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With Spotifys recent launch of comments on podcasts, the streamer is taking yet another step toward building a social networking experience in an app primarily known for music. With comments, podcasters can now engage with their listeners directly within Spotify, as they can with other interactive features like Polls and Q&As. Combined with the apps 2023 revamp, which added a TikTok-like discovery feed, artist profiles where creators can hawk merchandise and concert tickets, as well as the ability to post to stories, Spotifys app is shaping up to be a social network centered around all things audio, not just a music-streaming app.

Following this weeks added support for comments on podcast episode pages a social networking feature if there ever was one the question now is whether Spotify will add something similar for music artists in the future. This could be an even more compelling addition to the app, as the fanbases around musicians tend to be larger and more active than those around most podcasts.

When speaking with Spotify VP of Podcast Product Maya Prohovnik about the launch of comments, we ventured a question about adding support for comments on artists pages, too.

Prohovnik didnt outright deny that such an idea was under consideration, instead initially declining to comment, before adding that: I can see a world where we extend [support for comments] to other formats on Spotify, but we always want to do whatever is right for the format, and those types of creators and artists.

Its worth noting that the idea to build a social network in a music app has been tried before by Spotifys top competitor, Apple.

In 2010, Steve Jobs introduced iTunes new social network Ping as Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes, calling it a social network all about music. Clearly, Jobs was onto something, but Ping never found success in the Apple founders lifetime. Shortly after Jobs death, Apple shut down Ping in 2012, a rare flop for the iPhone maker. Apple later tried again with a social feature for musicians, Connect, which also didnt last.

Even today, Apple continues to half-heartedly embrace social networking in its Apple Music streaming service, with an optional feature that will periodically check the contacts on your devices to recommend new friends to follow so you can see what theyre listening to.

However, unlike Apple, Spotify has never made a bold declaration that it was building a social network focused on audio.

Rather, the company has quietly and slowly rolled out a series of features that simply make the app more social for both creators and their fans. With last years redesign, for instance, Spotify added in-app video feeds across its Home pages, including its tabs for Music, Podcasts and now Audiobooks. Though those feeds designs have been tweaked since launch, the move served as a signal that Spotify was taking learnings from Gen Zs preferred social network, TikTok, when designing its own product.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek spoke to TikToks influence during the companys Q1 2024 earnings, telling investors that TikTok and others had improved the user experience and that the industry was learning about these trends and trying to improve our products.

We are not any different than anyone else in that were trying to learn from the marketplace, Ek said, hinting at the apps TikTok inspiration. We learn what consumers like. We try to improve upon it and make the best possible user experience.

Over the past year, the company also added new ways for artists to reach fans, through a Spotify Clips feature, that worked similarly to Stories on other social networks. Here, artists could add 30-second videos to their profile pages and album pages.

Artists can also get fans excited about new releases with Countdown Pages, and fans continue to hear from favorite artists through video messages via the companys annual Spotify Wrapped campaign. Meanwhile, Spotify users can continue to follow creators and friends on the platform to stay updated on the latest music and events and see what friends are streaming. They can collaborate on playlists with others in many ways, including in real time. The company has previously been spotted testing a Community feature that would allow users to see, in real time, what others were streaming.

With the addition of comments, Spotify envisions an app where users arent just launching audio and then returning their phone to their pocket, but one where theyre actively engaged, sharing their thoughts, feelings and opinions as they would on a traditional social network.

Combined, these features are beginning to add up to an app thats not just another music streamer, but one that aims to compete for users time and eventually, the ad dollars spent on larger social networks.

Read the rest here:
Spotify is no longer just a streaming app, its a social network - TechCrunch

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy made headlines last year after he issued an advisory about social media and youth mental health. In a New York Times op-ed published in June 2024, he declared that it is time to require a surgeon generals warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents. This is just the latest volley in the surgeon generals fight against the youth mental health crisis, which he has called the defining public health issue of our time. By proposing a surgeon generals warning label akin to those on tobacco products, Murthy is implying parallels between Big Tech and Big Tobacco. Both are multibillion-dollar industries where profits are prioritized over peoples well-being and where vulnerable and impressionable youth are seen as key targets for gaining market share and potentially lifelong customers.

