Spotify launches 'User Notes' to attach memories to songs

Spotify announced “User Notes” on Thursday, a new way to personalize playlists by letting users attach their own notes to individual songs. The feature lets people add short personal captions explaining why a track was added to a playlist or when they first discovered it — noting, for instance, that a song played during a first date, or that they discovered it while walking the streets of Paris on vacation.

The launch reflects Spotify’s broader effort to make playlists feel more personal by giving users a way to preserve the memories tied to the songs they listen to. It also helps the company differentiate itself from rivals like Apple Music and YouTube Music by offering a journaling-like feature that goes beyond music discovery and, Spotify says, isn’t available on other platforms.

“Over time, these notes paint a picture of the music listeners love and the moments that shaped it,” Spotify said in an email to TechCrunch. “User Notes transforms playlists from a collection of songs into a more personal space for music discovery — bringing together personalization and added context around the music that listeners love.”

The feature is available to users 16 and older on both free and premium plans in select markets. To use it, a user navigates to a playlist they’ve created, or one containing tracks they’ve added, taps the three-dot menu next to a song, and selects “Add note.” From there, they can type a note and save it. The note is then visible to anyone who can see the playlist, with the note-writer’s name linking back to their profile — meaning User Notes is a social, shared layer on top of a playlist rather than a private journal.

User Notes wasn’t the only feature Spotify announced on Thursday. The company also debuted a new Running Mode, which cues up songs based on different phases of a run and selects tracks according to a user’s preferences and pace. Running Mode is available to premium users in select countries.

Why it matters

The feature shows Spotify betting that emotional attachment to music, not just discovery, can be a durable point of differentiation as streaming rivals converge on similar catalogs and recommendation algorithms.