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YouTube Music listeners are getting three personalized playlists this month
YouTube Music's big plan to take on Spotify appears to be essentially copying Spotify's personalized playlists. YouTube is preparing to launch three new playlists: Discover Mix, New Release Mix and Your Mix. The platform's Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan discussed the playlists today at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2019, and they sound remarkably similar to Spotify's offerings.
Spotify's Repeat playlists highlight your musical obsessions
Spotify is tapping into the songs you listen to over and over again for its latest personalized playlists. On Repeat stays up to date with the songs you've had on loop the most over the last 30 days. It automatically updates with your current obsessions -- for me, that's the Sayonara Wild Hearts soundtrack.
Spotify's Pandora-style Stations app arrives in the US
Spotify's Pandora-esque Stations app has arrived in the US after it previously emerged in Australia. It's officially an "experiment" for now, though you can grab it from the App Store or Google Play.
Spotify experiments with curated podcast playlists
Beginning today, a handful of Spotify users will see curated podcast playlists in their accounts. According to The Verge, the playlists are an experiment to help Spotify understand how it can help users discover new shows. The hand-picked lists will be broken into five categories: comedy, true crime, "geek culture," motivation and mindfulness. The Verge reports the playlists will include a mix of Spotify originals and third-party shows.
Spotify's first hardware is a voice-controlled device for your car
Spotify will begin testing its first hardware device today. Dubbed "Car Thing," it's a voice-controlled music and podcast assistant that reportedly plugs into a car's 12-volt outlet and connects to both the car and the user's phone via Bluetooth. The select group of Premium users who will test Car Thing will be able make requests by saying "Hey, Spotify." And the device will tap into the user's Spotify account for easy access to playlists.
SoundCloud puts music writers in charge of its new playlists
The streaming era is producing its own music stars and SoundCloud is tapping the industry's tastemakers to help you discover them. Putting its financial woes aside for a minute, the service is doubling down on playlists promoting its fresh artists across genres (hip-hop, electro) and moods (morning routines, first dates). This time it's getting a little help from music journalists including former Pitchfork editor-in-chief, Mark Richardson; electronic music critic, Philip Sherburne; hip-hop reporter, Sowmya Krishnamurthy; and Pitchfork and Rolling Stone contributor, David Turner.
Spotify will personalize some of its biggest playlists for users
Spotify isn't just reserving personalization for obvious playlists like Discover Weekly. The streaming giant is planning to personalize some of its other playlists based on your tastes. You won't get the exact same playlist as a friend, in other words. The company was betting that this will increase the odds of songs reaching the "right listeners," not to mention encourage longer listening sessions.
Pandora's customized new music playlist 'The Drop' arrives today
If you ask Spotify users why they're loyal to the music service, chances are many of them will cite personalized new music playlists like Discover Weekly and New Release Radar. Today, Pandora is releasing a similar playlist for its Premium on-demand users: it's called "The Drop," and it's a custom playlist that features newly-released tracks selected based on a user's listening history over time. Pandora says the playlist will automatically show up in Premium users' libraries with around a dozen songs to start with, but it'll be continuously updated over time as new songs are released.
Spotify finally lets Android users reorder playlists
Spotify users on Android are finally getting a basic function for a music app: the option to reorder songs within playlists. Spotify confirmed to Engadget that the feature is a new addition to the app, though iOS users have been able to do this for a long time. It seems Spotify is rolling out the change on its servers, so you won't necessarily need to update your app for it to work.
A first look at Spotify’s redesigned free mobile experience
As rumored, Spotify today unveiled a redesigned app that's geared toward users of its free music-streaming service at an event in New York City. The new mobile experience is all about personalized on-demand listening, with 15 playlists that are curated by Spotify based on your listening habits. That includes sets like the Daily Mix, which feature songs you've "hearted" (aka liked) and Discover Weekly, which is designed to help you expand your music taste with artists and tracks you may not be too familiar with. The Release Radar playlist, meanwhile, will let you keep up with all the new music popping up on the service. Spotify says that the more songs you "heart" or "hide," the smarter its playlists will get and others will begin to populate as a result.
iHeartRadio offers curated playlists to free users
iHeartRadio added on-demand music streaming powered by Napster to its broadcast radio-centric service in 2016. The company later added curated activity-, era- and genre-based playlists for paid subscribers since then, too. Now the company is bringing this Playlist Radio feature to all of its users, including free members.
