How To Create Your Own Spotify Playlist

Spotify is a great way to listen to music or other audio content via streaming. The amount of customization you can employ to personalize your playlist is impressive. Combined with a large number of music choices available for your listening pleasure, it is truly like creating your own personal soundtrack.

How to Share your Listening Activity on Spotify

Knowing how to share listening activity on Spotify allows you to let others know about the artists and music that you like to listen to. For a lot of artists and content creators, this is free promotion. For friends, it's a way to get to know each other's listening habits. In this article, we'll show you how to share listening activity from Spotify, or turn it off if you want to.

Sharing the music that you listen to on Spotify is a simple process. If you're using the desktop version of the app, whether it be on Windows PC or a Mac, here's how to do it:

Making Your Listening Activity Public

Open Spotify and head to the Home Page.
Click on the down arrow to the right of your profile pic. This will be on the upper right side of the app.
From the dropdown list, click on Settings.
Under the Social Tab, make sure that 'Share my listening activity on Spotify' is toggled on.
Your choices are saved automatically. You can now navigate away from this window.

Making Your Playlist Public

Proceed to the Settings page by following the instructions given previously.
Under the Social Tab make sure that 'Make my new playlists public' is toggled on.

Sharing Playlists Through Social Media

Open Spotify and proceed to the Home page.
Under Playlists on the left menu, click on the playlist name of the one you wish to share.
Click on the three dots icon to the right of the Play button.
On the dropdown menu, hover over Share.
Choose which Social Media app you wish to share the playlist on.
Alternatively, you can copy the playlist URL link, then paste that on any message or discussion board. This will direct others to your playlist.

How to Share Spotify Listening Activity on Android

If you're using an Android device with Spotify, then the process to edit your privacy settings is also straightforward. To do so, follow these steps:

Open the Spotify Mobile app, then proceed to the Home page.
Tap on the cog icon on the upper right corner of the screen.
Scroll down the menu until you get to the Social tab.
Make sure that the Listening activity toggle is on.
Changes are saved automatically, so you can navigate away from this screen.

Unlike the desktop version of the app, Public Playlists can't be automatically shared using a mobile. You can instead share the artists that you've been listening to by doing the following:

Open the Settings menu as shown previously.
Scroll down to the Social tab.
Make sure that the Recent played artists toggle is on.
Navigate away from this window.

Sharing individual playlists through social media is still available on mobile. Simply follow these steps:

Open Spotify mobile and proceed to the Home page.
Tap on Your Library on the left menu.
Tap on Playlists in the tab selection.
Tap on the name of the playlist you wish to share.
Tap on the three dots icon on the upper right corner of the screen.
From the popup menu, tap on Share.
You can choose to share the playlist on Facebook or SMS.
Alternatively, you can copy the link and paste that into a message or discussion board.

There is no big difference between the mobile versions of the app, no matter what platform you use. If you have Spotify for iOS, then the steps to share your playlists and listening activity are the same as if you were using an Android. Follow the steps as indicated on Android devices above if you wish to let other people know what you've been listening to.

How to Share Spotify Listening Activity on Chromebook

If you wish to use Chromebook to run Spotify, then there are two ways to do so. The first is the Web App, which has very limited controls. There is no way to edit the listening activity or playlist settings on the web app. The other way would be using the Google Play store, which is essentially the Android app. If you're using the mobile version, then refer to the Android instructions given above to edit your listening activity settings.

How to Turn Off Spotify Listening Activity

Listening Activity settings are set to private by default. If you've turned it on and wish to turn it off again, then it's a simple matter of toggling the 'Share my listening activity on Spotify' off. Refer to the instructions as given above, whether you're using desktop or mobile, to get to the settings menu. From there. Make sure that the listening activity toggles are off. Once edited, just navigate away from the menu as changes are automatically saved.

How to Make a Spotify Playlist Private

Unlike listening activity, any new playlists created on Spotify are automatically made public by default. To turn this off, proceed to the setting menu on the desktop, then turn off the toggle for 'Make my new playlists public'. If you're using mobile though, this setting isn't available, even if you can still create playlists.

Make sure that you use a desktop to turn this setting off before you make mobile playlists, otherwise, any new playlists you create will remain public.

How to Create a Private Listening Session on Spotify

If you wish to start a private listening session while using Spotify, you can quickly access the feature by doing one of the following:

On Desktop

Open Spotify and proceed to the Home page.
Click on the down arrow to the right of your profile pic.
From the dropdown menu, click on Private Session.
You will know you're in a private session when you see a padlock key on your profile picture.
Proceed to play your music. Your activity is now private.

On Mobile

Open the Spotify mobile app and proceed to the home screen.
Tap on the cog icon on the upper right corner of the screen.
Scroll down until you get to the social tab.
Toggle Private Session on.
Navigate away from this screen. Your choice is automatically saved.

Additional FAQs

How Do I Share a Spotify Link?

As indicated on the instructions above for either desktop or mobile, when you choose to share your playlist through social media, you get the option to copy a link. When you select copy link, you save this to your device's clipboard. Pasting this link on any message or social media post will direct people to the playlist.

Alternatively, if you're on desktop, you do have the option to just connect to other social media apps and share a link through that method.

How Can I See My Spotify Listening Activity?

If you're using the desktop app, clicking on the Recently Played link on the left menu on the home page will show you the songs you've just listened to. This is what others see when they click on your listening activity. The same will be shown on the recently played section of your home page if you're using Spotify mobile.

What Is Spotify Social Listening?

Spotify Social Listening is a feature that allows multiple users to add songs to a shared playlist. This adds an element of community when listening to music. The feature, however, has yet to be fully rolled out to all users. A beta version was reportedly released for premium users to test, though any other news regarding a full launch has yet to be made.

Can You Hide Your Activity on Spotify?

Yes. You can either choose to start a private session or keep both your listening activity and playlists private. Steps to do so have already been outlined above for both desktop and mobile. Additionally, if you're a premium user, you have the option to download your playlists onto a local device then listen to them offline.

Can Your Spotify Followers See What You're Listening To?

If you haven't modified any of the privacy settings on Spotify, then by default your playlists are automatically public. Any followers you have will be able to see these. If you've turned your listening activity public, then they will also be able to see any of the songs that you've recently listened to.

How Can You Stop Spotify From Sharing?

By default, only your new playlists are set to public. If you don't share anything, Spotify won't do so automatically. If you don't want others knowing what you're listening to, the simplest way is to just turn sharing off, or listen to music offline by using the premium download option.

Sharing Music

Spotify remains one of the most popular ways to listen to music on the go. Knowing how to share listening activity from Spotify is a great way to let others know the music that you're into. Sharing music between your friends and followers will help you discover other artists you may enjoy.

Do you know of other ways on how to share listening activity from Spotify? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.