MEDIA*OR: Using Spotify's New Codes Creatively

Spotify recently launched its Spotify Codes feature, a new and innovative way for listeners to easily share a track, album, playlist, etc. via iOS and Android. Here we dig deeper and examine some creative ways in which these codes can be used creatively as a marketing tool.

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Guest post by Patrick Zajda of the Symphonic Blog

DON’T BE LATE TO THE PARTY!

As you may already know, the editors and contributors here at the Symphonic Blog keep up with all the latest greatest industry news.

Our excitement for the recently announced Spotify Codes is no different. You may have already read our blog article in May about the announcement of Spotify’s game-changing new feature for iOS and Android users.

If this is still news to you, here are a couple quick spark notes to get you up to speed:

New way to share any track, album, artist, or playlist available on Spotify
Easy as scanning the code from a friend’s phone or printed somewhere
Can load a screenshot taken of a code taken from Facebook or Instagram for example
Access Spotify Codes by tapping the “…” context menu within Spotify
Tapping the Code-enhanced artwork will allow you to save it to your device
Scan a Spotify Code by tapping the camera icon to the right of the Search Bar
Go ahead and scan the banner up top. It’s easy (I promise)

LET’S GET CREATIVE!

Now that you understand what Spotify Codes are and how they can be created/scanned, let’s continue and get creative!

One of my favorite aspects of creating and sharing Spotify Codes is in how the code generated automatically matches the color scheme of the cover art or profile picture that you want to share. This aspect alone is exciting because it shows the attention to detail that Spotify has shown in rolling out this new feature. It also gives the artist and indie labels an easier time to be creative when using the codes on social media or printed mediums.

Here are a few ways you can get creative with Spotify Codes:

Plant Seeds: The Spotify Code can be practically any size to be scanned, and doesn’t necessarily need to be directly below the profile picture or cover art generated for you. With a little cropping or photoshop work, you can plant a code that looks like a waveform anywhere on social media. Throw it on your profile picture. Use it in the banner. Heck, there’s no shame in adding your Spotify Code to the cover art on SoundCloud and creatively re-directing a little traffic back to your Spotify profile.

Game of Codes – Save multiple codes to your phone to easily access. Think of saving codes of your Artist page and latest album or single. You can even curate a playlist of music that vibes similar to your releases, and then sprinkle your own music throughout; then save the code to that playlist. By having these codes already saved, it’ll be easy to share with friends and fans when you’re networking or gigging.

Physical Mediums – Planning on promoting a new single or album? I’m sure you plan on making plenty of business cards, stickers, flyers, or even physical CDs. Why not include the Spotify Code on all of those materials while you’re at it? CDs are great to hand out at gigs, but less and less devices support CDs, and they’re easy to scratch. USBs are a great alternative, but can be costly, and again, can only be used on a computer and some car stereos. A Spotify Code on the other hand can instantly be pulled up on any Android or iOS device, whether you have a free or premium Spotify account. Any streaming from that point will net you royalties too. That’s passive income, my friend.

Email Signatures – Either you as an independent musician or indie label will be reaching out to plenty of industry contacts and blogs throughout your career. Most likely even replying back to fans and demo submission depending on what you use the email for. Why not cover every base and have the waveform portion of the Spotify Code within your signature? The more exposure, the better.

Instagram – By saving the Spotify Code to your phone, you’ll be able to upload the image to any of your social media pages. Instagram doesn’t allow linking within posts, so allowing people to take a screenshot of the code within Instagram and then loading it within Spotify, simplifies the sharing process.

Again, fellow readers, you are more than welcome to use the aforementioned list of ideas to your advantage. It’s been a little over a month since Spotify Codes were launched and we’ve been having a blast coming up with creative ways to use these codes for promotion-sake.

If you have any other ideas you’d like to add or want to show off creative ways you’ve incorporated Spotify Codes, let’s keep the conversation going in the comments below!