While Apple Music highlights the human curation of Beats 1, Getting Started With Apple Music - What You Need To Know, Spotify is evolving rapidly. Everything you need to know about the new Spotify details its shift toward an entertainment hub with features like video streaming. In the past six months, Spotify has launched four innovative auto-playlist tools to help you discover incredible new music. As a longtime Spotify power user, I've tested them all—here's my guide.
Every Monday, Spotify delivers your personalized Discover Weekly playlist of about 30 tracks tailored to your tastes. It draws from your taste profile, built from listening habits like skips, repeats, and new artists explored.
By matching your profile against millions of others, Spotify uncovers tracks you haven't heard recently—or at all—from emerging artists or deep cuts by favorites.
I've relied on Spotify for years—recall Why Taylor Swift is wrong about Spotify. Discover Weekly has been a game-changer: I've uncovered new artists, revisited dismissed ones, and rediscovered forgotten gems. Listen to one of mine below.
Your playlist auto-appears in your library after sufficient listening history, refreshing weekly—no extra steps needed.
Music is increasingly global, with U.S. and Irish charts often aligning. Yet Spotify's data reveals hyper-local flavors. Using statistical modeling, they've crafted playlists for nearly 1,000 cities worldwide, spotlighting disproportionately popular local artists.
My Dublin playlist features standouts like Le Galaxie, Ham Sandwich, and The Coronas—Irish Top 10 regulars who pack local venues. It's spot-on for discovering scene-defining sounds. Search your city or explore the full Music Map.
Leveraging deep artist similarity data, Taste Rewind is a musical time machine. It rewinds your current tastes to past decades: '00s, '90s, '80s, and beyond.
Visit the site, log in, pick three favorites from your history (mine included Scooter, Feeder, and Dashboard Confessional), and get decade-specific playlists. Check out my '80s rewind below.
Formerly Boil the Frog (rebranded Sweet Spot for Valentine's), this tool bridges two artists via related ones—like musical Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Learn about the 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon' game.
Dissimilar acts might take 15+ steps; close ones need just a few. Couples can connect favorites; solo explorers thrive too.
Watch Blink-182 link to The Beatles via 13 steps: Blink-182 to Unwritten Law to Lit; The Kinks to The Beatles. Try it or stream mine.
Playlists rival owning music altogether—see Spotify Your Music Collection: The End of iTunes or Be My Valentine - 10 Love Spotify Playlists. I adore the automation: weekly Discover Weekly drops, city explorations, time-travel vibes, and artist bridges.
How do you craft playlists? Is Discover Weekly a hit for you? Share your stories in the comments.
