social-discovery/>