Spotify Users Noticed an Option to "Eat This Playlist" and Are Pretty Confused

Although it's not the only place to stream music, Spotify has become a dominant player in music streaming because of its extensive catalogue and its understanding of what users want to listen to. There are a number of crucial features that Spotify has introduced over the years that have made the experience of using the app pretty seamless.

There are also a few features that Spotify has introduced with no clear reason. Perhaps the most unusual of these is an option buried under playlists that gives you the opportunity to "eat this playlist." If you're wondering what that means, you're not alone. Here's what we know.

If you open a playlist on Spotify and click the three dots at the top, and then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the menu that pops up, you should see an option to "eat this playlist." Given that you're likely looking at this on your phone or some other device, though, that doesn't seem to make any sense. How can you eat music, and how can your phone allow you to eat music? It's a grand mystery.

If you actually click into the feature, though, you'll discover that the setting is really just an Easter egg that allows users to play a game that's a lot like "Snake." In this game, users are tasked with eating the album covers of songs on the playlist, and as they do, the play button they're controlling puts the album covers behind them. As their snake gets longer, it becomes harder and harder to avoid crashing.

Basically, then, Spotify just made a version of "Snake" that uses album covers for a playlist as fodder. Why did they do this? The answer is still unclear, but it seems like it's a feature that is simply designed to give users something small to discover. Some Spotify users like the feature, but others feel like it's a waste of time when the platform should be focused on making the experience of listening to music more immersive in other ways.

While some users on Reddit seem to like the feature, or even wonder how they can find it, others were disappointed to discover that Spotify would spend any amount of time to design a game that gets buried in the playlist settings.

"This is actually stupid. I think they need to focus more on just getting more lyrics on these songs and I actually enjoyed the genius info they would give on each song if they took it down," one person wrote.

"They'll do anything but add Hi-Fi," another person added.

While the minigame is a feature that most Spotify users might not even know about, those who do seem to think it's a little strange that a music streaming app is designing derivative games. Ultimately, though, it's a feature that's there if you're ever monumentally bored.