I teach an undergrad course on technology use and adolescence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and I frequently give talks to the general public about social media and youth mental health. A big part of my job is thinking about how to distill a complex and constantly updating field of research into accurate yet accessible take-home messages, and I think the analogy between Big Tobacco and Big Tech is the wrong one to make.

Such an analogy is misleading about the effects of social media. Tobacco is clearly and definitively harmful. The research on social media is more ambiguous and complicated. While some youth are harmed by itlike those who are cyberbullied or using social media so excessively that it is disrupting their schoolwork or sleepothers benefit from or even thrive on it. The surgeon generals advisory even has a whole section on the potential benefits of social media use, like increased feelings of social connection and online social support, especially for youth with marginalized identities who may struggle to find in-person support. Simply warning that social media use is associated with harm flattens a complex reality without offering specific solutions.

The relationship between food and health is extremely complex, and we intuitively understand that such complexityexists.

My preferred analogy when discussing social media and mental health is not tobaccoits food. Big Food is also a multibillion-dollar industry that puts profits over health and hopes to turn youth into long-term customers through marketing and careful product design. But the relationship between food and health is extremely complex, and we intuitively understand that such complexity exists.

For starters, we do not argue about whether food is good or bad. We recognize that some foods are healthier than others, some are OK in moderation, and others should be avoided at all costs. Similarly, some social media behaviors are clearly beneficial (making meaningful connections with peers), some should be more carefully monitored (comparing yourself to others that you see online), and others should be banned outright (viewing or creating content advocating for self-harm or problematic eating behaviors).

Furthermore, we know that individual characteristics may determine what is healthy for someone to consume. People with a family history of heart disease may need to be extra careful about what they eat, and many parents try to wait as long as possible before introducing their children to juices and sodas. Similarly, people with a history of depression may need to be extra careful about what they consume online, and parents should wait to introduce social media until their kids are mature enough to handle using it responsibly. (There are also parents who think their children should never have sugary drinks, just as there are parents who think their children should never have social mediaand children will probably manage to sneak access to both.)

A surgeon generals warning that food is associated with significant health harms would be technically true but not practically helpful. Instead, public health measures around nutrition and youth are multipronged, including more detailed and nuanced education about healthy eating habits for children and parents, involving pediatricians, schools, and communities, restricting what types of food are available at school, and regulating how foods can be marketed to children.

Likewise, a blanket warning about social media would not be especially helpful on its own. It may discourage some users or push some parents to pay closer attention to their childrens digital media habits, but it does not make the platforms any safer to use. We also need efforts from families, schools, health care workers, and communities to address the youth mental health crisisand tech companies must do their part as well.

I worry that requiring a surgeon generals warning could even backfire by discouraging tech companies from cooperating with researchers and mental health experts. The World Health Organization, U.S. National Cancer Institute, and former U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin have all declared that there is no safe level of tobacco use, so getting Big Tobacco to make their products safer is a nonstarter. But some researchers argue that a modest amount of screen time is associated with the greatest adolescent well-being, and Big Tech can make their platforms safer. (For example, Meta currently redirects searches associated with self-harm or disordered eating to mental health resources instead of harmful content.)

Murthys Social Media and Youth Mental Health Advisory contains a detailed bullet-point section on what platforms should do to minimize risks and maximize benefits. But would tech companies still want to work with a surgeon generals office that is portraying them as dangerous to our youth?

I also worry that a surgeon generals warning could end up shielding the tech companies against liability for harms caused by their platforms. Imagine how such a warning would be implemented: Every time users log on, they would see a pop-up about social media being associated with mental health harms. They may read it, or they may just reflexively tap I accept the risks, and now the responsibility for any consequences has been shifted to the user. Just requiring a warning lets tech companies off too easily. They can and must do more to protect people on their platforms.

