Amazon Music announced Monday the launch of Fan Groups, a new feature that lets users discover, share, stream and chat about music all within the app. It’s now live in beta in Canada (on both iOS and Android) and will roll out globally beginning in the U.S. next year.
The move turns the music and podcast streaming service into something that more closely resembles a messaging app or social media site. Amazon tells Media in Canada the goal is to “transform music streaming into an interactive journey.” It follows Spotify’s recent addition of a messaging feature that lets users share content like songs, podcasts and audiobooks with people they’ve previously interacted with.
Fan Groups are created and populated by users, who can start or join conversations by creating posts and contributing to ongoing chat threads. They can also post emoji reactions, share and save recommendations from other users and instantly stream suggested music within a conversation. All Fan Groups are publicly visible.
On launch, users can see Fan Groups in action with several active groups already live, spanning diverse musical interests including indie rock, country, Punjabi, K-pop and Francophone.
Canada was chosen to test Fan Groups because of its diverse population, Amazon tells Media in Canada, and fan feedback will help shape it as it rolls out to other markets.
“Canada’s multicultural music landscape provides the perfect setting to introduce new fandom innovations,” the company said. “Canada’s fan base includes strong, mainstream enthusiasm for global genres such as Punjabi music and K-pop, reflecting Canada’s large South Asian and East Asian communities. This creates a unique opportunity to explore fan behaviours across both Western and global genres in one market, as well as across English and French speakers.”
Amazon says it’s focused on beta-testing Fan Groups for now and declined to say if there were future plans to leverage the community for new advertising opportunities or promoted content.
Amazon Music has a free ad-supported tier, an ad-free tier for Prime members and an optional premium subscription tier. It’s also the default player on Amazon devices like Echo or Fire TV.
