Any of you dudes and dudettes seen this article? Pretty fascinating explanation for the layman about how Spotify’s weekly personalised playlist works.
I was always dubious that a robotic algorithm could read my musical taste, but I tried out the playlist recently and I was spookily surprised by a genuinely engaging and eclectic mix.
I got the Chambers Brothers, Richie Havens, Marc Ribot and other similar slightly left field stuff… with some Lee Dorsey and Miles Davis keeping it feelgood. Started to feel like I was stuck in a very nice Coen Brothers or Wes Anderson movie.
But I can’t help feeling there’s something cold and depressing about a machine like this. You feel a bit insular, stuck in a self-contained musical world. The very opposite of music as a human, social activity.
http://qz.com/571007/the-magic-that-makes-spotifys-discover-weekly-playlists-so-damn-good/
Fascinating stuff. I’ve been, er, jamming on my Discover playlist since August (used to be grooving in my day) and like everybody else been a bit spooked by how well it seems to know me. I listen to a lot of classical music on Spotify, and it’s even clever enough not to add any of that.
I save each week’s playlist in a master playlist which is now up to about 700 songs. There are a few duds – never bothered to weed them out, just skip them when they start. I’ve downloaded it to my iPod Touch so I can listen when I go walkies.
I see what you mean about music as a human, social activity, but listening to recorded music is essentially a solitary activity anyway, isn’t it?
Thanks Artie- that was interesting. In some ways like having favourite Deejays say like Peel who hs taste s you like nd will also take you down new paths.So I’m ok with it and it is better than genius coz you get new stuff to your ears.
I dont do playlists so that is one metric they dont have , plus I often play stuff I dont like… let me explain. Aussie MOR artist Delta Goodrem was on telly and I thought she is big (down here) and I know nothing of her stuff so I gave it a whirl ,similarly artists / albums that I have bypassed but others keep yabbering on about Nick Drake for example so I will explore his catalogue but nope still leaves me cold. The main forensic they have is whether I listen to Discover and skip tracks or click on the artist ,today it was Jackson C frank. So far I reckon they are getting me about 40-50% which is good considering the things I don’t do on spotify.
To my mind, I’ve always used Spotify as a way to experiment with music I don’t otherwise own. So I thought there was no way any generated playlist could hope to match my actual taste. But it seems to work.
So i am not a beautiful and unique snowflake. Sniff.
I’m the same, in fact the more I like an album, the less likely it is that I’ll listen on Spotify because I’ll buy it. If I’m not so sure, I’ll play it again on Spotify. Of course when you have Spotify linked to a housewide Sonos system, it’s not necessarily me that’s listening which skews the statistics further.
Thanks for the article and drawing my attention to this. Their list is not bad at all and worth dipping into. It tends to go for more modern stuff, but I was pleased that they included the Yamasuki Singers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XicMot1U_6Q
Pandora used to come up with good plays long before Spotify took global control, became self-aware and sent robots back in time to assassinate musicians who wouldn’t allow their stuff to be streamed. A real pity that Spotify also decided to retrospectinate the Pandora developers as well. Good job I have my own time machine.
We are kind of sliding into a corporate machine dystopia, aren’t we?
Ah well, mustn’t grumble.
Oh, hang on, Homes Under The Hammer is on. Must dash.
Thanks for posting. Despite my lack of playlists it’s pretty accurate for me, and I can now see the benefit of saving them.
Anyone use IFTTT at all? It’s the second time I’ve seen it referenced – appeals to the geek in me.
I share a Spotify account with a friend who has utterly terrible taste in music so this wouldn’t work for me at all.
I say friend. They’re more of an acquaintance with taste that bad.