Spotify Discover Weekly just got a whole lot better

If you’re anything like me, you rely on algorithms to show you new music. While I could do the research on my own, it’s far easier for something else to do the work for me, and there are far too many artists to look up nowadays. In the case of Spotify’s Discover Weekly, I’ve found countless songs and artists I don’t think I would’ve stumbled upon before.

What you might not have realized is that Discover Weekly has seen little to no major updates since its release a decade ago, but they are coming now. While it might’ve been a case of don’t fix what’s not broken, it’s strange to see a service as popular as this one go so long without receiving any meaningful updates. With services like Apple Music and YouTube Music gaining ground, it makes sense for Spotify to start upgrading some of its marquee services.

The change comes in the form of tailoring your algorithm to fit a specific genre. For example, if you’ve been listening to nothing but pop music for the past several years, it’s very likely you’ve only been shown different pop artists. As time goes by, tastes change, but your algorithm doesn’t know that. Spotify’s new update lets you let the algorithm know you’re looking for something different.

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Steer your algorithm to where you want it to go

A complete genre switch from your Spotify Weekly playlist is difficult, but with this update, you can input a genre and the recommendations will become more tailored toward that. If you have the new Spotify update already installed, you can check it out for yourself and see how it works, provided you have a Premium subscription. You can select up to five genres, and it’ll generate a playlist of 30 songs each week. There’s so much music out there that I haven’t heard, so this is a feature that I, admittedly, didn’t think of myself, but I’m glad Spotify did and came out with it.

Algorithms have largely become the main driving force in a variety of apps, whether it’s music services like Spotify or video platforms like YouTube. It’s important for them to be good, because that’s what’s going to guide most of your viewing and listening. If the new update lets you discover at least one new artist from a genre you’re looking to break into, I’d consider that to be a big win. The playlist is generated every Monday.

Spotify says over 56 million new artists are found by listeners through Discover Weekly each week, so it’s clear something’s been working. Although these changes are only available to Spotify Premium members, Spotify says there are plans to roll out to more listeners over time. No timetable has been given for that change yet.

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