If you are a regular Spotify user, you may have noticed that they rolled out a new feature last week. Their home page reads, “Wish you could just press a button to get the perfect lineup of tracks?
Introducing Daily Mix. The music you love, minus the effort.” On Sept. 27, the well-loved music streaming service introduced a radio feature called “Your Daily Mixes.” This feature automatically generates one to six playlists based on your listening history. While this sounds very similar to the “Discover Weekly” feature, these playlists regenerate within a day, so you do not have to wait a week for new mixes.
The cool thing about these playlists is that they are split up by genre. So, if you are like me and have a music taste that ranges from metal to EDM to something that can only be described as an indie-folk vibe, you won’t have to worry about the weird feeling you get when the entire musical ambience changes with the genre.
The way this works is slightly simpler than it seems. The software analyzes what you’ve listened to recently, compared to what you have listened to in the past, and combines key tracks with similar tracks that you may have never listened to before. So unlike “Discover Weekly,” it incorporates the new with the familiar.
Unfortunately, this feature is currently only available on the mobile app. But to access it, simply click “Your Library,” then “Your Daily Mix,” select a playlist and tap it to enjoy. The feature also allows you to improve your mixes by “hearting” a song you like and removing songs or artists that you do not.
Overall, my personal view on this feature is that it is fantastic. It has a sort of Pandora feel to it, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. One advantage Spotify has here is that it allows you to see all the songs in the playlist, unlike Pandora. However, it is similar to Pandora in that it now offers a blend of artists you know and artists you may like.
While I personally love the “Discover Weekly” feature to discover new music, it is also really nice to have new music blended with artists I know that I love. This new feature completely bypasses “Discover Weekly” in that aspect.
If you are new to Spotify and do not have any playlists available to you, don’t worry. The app will make them available to you once it has gathered enough data on your listening tastes. So, keep listening, and the app will tailor a playlist to you soon enough.