Spotify Discover Weekly is perhaps one of the most broadly praised features of a controversial music program. It’s a weekly playlist curated by Spotify’s algorithms that takes into account the user’s listening habits to suggest new music.
This isn’t really a unique feature to Spotify – plenty of music players trade in music recommendations nowadays. But Spotify was the first to get this feature right, I think. Unlike other music recommendations, Spotify doesn’t just take into account genre. It takes advantage of its own users’ playlists to form its algorithm.
It works like this. Say I spend a lot of time listening to song A. Spotify notices that this is a song I enjoy, and so instead of just looking at song A’s genre and suggesting songs with similar genres, it looks at user-made playlists that include song A. If it can find a song on the same playlist that I haven’t listened to – song B – that’s a song that is likely to be suggested.
This is smart, right? Even at its most granular, genre can be a tricky beast, and there’s no guarantee that just because I like a song from one genre that I’m definitely going to like other songs, especially because genre categories can be so nonspecific. (Come up with a definition of pop and rock that satisfies how those genres are actually used nowadays, I dare you). But instead, it uses human-made data. It sees that another person out there likes both song A and song B and makes a pretty fair guess that if I like song A, I might also like song B too.
There’s a lot more to it than that, of course, but I think this part of Spotify Discover Weekly gives you a good idea of what can make it such a useful feature for people who, like me, enjoy discovering new music every so often. But just because it’s a good idea in theory doesn’t necessarily mean it works in practice, which is why I thought it might be fun to put the feature to the test for a blog post.
So, for this post I am opening up my Spotify Discover Weekly for this week, shuffling it 5 times, and reviewing the songs that come up. I will speculate on why I think Spotify is recommending me this song and determine whether or not I like this song.
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
1. Strawberry Blonde – chloe moriondo
Why was this recommended to me?
It’s funny, because I have definitely heard of chloe moriondo before. This album art is so very familiar to me. Upon further investigation, I realized that I’ve listened to her “I Want to Be With You,” and it appeared in my 2021 playlist. So it seems like this might be a simple example of “she listened to song by this artist, so here’s another one!”
I do also think this song shares some sound and genre conventions from other music I’ve been listening to lately. Particularly in it’s LGBTQA+ themes – I listen to a lot of LGBTQA+ artists who write about such things, so it’s not too shocking to see a song with similar themes popping up here. I also think the punky, acoustic sound gets suggested to me a lot. I can’t say it’s really my genre but I do find myself liking a good amount of songs that sound like this.
Do I like it?
It’s alright. I feel like the verses of this song drag a bit more than I like. When the song picks up a bit in the chorus I do like it a bit more, so if the song stayed at that tempo and sound throughout I might be more into it. I do like the instrumentation, though. It’s got a lovely, deep, layered acoustic feel that I haven’t heard anywhere before. I can definitely see myself checking out more of moriondo’s music, even if this particular song did not work for me.
2. Girl – Jukebox the Ghost
Why was this recommended to me?
Jukebox the Ghost is another artist that has existed on the periphery of the music I’ve listened to for some years. I have definitely heard of them. They have a sort of indie 2012-era feeling that is very nostalgic for me and definitely matches up with music I listened to when I was younger… and now, in my moments diving into my older playlists.
I was pretty sure there was some Jukebox the Ghost song I was obsessed with back in the day, and after some digging I found it – “Good Day” appears in my 2014 playlist. Such a deep cut!
Do I like it?
When I say this song feels dated, that’s because it is. This song came out in 2015 and, well, it sounds like it. I think the vocals are nice, but there’s nothing in this song that really grabs me. Can’t see myself coming back to this one.
3. Pathways – Ezra Glatt
Why was this recommended to me?
This is the first musician I have never heard of to come up on this shuffle, but it’s still pretty clear to me that this song follows some similar vibes to listen I do listen to. Considering the absolute glut of Taylor Swift I’ve been listening to lately, I wouldn’t be surprised if this song appears on similar playlists with some of her evermore tracks, because they have a similar stripped-down, woodsy, emotional feel.
But this interest in songs like these goes back even further than my recent Swiftie phase. This reminds me of Bon Iver or even some of Hozier’s stuff. Honestly a very good guess from Spotify.
I also can’t help but wonder if this suggestion springs from a day when I was feeling really anxious and I went looking for calming, down-tempo playlists to relax to. This sounds exactly like the kind of music that appeared on those playlists.
Do I like it?
This is the sort of song I feel like I need to listen to several times to really appreciate, but I added it to my current rotation of music because I’d like to give it that chance. I love the ostinato of the strings in the background and the hushed vocals. Slow songs like these can very easily become mush if there isn’t enough push and pull added, but this definitely has a certain tension that elevates it above lesser acoustic ballads.
4. Simply the Best – Brianna Nelson
Why was this recommended to me?
I could say a lot of the same things I said about the last song about this one. So, same as above. But I also think this suggestion could have some connection to one of my favorite sitcoms, Schitt’s Creek. If you’ve watched that show (definitely do, it’s fantastic), you’ll understand what I mean.
Do I like it?
No offense to this vocalist but… while a downtempo acoustic cover of “Simply the Best” sounds like a great idea, man is she ever out of tune. I can’t find any other information about this artist, so I assume she is very unknown, so I don’t really want to rag on her too much but… this sounds like karaoke. I love karaoke, but I like doing it, not listening to it.
Plus, I don’t love when Spotify Discover recommends me covers. I don’t know, I’d just really prefer getting suggested original music.
5. Sweet Corn – Seaside Sickness
Why was this recommended to me?
This is an interesting one. The homemade, punk feel of this song kind of doesn’t seem like my kind of thing… except it kind of is. There’s quite a few songs I love that remind me of this one – “Dry Heat/Nice Town” and “Deceptacon”, for example – in my current rotation of music. I guess maybe I do like a little light punk, as a treat.
Do I like it?
It’s alright. There isn’t a super great hook here to keep me invested. I wish I could say that I am a real hardcore punk person, but any love I have for punk tends to be from the poppiest of punk. This comes off a little bland to me, if I’m being honest.
I could see myself maybe liking something else down the line from this artist if they grow a bit, though. So this isn’t a never to Seaside Sickness, but maybe a… later.
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