Pandora goes full Spotify with personalized playlists
Spotify began building custom-curated playlists back in 2015 and now Pandora is offering a similar option for its listeners. With that Pandora calls "personalized soundtracks," the company will put its Music Genome to work creating a library of playlists based on your listening habits. "The personalized playlists fit your moods, activities and favorite genres and are updated each week based on your individual musical tastes," chief product officer Chris Phillips explained in a blog post. "We combined our human curation with personalized algorithms to automatically serve up new artists and songs anticipating the perfect balance of discovery and steady favorites."
An iPod Shuffle for Spotify is surprisingly essential
Thanks to Baby Driver, we've all been reminded of our love affair for the MP3 player -- namely the iPod. Now that Apple Music, Spotify and others allow us to carry millions of songs on our phones at all times, the days of frantically loading a dedicated media player before leaving the house are long gone. However, that doesn't mean a tiny device that easily fits in your pocket is no longer a worthy music companion. Enter Mighty, an iPod Shuffle-like gadget that syncs Spotify playlists for offline playback and the most compelling case I've seen in awhile for a separate music player.
Spotify denies allegations it uses 'fake' artists to cut royalty costs
Last August, Music Business Worldwide reported that Spotify placed its own music tracks into curated playlists as a way to avoid paying royalty fees on tracks the streaming company does not own. The site's sources claimed that the tracks — typically jazz, chill and mellow piano music — appear on Spotify under the names of artists who don't actually exist. Last week, Vulture brought the issue back into the spotlight, calling out two acts, Deep Watch and Enno Aare, as "fake artists" with millions of streams to their credit. Spotify denied the allegations in a statement given to Billboard a couple of days later. "We do not and have never created 'fake' artists and put them on Spotify playlists," a Spotify spokesperson told Billboard in an email. "Categorically untrue, full stop." Music Business Worldwide has jumped back into the fray to counter Spotify's rebuttal with a new post detailing its logic as well as listing 50 artists it feels aren't real.
Spotify hopes you'll create shared playlists in Facebook Messenger
It can be fun to create shared playlists on streaming music services -- it's a window into your friends' tastes. You don't necessarily want to wade through an app to add tracks, though, and they usually shut out pals who can't use the service. That's where Spotify thinks it can save the day. It's launching a Group Playlists chat extension in Facebook Messenger that lets anyone in a chat add songs to the queue, even if they're not using Spotify. Once someone has started one of these collective playlists, you just have to tap a button to start adding tracks.
SoundCloud's latest feature crafts playlists from fresh uploads
Soundcloud isn't like other music streaming services. Rather than offering the back catalogs of seemingly every musician on the planet, the service is more of a resource for one-offs, mash-ups and folks looking for unique tunes to put into their DJ sets. As a way to help you discover more of what's on its servers, SoundCloud has launched "The Upload." The features looks at what you've liked and played and delivers a daily playlist based on your listening history.
Google Play Music gets prettier and more intelligent
It's long overdue but Google Play Music is getting a makeover. The search giant confirmed today that it is in the process of updating its Android, iOS and Web offerings with bright new UI that relies on machine learning to deliver what's relevant to you. Its AI-like algorithms will identify where you are and what you're doing, also factoring in things like the weather, to serve up playlists and track recommendations that you didn't know you wanted but capture your mood at the time.
Spotify's Daily Mixes use your listening habits to make playlists
Spotify has been keen on adding new discovery features to its service for a while now. Today, the streaming option announced yet another tool that keeps your playlists fresh. The new feature is called Daily Mixes and it compiles six different playlists that are constantly updated based on your listening habits. Each mix contains over a dozen songs and more tracks load as you listen so you don't have to worry about running out of material.
Spotify video streaming rolls out to Android users
Video streaming has finally arrived to Spotify on Android devices, giving you more to do than just listen to audio. As earlier reports revealed, content is available from providers like NBC, Comedy Central and BBC, along with popular video podcasts. To access the new feature, go to "browse" and select "shows," or check the "video" option in your library. You can then find content providers and follow shows or playlist "bundles" of video, just like you would with audio playlists. The company said that it's aiming to suggest video content that's in line with music that you're already listening to.
Spotify wants to give you the story behind a song's lyrics
In it's ongoing quest to bring artists and fans closer together, Spotify has a new feature that aims to do just that. Starting today, the streaming service will give you a look at the meaning of your favorite song's lyrics. The company teamed up with Genius, a site that compiles song lyrics and other music info, on a series of playlists called Behind the Lyrics. Starting with hip-hop, you'll be able to read about the inspiration and other stories from the artist themselves. This first playlist features Pusha T, Tinashe and Diplo.
