Spotify’s latest test nudges users to react to playlists with a voice clip

tries a different method to engage people more with the platform while harnessing the power of social recommendations. It prompts some users in Vietnam to record a playlist reaction with their voice. This clip will be shared as a podcast episode.

Anyone who sees the prompt can create a voice response in one go or bit by bit with shorter clips by pausing the recording. You can edit your recordings and add background music. They can link to the playlist before posting their episode.

Spotify that it’s running the test, although it didn’t reveal how it will moderate the recordings or if it plans to roll out the feature more widely. In theory, this could get people started with audio creation for the first time, but whether people will actually want to hit the record button to react to a playlist remains to be seen.

Spotify has been testing off and on for years. In a recent lawsuit, it published podcast episodes that a user had recorded on that person’s profile. This seems like a smart way for the company to leverage friend connections on Spotify — a playlist recommendation from a buddy might be more effective than one suggested by the algorithm. However, recording a reaction podcast to offer a recommendation seems unnecessary.