The digital world is experiencing a revolutionary change as major social media platforms are shifting their focus from passive “likes” and “hearts” to a more active form of user engagement through digital collection and bookmarks.
Spotify and Twitter are leading the way in this movement, with both platforms exploring the potential of blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to incorporate digital collections into their services.
Spotify changes ‘like’ to ‘collect’
Spotify is one of the largest music streaming platforms in the world, with over 356 million monthly active users.
In an attempt to keep up with changing user behaviors, Spotify has been changing “like” to “collect” to encourage users to think of music tracks as digital goods that they can collect. Spotify believes that digital collection could become the main incentive mechanism for its users in the future.
Spotify is also exploring the potential of NFTs to boost artists’ earnings and head off potential competition from crypto start-ups. In March, the company revealed its plans to add blockchain technology and NFTs to its streaming service.
Two job ads have indicated that the company is actively recruiting people to work on early-stage projects related to “Web3,” a blockchain-powered network that could potentially challenge the dominance of Big Tech platforms on the internet.
NFTs use blockchain technology to certify ownership of digital assets, with the majority of NFTs traded last year being visual artworks, games, and collectibles.
Many in the crypto industry believe that music could be the next breakout application for NFTs, with artists and labels using them to sell digital albums or unlock perks at gigs.
Musicians such as Snoop Dogg and Steve Aoki have become prominent NFT collectors, while Kings of Leon and Grimes have sold NFTs of their music.
Twitter expands into finance with eToro partnership
Twitter has also seemingly been exploring ways to incorporate blockchain technology into its service. Recently, the company made bookmarks public, allowing users to see how many people have saved their tweets as part of their personal collection.
The social media platform believes that this new feature will encourage users to actively engage with the platform by collecting and sharing content with others.
Twitter has always been blockchain-friendly, especially now with Elon Musk running things. In a recent partnership with eToro, a social trading company, Twitter users can now trade stocks and cryptocurrencies directly on the platform.
The partnership will expand Twitter cashtags to cover more instruments and asset classes, indicating that the platform is moving towards a more comprehensive finance offering.
The rise of digital collection has shown that the era of passive “likes” and “hearts” is over. Social media platforms are moving towards a more active form of user engagement through digital collection, with Spotify and Twitter leading the way.
It is becoming more and more clear now that the next generation of social media platforms will be based on collecting digital goods as the main incentive mechanism. Platforms like Xiaohongshu have already started implementing this trend.
