Spotify is going to use algorithms to personalize even more playlists

Spotify is beginning to add algorithmic personalization to its playlists to tailor them to its user’s preferences.

This is being added to its playlists alongside the current curation by the Swedish audio streaming company’s music editors and existing algorithms.

This means that no two listeners will have exactly the same playlists. Specifically, playlists like ‘Happy Hits’ and ‘Songs to Sing in the Car’ are two that are getting the new personalization treatment, according to a photo that’s in the company’s press release. 

The company was testing this feature last year on the lists called ‘Beast Mode,’ ‘Chill Hits,’ ‘Dance Party’ and ‘Metal Ballads,’ according to Billboard, but there’s no confirmation if these playlists are still receiving the personalization treatment.

Spotify made this change since it found that both users and artists benefit from this personalized approach. During the testing phase, 30 percent more artists found their way into affected playlists, and listeners found 35 percent more songs with help from the new formula.

The company also noticed that after listeners discover a new song, they’re 80 percent more likely to check it out later for another listen. Along with this, the average time a user saves a song from a Spotify playlist is up to 66 percent.

These aren’t the first personalized playlists on the company’s platform. It builds a bunch of entirely personalized playlists for all of its listeners on a daily and weekly basis. The company completely refreshes ‘Discover Weekly’ and ‘Release Radar’ every week while the six ‘Daily Mixes’ — which Spotify fills with related music from your library and songs — are done every day. All of these are in the ‘Made For You’ section of the service.

Overall, Spotify is looking to find more ways for its users to listen to more music. Business Insider reported last year that around one-third of Spotify listeners get their tunes from the company’s curated playlists. That number was growing then, so adding a dash of personalization should help more users find songs that appeal to them.

On an artist-specific note, Spotify emails musicians when it adds their music to one of these new playlists with a link they can share to their audience that places their songs at the top of the playlist.

Spotify is distancing themselves further from Apple Music

This move makes a lot of sense for the company, and it will be interesting to see if its biggest competition, Apple Music, follows suit. Apple CEO Tim Cook notably told Fast Company in 2018, “We worry about the humanity being drained out of music, about it becoming a bits-and-bytes kind of world instead of the art and craft.” On a similar tone, Apple even uses iconic artists who’ve worked in the music industry to create some of its playlist covers, according to a report from The Verge.

That said, Apple did concede a bit as it’s been building out its personalized playlists and music recommendation algorithms as well over the years, albeit in a slightly different way.

While Apple and Spotify are competing to provide their users with more music they’ll enjoy, the two companies are also in a battle over Apple’s alleged anti-competitive practices in the App Store. 

Source: Spotify, Billboard, Business Insider, Fast Company