Nearly every paying Spotify customer knows the value of hosting a ‘Jam’. It allows other users to join a large collaborative playlist and add songs to the queue or adjust the volume, accessible in-person and virtually. It’s long been a paywalled feature, meant to entice the non-paying users into subscribing. Not for much longer, it seems.
We’re jammin’
Android Authority spotted some strings of code inside the 9.1.82.19 version of the Spotify app for Android. These hint at the streamer expanding the feature to free users sometime down the line. It’s worth noting that the change would allow non-paying users to host their own Jam. Previously, they could only join a Premium member’s Jam.
The wording in the code once made it clear that Premium was necessary to “start your own Jam”. The streamer has now removed this. In its place, the code suggests that anyone will be able to host a Jam, though with a few concessions. Premium, it seems, will still be required to “take full control” and “skip as much as you want.”
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This means that Spotify will likely impose a few annoyances on non-paying Jam hosts, like being unable to skip tracks more than six times per hour, or songs playing in a random order. Hell, even adding songs to a queue wouldn’t work without a Premium sub. These limitations would also apply to anyone joining the session.
The feature, bare-bones as it is for free users, would still promote a sense of camaraderie amongst your mates and, hopefully, get you paying the monthly fee. Of course, the new code strings don’t guarantee that Spotify will implement these changes anytime soon, or even at all. It’s likely, sure, but it’s best to wait for something official.
