Playlist Sharing With Non-Facebook User

[leeofwestover]

In April 2012 I convinced my elderly mother to download and install spotfiy. Soon after that I made a few playlists that I knew she would like and was able to simply enter her spotify username and send them to her inbox, which she promptly received, opened, played and enjoyed. Since then I have made a few other playlists of obscure swing, bebop and standards that I wish to send to her. When I tried to enter her name to send the playlists to her spotify inbox I noticed things had changed. It appeared that I had was not able to enter spotify account name, it had to be a facebook account and I had to be friends with that facebook account. The problem is my mother has decided to take a stand against facebook and refuses to make herself an account, or even acknowlage the existence. When I tried to convince her to make an account she told me to stop saying the word "facebook", or else! I know, old folks, you gotta love em'.

Anyway so my question is in three parts.

1. When did facebook change it's internal playlist sharing mechanism?

2. Is there anyway to revert back to a previous version so things work like they did 6 months ago?

3. If not, is there any way to share a playlist with someone who has a spotify account but does not have a facebook account?

[Peter__ · Accepted solution]

Hey! Welcome to the community 🙂 

You should still be able to share with people who do not have Facebook don't worry.

Which client version are you using? (Help > About)

If you are on 0.8.8 or above:

You need to "Follow" your mother in order to send her a track. Since she is not Facebook connected, she should have a dedicated spotify username. Just search for her by typing:

spotify:user:herusername

in the main search box in the client which herusername replaced with her actual username (no spaces). 

That should load her profile, them simply click "Follow". You should then be able to right click on any playlist or track press "Share" > "Send to Friend" > Enter her username. 

If you are on 0.8.5 or other, it should be almost the same as above except instead of "Follow" you will have "Add to Favourites" or something similar.

Peter

[leeofwestover]

I am on 0.8.5, and everything you said seems to work perfectly. Thank you for the prompt and accurate response.

Lee

[MurZimminy]

@hammeh / Peter, I am using Spotify 8.8.334 for Windows and I have been able to find and follow my friend who just joined without a Facebook account.  However, when I try to share a track or playlist using the "Send to friend", the account does not appear in the suggestions that appear as I type.  If I click out of the name field, it goes blank, preventing the share.

Any suggestions?  I also tried the spotify:user:username but that didn't work either.

Thanks,

Murray

[Peter__]

Hey 🙂 

If you have been able to find their profile, then press the "Follow" button which appears on their profile. Once you have done that, you should be able to share tracks in the share dialogue by typing their username. 

Peter

[MurZimminy]

I am already following the account and the music they listened to appears in my activity feed.  Still not working in the share dialog.

Murray

[Peter__]

That is very strange. 

Have you tried logging out and back in again? 

Are you searching for the same name that appears in your sidebar for their activity? 

Peter

[MurZimminy]

Yes I tried both just restarting Spotify and logging out/in. The username I'm typing is correct. 

Could there be a cache issue on the Spotify servers?  The account was just created earlier today.  It might be a long shot since I was able to find and follow the account, but who knows. 

Want to try it?  I can PM you the username.

[Peter__]

Yeah go ahead, I'll have a play around with it tomorrow (getting late here) and see if anyone in the community team has any ideas for you. 😉

Peter

[stukan0000]

hi there--

i'm on the Mac desktop client 0.8.5.xxxx and i can't seem to follow your instructions.  i don't find an "add to favorites" where i can find a friend with a spotify ID to follow.  

Under the Spotify menu item, I only see the following items: private session; offline mode; preferences; services; hide spotify; hide others; quite spotify.

I do see in the top right corner of the screen the area where I assume my list of favorites (friends) would be but of course it says "no favorites" and when I click around on it, nothing seems to pop up that says "add to favorites."

Thanks for any help.

[meahtenoha · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Community stukan0000! Let's see if we can help. 

Do you know your friend's username? If so, just enter 'spotify:user:USERNAME' into the search bar.

For instance, if you were looking for the Spotify Community profile you'd put 'spotify:user:spotifycommunity' into the search bar. You should then see an option to add your friend. 

[stukan0000]

that worked! thx so much. i was confusing this instruction 'spotify:user:USERNAME'  with trying to find it in the menu items, not typing it directly into the search bar--silly me. 

[meahtenoha]

---

@stukan0000 wrote:

that worked! thx so much. i was confusing this instruction 'spotify:user:USERNAME'  with trying to find it in the menu items, not typing it directly into the search bar--silly me. 

---

Great--glad that's cleared everything up for you. Let me know if you have any trouble sharing with those friends now. 

[Kalmora]

I had to do these steps:

1. Search user

2. Follow user

3. Restart Spotify application (0.9.1.57.ge7405149; Windows 7 64Bit)

4. Then I was able to send to my friend

[SnaeBjark]

I had the same problem and you solved it perfectly!! Thank you!

[irishsweetie32]

this solution does not work for me as my fathers username shows "no resuls" alternately if I try to ogin as him and try to find myself I also show us as "non results" even if using my user ID number and not my name. what gives? it also acts ike my playlists are not public or searchable even though they should be...

[boxcarriot]

I've read and followed every instruction in this thread and still have no solution. I cannot share music with a non FB friend. Not sure what else to do.

[ejmarc]

I did as you suggested by following my Dad but I still cannot send it to him. When I type his username into the message box, it says "sorry, no results can be found". Why is this?

[bpc637]

I'm also stuck here.  I'm able to pull up the user and follow him, but even after restarting Spotify, the Send To function is not working.

[KazP]

Hello I have just tried this and it appear that I can't share with a non-facebook spotify user.

I am following both spotify:user:simondent and spotify:user:peterjcfs but neither show in my "send to" list when trying to share a track, album etc.