--- title: Spotify Map Shows When Users Stream the Same Song at the Same Time description: Spotify unveiled a map that shows when people stream the same song at the same time canonical: https://time.com/3153878/spotify-streaming-music-map-digital/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-21T14:28:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:12:37.859Z og:title: This Map Shows When Two People Play the Same Song at the Same Time og:description: Created by Spotify's first media artist in residence og:url: https://time.com/3153878/spotify-streaming-music-map-digital/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad68249a5efa8ccd/6986a05655a8590058a823e0/screen-shot-2014-08-21-at-9-44-06-am.png?branch=production&width=800&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 800 og:image:height: 450 og:image:alt: Screen shot 2014-08-21 at 9.44.06 AM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Map Shows When Two People Play the Same Song at the Same Time twitter:description: Created by Spotify's first media artist in residence twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad68249a5efa8ccd/6986a05655a8590058a823e0/screen-shot-2014-08-21-at-9-44-06-am.png?branch=production&width=800&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Map Shows When 2 People Play the Same Song at the Same Time > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=e9d33b53-4e2b-4491-a2a8-3a07e442f141&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Aug 21, 2014 2:28 PM UTC  Spotify Serendipity by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Aug 21, 2014 2:28 PM UTC The music-streaming service Spotify [unveiled](http://news.spotify.com/us/) an online map called “Serendipity” on Thursday that shows when people in different cities are listening to the same song at the exact same time — or at least within a tenth of a second of each other — regardless of the city, timezone or hemisphere. The project, based on real-time data, was created by interactive artist [Kyle McDonald](https://twitter.com/kcimc), the company’s first media artist in residence. “There are so many ways we’re connected to each other, but sometimes we forget, or we just can’t see it,” McDonald said on Spotify’s [blog](http://news.spotify.com/us/). “In person, it’s easy to see the features we share, or when we share stories in online discussions. But we’re also connected in more ephemeral ways, and we can extract these relationships with new tools. Even though listening to music can be a very private experience, I wanted to see how often this experience is shared.” Check out Serendipity [here](https://www.spotify.com/us/arts/serendipity/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3153878/spotify-streaming-music-map-digital/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3153878/spotify-streaming-music-map-digital/"},"headline":"This Map Shows When 2 People Play the Same Song at the Same Time","datePublished":"2014-08-21T14:28:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:37.859Z","description":"Created by the company's first media artist in residence","url":"https://time.com/3153878/spotify-streaming-music-map-digital/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Tech","Music","Spotify","App","entertainment","Map"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad68249a5efa8ccd/6986a05655a8590058a823e0/screen-shot-2014-08-21-at-9-44-06-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad68249a5efa8ccd/6986a05655a8590058a823e0/screen-shot-2014-08-21-at-9-44-06-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen shot 2014-08-21 at 9.44.06 AM","caption":"","creditText":"Spotify Serendipity","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3153878/spotify-streaming-music-map-digital/","name":"This Map Shows When 2 People Play the Same Song at the Same Time"}}]}] ```