Spotify made another move this week to stand out in the music streaming wars with a new tailored playlist feature.
The company announced Monday it is building users custom playlists through a feature called Discover Weekly. The service generates a new playlist once a week based on what you already listen to and the playlists of users similar to you.
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“It’s like having your best friend make you a personalised mixtape every single week,” the company said in a statement announcing Discover Weekly.
The more you listen, the more in-tune the playlists get to your taste (which is good news since my first 29-song playlist is pretty off-base). The previous week’s playlist disappears when the new one takes its place each Monday.
The feature comes on the heels of the debut of Apple Music, a streaming service from Apple that focuses heavily on customized playlists. Apple Music claims its playlists are curated by “real people,” like Nine Inch Nails’s Trent Reznor and not just algorithms.
I don’t know how accurate the algorithm Spotify uses is based on my initial playlist, but it’s a good way to discover new artists all the same. As the pool of streaming services like Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music and Rdio expands, it’s clear personalization is key.
