Recommendations / Automatic playlists

[AlexZ53]

I am trying out Spotify. I am a little underwhelmed as what I had heard is that it was very good at letting you discover new music based on your tastes.

I thought it would be easy to simply follow my favourite artists, save my favourite albums/songs and then it would be able to make suggestions. 

If this is the case, I clearly am not finding the right feature. 

Any suggestions?

[dollface99]

If you listen to a playlist or album that you like, and you reach the end of it, Spotify will automatically start filling your queu with new songs that they feel are similar to what you were listening to before. If you scroll down to the end of a playlist, there will also be songs that they think would fit in on your playlist. That's why I recommend not just making a playlist with all your favorite stuff, but also perhaps per genre or mood.

Have you listened to the Daily Mixes that Spotify creates for you? They're playlists with songs that you have saved and songs that they think you will like based on your saved songs, you can find them at the top of your home page. You can help them further narrow down what songs to recommend by clicking on either the dislike or the like button next to recommended songs, that's pretty important for figuring out what you want to hear. Easiest way to do this is by liking/disliking songs in your Daily Mixes. Good luck!!

J

[AlexZ53]

Where are the daily mixes? All I see are ThrowbackThursday mixes which look nice but are definitely not created from the music I have added. It's all pop.

[dollface99 · Accepted solution]

Try going to your Library, the first thing at the top of the screen should say "Your Daily Mix". You should even be able to choose from multiple daily mixes once you click on that; let me know if you find it!

J

@AlexZ53 I included some screenshots; if you aren't finding it for some reason, I can show you how to find daily mixes on the desktop. These are from my phone:

[AlexZ53]

Thanks. I don't have Daily Mixes on my menu. 

Upon further reading, I found out that it takes 2 weeks of listening to music on Spotify for that option to appear. i.e. once there is enough of a listening history to base recommendations on. 

It makes sense, although maybe it could base your first recommendations on the tracks you have added to your library and it would not have to wait two weeks, as I have spent 2 days addings loads of artists, albums and songs I like. 

That said, thanks for your replies 🙂

[joelmw]

If you want more new and less of what you already know, look for Discover Weekly (I find mine as the first list under Browse in the iPad app and at the top of Home in the web client).

I've also been very pleased (especially, for instance, compared to Pandora) with Spotify's radio stations based on a song or artist. When I first got started, I followed my most favorite songs to genres of music I didn't even know existed; and now I spend most of my day listening to Goa Trance.

And @dollface99's suggestions are spot-on. 😄 I especially like the way that a playlist automatically turns into radio station when it comes to an end (assuming you don't have it on repeat) and how that leads to some great discoveries.