How Can I Follow Someone on Spotify?
Following takes one tap. Finding the right person among thousands of identical display names is the part that takes the work.
How can I follow someone on Spotify? Search their display name, tap the Profiles filter under the search bar, open the right profile and tap Follow. Display names are not unique, and many carry a random default, so a profile link they send you, or the creator name on one of their playlists, is the more reliable route.
The search bar mixes everything by default: songs, artists, albums, playlists, podcasts and people. The Profiles filter narrows it to listeners, which is the step most people miss.
Artists are simpler. Search the name, open the artist page and tap Follow; for a musician you like, that is the follow that does the most, and on the artist's side the same count is what Spotify followers add to.
Spotify's social layer is thin by design, and it explains why following a person does less than people expect.
Spotify is built to be a place where you find music, and the social features exist to support that rather than to create a network. There is no friend request, no mutual connection to approve, and no feed of what the people you follow are doing.
What a follow gives you is modest: their public playlists on their profile, and their listening in the Friend Activity panel on desktop if they share it.
That has grown a little. Since August 2025 Spotify has had Messages, for users 16 and over in the markets where it runs, so you can send someone a track directly rather than through another app. Since January 2026 listening activity has also reached mobile, inside Messages, for people who switch it on in their privacy settings. It is still opt-in and still limited to people you are already talking to.
Where following genuinely matters is on the other two objects. Following an artist puts their releases into Release Radar and triggers notifications about new music, which is the mechanism by which an artist reaches their existing audience. Following a playlist keeps it in your library and surfaces its additions.
Those two are the follows worth caring about, and they are the ones the search bar finds without any filtering.
Searching for a person by name
Type the name into Search. On mobile, run the search and then look for the row of filters under the bar; on desktop and the web player they appear above the results. Choose Profiles.
What comes back is every listener whose display name matches, with a small profile picture and nothing else. If the person uses a common name, or never changed the default, you will be guessing.
If a low monthly listeners count is what puts visitors off, Spotify monthly listeners are sold here per order from a public link, with no login asked.
If you know their username rather than their display name, it is more precise. The username is the fixed ID in their profile link, often a string of letters and numbers, and it can be found on the Account overview page at spotify.com. Opening open.spotify.com/user/ followed by that username goes straight to the profile.
A profile can also be invisible to search entirely, for instance when the person has made it private. In that case only a link or a shared playlist will get you there.
Following a person you have a link for
A Spotify profile link opens directly to the profile, where the Follow button sits under the name.
To send your own: open your profile, use the three-dot menu, and choose Share, then Copy link to profile.
The link contains a user ID rather than a readable name, which is why it is the one route that never lands on the wrong person.
On desktop you can also paste a profile link into the search bar and Spotify will resolve it.
Reaching a profile through a playlist
Open any public playlist they created. The creator's name appears under the title.
Tapping it opens their profile, where you can follow.
This is the most reliable route in practice, because people share playlists far more often than profiles.
It also works in reverse: following somebody whose playlists you like is the most useful version of the feature, since the playlists are the thing you actually wanted.
Finding friends through Facebook
Accounts that sign in with Facebook can see Facebook friends who use Spotify and have connected theirs too.
This is the only automated friend-finding Spotify has offered, and it only reaches people who have made the same connection.
It is also the one most people decline, which is why it rarely finds anybody.
There is no equivalent for contacts, phone numbers or email addresses.
Following artists, which is the one that matters
Search the artist by name and tap Follow on their page.
Following puts their new releases into your Release Radar, triggers a notification on release day if notifications are on, and makes their music more likely to appear in your recommendations.
For the artist, the follower count is the audience they can reach directly, and it is one of the figures playlist curators and labels look at. Spotify followers raise that public count on an artist profile; they do not add streams or listeners.
It is also the only number on Spotify that behaves like a subscriber count anywhere else. Monthly listeners move with placement and promotion, while followers accumulate and stay, which is the difference the monthly listeners figure makes clear.
What your own profile shows
Your public playlists, your follower and following counts, and optionally your top artists. Seeing your followers on Spotify covers what that list does and does not show.
Listening activity is private unless you share it: on desktop through Friend Activity, and on mobile through Messages, in each case only with the people the setting covers.
A private session, available in settings, stops anything appearing while it is on, and it switches itself off after a period of inactivity.
Individual playlists can be made private, and that is separate from the account. A public profile can hold private playlists, which is the configuration most people want and few set up. If someone you follow is a problem rather than a friend, blocking on Spotify works differently for artists and for users. Every Spotify guide and service on this site is on the Spotify page.
Questions people ask about following on Spotify
Can I search for a person on Spotify?
Yes. Search the display name, then choose the Profiles filter. Display names are not unique, so a profile link or one of their playlists is more reliable when the name is common.
How do I share my Spotify profile?
Open your profile, use the three-dot menu, and choose Share, then copy the link. It contains a user ID rather than a readable name, so it always lands on the right account.
What does following a person actually do?
Not much. Their public playlists appear on their profile and their listening may show in Friend Activity on desktop, or in Messages on mobile if they share it. There is no activity feed.
Does the person know I followed them?
Their follower count changes and they can see their followers list, so they can find out by looking.
Is following an artist different?
Yes, and it is the one that matters. It puts their releases into Release Radar and triggers release-day notifications.
Can I hide what I am listening to?
Yes. Use a private session from settings, which switches itself off after a period of inactivity, turn off listening activity in privacy settings, or keep playlists private individually.
Keep reading
- followers on a Spotify artist profile — Followers are the audience an artist can reach directly on release day, and followers on a Spotify artist profile add to that public count.
- what the follower list shows — The reporting on the artist side is narrower than people expect, and what the follower list shows covers it.
- followers against monthly listeners — The two numbers behave completely differently, and followers against monthly listeners explains which one is durable.