1. Better for ears algorithm design
a good recommendation system, if purely growth hacked for monetization KPI’s (increased retention measured by time usage, repeated songs for loyalty and retention, etc.) lacks true user loyalty that you are missing.
example: if have 3300 songs saved in my liked and i play it on shuffle, i would prefer to hear songs of similar BPM, good Key transitioning, maybe the drums are synced or a chord pattern in the melody is similar to another song. That makes it easier for user's ears when they are NOT in direct command of queuing music (they are doing something else whilst music is playing).
assuming your organization has engineered your recommendation engines with neuro-marketing data, the positive feedback of your metric testing every quarterly is biased.
retention rates would go up significantly if song transitioning (not mixing a transition, just choosing the next song) was more user friendly.
2. radio selections
the radio section is a cool spot to showcase similar songs and potentially newer songs to users. However, same problem as above, the current method compiles songs into the list that can ruin the atmosphere, mood, and overall UX. Also, the AI should understand that if i go to the radio of a song, then click radio for another song, that i don’t want a list that’s more than 15% the same.
3. Too direct user interference on UI
if you are looking to optimize any user action/sequence of actions, then having it directly in my face is not so incentivizing. Example, i know that your organization should have me psychographed as an open individual who listens to ranges of genres. So i receive the playlists for seeing it, but i’m not sure if it’s the layout, the playlist photo or something artistically related, but it’s too directly interfering. If you are looking for a nudge, in your raw data, retrace the steps the user took when trying to find new songs. Great example, “artists like” at the bottom of the artist page is genius. You need to nudge users into those flows. Relook at the interface and redesign the user story for small specific scenarios.
other than this, huge spotify fan and hope that my insight can help y’all
