Spotify needs your help tagging and sorting tunes

Music streaming services can be frustrating if you're an avid listener, since your definitions may not line up with theirs. They may lump trance, techno and drum-and-bass into a generic "dance" category, for instance. Spotify, at least, knows it needs to do better... and it's asking you for help. It quietly launched a Line-In feature that lets you suggest edits to the metadata for artists, albums and songs. You can recommend genres, tags, moods and even nicknames. You could clarify that an "electronica" album is really tech house, or remind Spotify that many people refer to Metallica's self-titled record as "the Black Album."

Spotify told Variety that the chances of acceptance will depend on accuracy checks. Line-In both supplies a number of musical aptitude surveys and verifies whether or not other listeners are making similar suggestions. If you can't tell the difference between Run the Jewels and Run-DMC, you probably won't make your changes stick unless many others are saying the same thing.

This is the first large streaming service to open the doors to user edits, but it might not be the last. Spotify and its rivals depend on discovery to reel you in -- you're more likely to stay subscribed if you can find an obscure album or listen to a playlist that caters to your exact tastes. Music is defined by fuzzy categories and other human imperfections, and crowdsourced edits help acknowledge that reality.