Spotify is known for spearheading new and innovative ways to listen and interact with music, including the user-favorite Spotify Wrapped, which incorporated some unique listener analysis in the form of personality types. Spotify officially introduced the Playlist in a Bottle feature as a new addition to their user experience on Jan. 4 — but so far, it seems like the feature isn’t working for all Spotify users as hoped.
Some Spotify users were prompted to make a time capsule playlist that will be locked until January 2024. Users that didn’t receive a notification on the app are able to access the feature by going to spotify.com/playlistinabottle on their mobile device.
Once the feature is opened on the Spotify app, users can take a variety of steps to personalize their very own “musical time capsule.” The first choice users can make is what they would like their playlist to be in, selecting between an actual bottle, that tiny pocket in your jeans, a gumball machine, a lunch box, a teddy bear (which I picked!), or a lil’ acorn. Prompts then direct the users to pick songs that remind them of certain events, moods, or goals, such as “a song you need to hear live in 2023” or “a song that sounds like the year 3023.” I chose “Let It Happen” by Tame Impala and “Your Love (Déjà Vu)” by Glass Animals, respectively.
Despite the excitement of making the playlist, some users are having issues with accessing the feature itself. I personally experienced some technical difficulties with opening the site on my phone as it was very glitchy and did not easily allow me to select what I wanted my playlist to be in or the songs I wanted to put in the playlist. The solution was to update the Spotify app, something that I’d completely forgotten about since I don’t have auto-updates turned on, and from there the feature worked fine.
Some other solutions to getting an error message when trying to use the Playlist in a Bottle feature are to check the Spotify App Server Status to see if it’s a widespread issue or just your device, or to restart your device.
At the end of the process, users are able to share a picture of their playlist that states, “I just made a playlist that I can’t listen to for a year.” Spotify users love when their listening data is packaged into fun and informative ways, and Playlist in a Bottle seems like a great idea… though I guess we won’t know until next year!