Expand Content Knowledge Through Social Discovery

A friend recommends a new band, a coworker shares an interesting news article, a neighbor explains a helpful app, now imagine having that same “word of mouth” feedback from millions of people anytime you want. The rise of social discovery services is creating that opportunity and instantly connecting users of similar tastes to customized content – music, videos, news, apps and more.

Launched less than six years ago, Spotify, a music discovery service, now has 24 million listeners, including 6 million paid subscribers in 23 countries. Services like Spotify have created global musical communities where music lovers not only discover new artists and listen to the music they like, but also connect with other listeners, share music and even tune into celebrity playlists from Michelle Obama to Jimmy Fallon.

Even popular social media sites are expanding their offerings into discovery by tapping into their members’ interests. In the coming weeks, Twitter plans to launch its own music discovery universe with the Twitter Music app, which will suggest music based on what users are following on Twitter. The world’s largest source for streaming media, YouTube, is looking to introduce a commercial-free music streaming service this summer.

There are similar discovery services of newshounds. StumbleUpon recommends news, websites, images and videos based on users’ interests while prompting users to like or dislike StumbleUpon’s recommendations to further personalize the experience. Sites like Reddit let users from more than 175 different countries post, vote and comment on news stories, with the top stories bubbling to the top, allowing readers to quickly see the most popular content.

The growing availability of social discovery services allows users to feed their desire for customized content and share their opinions at the click of a button. Check out AppLuvr to discover new app recommendations.