Amazon Music tests ‘Fan Groups’ to bring community back to music discovery
The streaming platform is testing a new feature that turns listening into a shared experience, potentially reshaping how fans connect.
Amazon Music leans into social listening
Amazon Music is bringing back the social side of discovering new music. The platform is currently rolling out a new feature called Fan Groups, a community-driven space where listeners can share, chat, and connect over their favorite music. For now, the feature is only coming to Amazon Music users in Canada as part of an initial beta test.
In Amazon’s words, Fans Groups are “dedicated communities where listeners can discover, share, chat, and listen to music they love alongside other passionate fans”.
How do Fan Groups work?
Anyone on Amazon Music can create a Fan Group, whether it’s centred around a genre, region, decade, or any niche you can think of. That includes artists who may want to make their own Group to directly interact with their fans. The beta will launch with a few ready-made groups to give users a taste, with Amazon’s ideas including anything “from indie rock to country, Punjabi to K-pop, Francophone music to high-energy workout playlists”.
Within each group, users can start conversations, post comments, or share songs, albums, and playlists directly from Amazon Music. Every shared track contributes to a featured playlist pinned to the top of the group, and there’s also a dedicated music-only tab that collects all the music that’s been shared over time for easy playback. Essentially, it easily turns that initial discovery into instant listening, without even leaving the conversation or jumping between apps.
How to access Fan Groups
For those who can access it, Fan Groups can be found on the Amazon Music app’s bottom navigation bar. Clicking it will let users browse their joined groups or explore new ones to join.
What it means for the music industry
After years of streaming platforms focusing on algorithms and playlists, social features seem to be making a bit of a comeback. Spotify recently revived its in-app messaging feature that it had previously ditched in 2017 and now Amazon Music is leaning into community-focused interaction too.
As Engadget points out, Fan Groups are a “refreshingly old-school” way to discover new music through real human recommendations rather than algorithms and AI-driven suggestions. And that’s pretty cool. Music is innately a social artform as people enjoy sharing the music they discover to friends, and Fan Groups champions that.
For artists, there’s potential too. More fan-led sharing means more chances for organic discovery, as music gets passed around within the engaged communities. Not to mention, artists can also start or join their own Fan Groups. That direct interaction could help strengthen that artist-to-fan relationship needed to build a loyal following of superfans. The seamless integration allows users to easily click play too, making it a new way to build genuine connection inside the streaming platform itself.
Final thoughts
Fan Groups are only available to Amazon Music in Canada for now. However, a wider rollout is already planned. Amazon says the feature will expand to the US and other global markets in early 2026. That likely gives them time to iron out any wrinkles before a wider rollout.
Whether this marks a broader shift toward community-driven discovery remains to be seen. But, Amazon Music clearly wants to make listening more social, human experience again.