A surgeon generals warning for social media is not going to solve our youth mental health crisis. That said, in just proposing this warning, Murthy is using his bully pulpit to bring national awareness to the importance of understanding how social media affects youth mental health. I am curious to see whether Congress will approve the surgeon generals request and, if so, whether it will be the first piece of a larger effort to improve youth mental healthor if it will end up as just a Band-Aid that plasters over deeper issues.

Original post:
The Surgeon General Says Social Media Is Like Tobacco. Hes Completely Wrong. - Slate

Politics in Japan can be a staid affair. The race to become the governor of Tokyo, which reached its climax on July 7th, was anything but that. Fifty-six candidates, many of them eccentrics, traded barbs. Pets featured on election posters; so, in one case, did pornography. A candidate dressed as the Joker from Batman spouted nonsense on national television. Another took off her clothes.

In the end Koike Yuriko, the incumbent governor, bagged herself a third term with some 43% of votes. Yet it was the second-place finisherIshimaru Shinji, an outspoken but little-known former bankerwho stole the headlines. Up to now, Japanese voters have seemed curiously unmoved by the kinds of social-media-fuelled populism that have upturned politics in other countries. That no longer seems so true.

Most people expected that the race would be a head-to-head between Ms Koike, a former national legislator for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Saito Renho from the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), the main liberal opposition (who goes by just her given name). Both Ms Koike and Renho gained fame as television newsreaders before they entered politics. Yet relative obscurity was no obstacle for Mr Ishimaru. His brief political careerfour years as mayor of Akitakata, an unremarkable town in Hiroshimadid not produce any noteworthy achievements. His candidacy was not backed by any political party.

Read more from the original source:
Social-media populists have arrived in Japan - The Economist

Spotify is one of the worlds most popular music streaming services and it seems it wants to be more than that.

Spotify rolled out comments on podcasts

The Swedish music platform announced it was adding comments on podcasts as a way for creators to interact with listeners. The new feature expands on Q&A and polls, which the platform introduced in 2021. According to Spotify, over 9 million unique listeners on the platform have used either Q&A or polls this year, and the features have experienced 80% year-over-year growth.

The platform could also expand on comments, too. Maya Prohovnik, Spotifys vice president of podcast product, told Techcrunch she can see a world where we extend [support for comments] to other formats on Spotify, but we always want to do whatever is right for the format, and those types of creators and artists.

The comments feature for podcasts provide[s] a creator-controlled way for podcasters to interact with their fans on Spotify, a company spokesperson said in a statement shared with Quartz. While we are always exploring more ways for creators and artists to reach and engage with their fans, we dont have any specific plans to share at this time.

During Spotifys first quarter 2024 earnings call, chief executive Daniel Ek said the company is focused on winning discovery and were going to add as many ways that we can to improve the discovery of Spotify. He pointed to the platform adding music videos and music clips where artists can engage with fans.

Ek said TikTok and other social media platforms have obviously improved the user experience, and as an industry, all the companies are learning about these trends and best practices and trying to improve our products.

As Spotify seemingly tries to enter the social network game, competition is growing between other social media platforms vying for users. According to figures seen by the Financial Times, X said its number of global daily active users was 251 million in the second quarter of this year just 1.6% above what it was a year ago. Before Elon Musk acquired the social media platform for $44 billion in October 2022, the platform previously known as Twitter had experienced double-digit year-over-year growth, including 33.8% growth in the second quarter of 2022.

Meanwhile, Metas rival platform, Threads, reached 175 million monthly active users in its first year, according to chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. In April, Threads counted 28 million daily active users, beating out X, which had 22 million.

