Spotify lets users share music with barcode-like functionality

Spotify has released a feature with Codes that allows users to easily share music with each other. The functionality is very similar to QR codes and barcodes, and is shown under songs, albums and playlists.

Codes appeared as a new feature in the Spotify app and seems to be rolling out worldwide. However, at the time of writing, the music sharing service has not yet been made available to everyone, but this will probably be done in phases. Spotify explains the new functionality on an online help page. Where desktop users are given a link to the music they want to share, users of the mobile app are shown a kind of barcode.

This barcode is in the form of a sound wave and can be scanned with a smartphone camera. This makes Spotify Codes very similar to how content is shared via QR codes, and it mainly comes in handy for people who are physically close to each other and want to share music via their smartphones. Incidentally, a photo can also be made of the barcode, so that the music can still be shared later.

Spotify Codes has been tested since last month, but had not yet been widely rolled out. The barcodes appear on individual songs as well as entire albums and playlists.