Original post:
Spotify is getting into the social network game - Quartz

Legislators, parents and the media are having a heated conversation right now about when kids should get phones and have access to social media. Some states like Tennessee, Utah, Ohio, Florida, Texas, and others have proposed social media legislation to restrict young users via parental restrictions. Many of these proposed laws over-reach and are dangerous to young people's safety, access to information, and freedoms of expression. Ohio's proposed law was put on hold by a federal judge who called the law a "breathtakingly blunt instrument for reducing social media's harm to children."

On the other hand, states like New York and Colorado have proposed legislation that would regulate the companies rather than the users. New York's law includes proposals to limit invasive algorithmic data collection and that lead to "suggested posts." Colorado wants apps to remind kids when they've been on a long time, or when they seem to be scrolling late at night. These kinds of interventions, especially the limitations on algorithmic tracking, could support a healthier social media experience for all of usnot just for kids.

To be clear, the states are proposing this regulation only for kids. I'm suggesting less algorithmic tracking across the board.

Making social media better for everyone is the best way to make it better for kids. Regulating social media companies doesn't need to rely on age verification tactics that violate privacy. Further, parental consent laws will not help those who are harassed or bulliedespecially the kids who hide their accounts and then can't tell their parents about a threat. Companies like Snapchat, X, Meta, TikTok, Discord, and their peers must be required to respond more quickly and effectively to reports of harassment, bullying, and impersonation.

What's Wrong with Parental Consent Laws?

I've talked to enough teen activists and entrepreneurs to worry about what we'd be missing with parental consent as a national norm. That kind of restriction is likely to make things worse for LGBTQ teenagers. Parental consent rules can put kids in danger by cutting off important channels they could use to research health information, report abuse, or reach out for help.

Prominent researchers from major universities concluded that proposed social media legislation (Kids Online Safety Act), which includes parental consent "poses enormous potential risks to privacy and free expression, and will limit youth access to social connections and important community resources - while doing little to improve the mental health of vulnerable teenagers."

Social Media Has Benefits and Not Just Risks (so We Don't Want To Just Ban Adolescents)

I've spent the last decade talking with kids, parents, and teachers about growing up in the digital age, and wrote Growing Up in Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World to help adults understand what kids are experiencing onlineand how we can help.

Social media certainly isn't a perfect place for kids (or adults.) However, as the surgeon general and the APA both acknowledge, social media has observed benefits as well as risks. In other words, tech use is not analogous to something like vaping, which is all risk, no benefit.

The kids I interviewed for my book had strategies for accessing the upsides and minimizing the risksunfollowing problematic peers and influencers, curating their feeds toward positive accounts, planning social media breaks, agreeing to boundaries with friends about keeping posts private (no screenshots), and many more. We can help them in their efforts to have a more positive experience by regulating social media companies.

Instead of heaping new restrictions onto usersteens or adultslet's demand that the companies afford users a chance to join online communities with less invasive surveillance and algorithmic behavioral manipulation. Let's compel them to let us see the data they have about us. And they must put more resources toward responsiveness to reports of fake or bullying accounts, sexual harassment, et cetera.

Why Does Algorithmic Privacy Matter?

When former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen testified before Congress, she emphasized the problematic nature of algorithms and how manipulative they can be to social media users and their behavior. If the U.S. had laws compelling tech companies to share more about how they control what social media users see in their "feed," this would help all of us to be more empowered in relation to apps like Snapchat, TikTok, X, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

We all win if we make social media better for all of us. Rather than simply putting a warning label on social apps, let's regulate the companies that are too slow to respond to bullying and harassment reports and use our data to manipulate us while reaping tremendous profits. As with bike helmets and seatbeltswhat is safer for kids is safer for all. Making social media less invasive, less manipulative, and more responsive to user complaints protects all users and makes it healthier for everyone.

Devorah Heitner is the author of Growing Up in Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World and Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive and Survive in Their Digital World. She is raising a teenager with her husband and works with schools, and communities worldwide helping parents and educators mentor kids coming of age in a digital world.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Read the original:
Everyone Wants To "Save the Children" From Social Media | Opinion - Newsweek