Spotify recommender algorithms research blog

My work has payed off and it seems that there are ways to bring new recommendations into your base recommendation pool. Granted this took a lot of time and meant I had to listen to the Happy Hour playlist on repeat. However, we now have three new playlists that include this type of music. This includes: Daylist (Funk Soul Groovy Evening) Daily Mix 2 Martha Reeves and The Vandellas Mix Along with this, It seems the throwback subheading, on the homepage, is experimenting with older music. As I now have a 'Born in The 90s' playlist. Previously, this subheading only contained music that went as far back as the 2000s. This does show, that the diversification tools, that Spotify include in their recommender systems, are able to expand a users music tastes, when given enough historical data. If this experiment was to happen for a longer period, and a bot was used instead of myself, then the results would perhaps show that: 'While Spotify's RA does seem to favour pushing users ...

After listening to the entirety of the Happy hour playlist, even letting the RA take control once it finished, it still seems that my overall recommendations haven't changed. The application notes my top mixes to be: 2010s Mix (A mixture of Rap and alternative rock) Mac Miller Mix (Chilled out rap music) Chill Mix (A lot of R&B with inclusions of chilled rap) House Mix (House and D&B) Fred Again Mix (Pretty much the same thing) Upbeat Mix (This one has a mixture of Rap, House and R&B) (I noticed that with this one the music seemed a lot more artificially recommended) (Very popular artists and songs) R&B Mix (The bane of my existence) Pop Mix (Sabrina and etc) (pretty reminiscing of the start of the experiment) I checked both versions of my Day list but they had still not included any new music. This last portion of the experiment is really showing how RA's take a preference to new music.  This quote from Linda O, on Medium, reasons a potential cause for this phe...

I listened to the happy hour playlists once more today. It is quite a long playlists so listening to it multiple times a day may seem like a challenge. However, I will do what I must to ensure that the data I collect in these final days of this experiment is interesting and related to my research. As of now, the RA has shown no signs of adding these older songs to my: Daylist, DJ, or any other playlist. My base curated playlist still largely consist of RAP, RNB, and Alternative rock.  I did check out my daylist today. In the morning it seemed to be Chill RnB music, while during the evening it became a "Doof Doof House Friday" playlist. The RA must think I am some chilled out raver that goes out every weekend.

Today I listened to the Happy hour playlist again. In hopes that the RA would take note over the last days of the experiment and include this music into my base recommendations.  What I have noticed, is at the start of the experiment. If you listened to something more than once that would become apart of your recommendation pool. However, as the experiment went it seemed increasingly difficult to get genres of music to stick. Examples of  'new music'  like the Lo-fi-house playlist never seemed to be brought into my base recommendations. This goes the same for the any of the new genres I encountered in the discover weekly playlists. Why is this.  As the experiment has gone one less and less "new music" has been recommended to my account and new music I am recommended doesn't become a part of my base recommendation pool.  I will attempt to change this over the last days and just see how many times, and for how long, I will have to listen to the Happy hour playlist...

Listening the the Happy hour playlist I found yesterday has been the most interesting part of this experiment. Offering me a playlist filled with popular songs from the 60s and 70s was not something I expected when going into this. This playlist was filled with Soul music, early Rock and Roll and the contemporary music of that time.  This is the RA showcasing its diversification tools first-hand and shows that you can experience little pockets of "new music" occasionally. Overall I feel like this will just become a personalised illusion and my base recommendations will stay the same. However, the fact that I have been recommended this is still very cool. It shows that the RA can diversify the content you are recommended and that there is a, ill be it small, way to find new genres and music that is different from your main recommendations on the app.

Today I listened to a Hip-Hop mix playlist. I know that I have previously stated that rap is most of my top recommended genres, but I just wanted to see if listening to this playlist in full would have any effects on the type of rap music I would later be recommended. Plus, I would like to move away from the House/Drum and base recommendation pool I am currently in. The rap playlist I did listen to didn't offer any new artists and stayed mainly within the mainstream bubble that I most always pushes me towards. I did however notice a new playlist labelled Happy hour described as offering feel good classics. This is the first time to my knowledge that the RA has recommended music much older than the contemporary stuff I was being pushed. I didn't have chance to listen to it. However, I will most certainly be taking a look at it tomorrow.

Intro  https://www.vox.com/technology/2018/10/1/17882340/how-algorithms-control-your-life-hannah-fry https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/glossary/recommendation-system/# http://wesleyanargus.com/2023/09/25/filter-bubbles-and-bubblegrunge-thoughts-on-spotifys-new-daylist/ Filter bubbles Spotify safety and privacy  https://www.spotify.com/us/safetyandprivacy/understanding-recommendations# Nvidia  https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/glossary/recommendation-system/# Day 1  Diversification  https://medium.com/@maralazizi/balancing-relevance-and-diversity-how-diversification-reduces-exposure-bias-in-recommender-systems-f795f2a31df0 Random https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/spotify-is-letting-record-labels-influence-personalized-recommendations-so-long-as-they-pay-for-it-in-royalties/ https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/business/number-of-companies-in-north-yorkshire-hits-record-high-5005117# https://www.yorkshire.com/events/?srsltid=AfmBOoozpBSB7373_mDd5ajxoGMb0Nban2XSXN6U6t1...

I will say it seems that the amount of playlist options I have has dramatically increased over the week.  Today was all about the discover weekly and immediately, It gave me something different. I was presented firstly, with Bad Bunny who is a Latin artist. Then I was presented with a Afro bop song by Mo black.  Like always this playlist was a breath of fresh air and surprised me with some new music and new artist who I haven't previously heard. However, similar to other weeks, the playlist also recommended me a lot of popular tracks both old and new.  Artists such as:  Timberland Don Toliver Tame Impala Asap Rocky and  Kanye I have heard music from the artists before. However artists who I hadn't heard consisted of: Bad Bunny  Mo Black Malcom Todd JMSN Charlie Jeer There was a decent amount of newer artists on this weeks playlist. The question is though will this translate into my base playlists or will this be another example of the personalised illusions...

Today I was recommended an Indie mix playlist. This offered a fairly newer experience. Its nothing incredibly new and you can understand why the RA would recommend me more indie music. As Alternative rock and indie has been recommended to me in previous playlists such as my daylist and Drake mix. However it was a nice change from my regular playlists which consist of rap and rnb. Giving me the illusion that I was hearing new music. Like other playlists I did notice that most songs were ones that are popular on social media. It seems at this time of the experiment, there is no definite way to get  out of your filter bubble. The RA does seem to offer you pockets of "new music" in some playlists. However, these just create a personalised illusion for the user that they are discovering new music through the RA.

My experience up to this point, with the curated playlists, has been boring, lacking variety and repetitive. The RA has really boxed my music tastes into a corner ( Some kind of boxing or fortnight clip ) The genres I am recommended are mostly house, RnB and rap, and the RA never seems to divert from these genres. And my Spotify feedback loop has stayed rather consistent with the artists and songs that I'm being recommended. I have noticed patterns in the RA such as the repetitive nature of some of these mainstream artists and songs. Artists like Drake, SZA and songs like The spins and Bad habits are constantly showing up in my recommendation pool.  Almost like the RA has taken note to which songs I seem to "enjoy" more. Re-recommending them in hopes I stay on the app longer, listening to music/ I have noticed these " personalised illusions ", while in this experiment, that have led me to believe the RA is recommending content outside of my personalised filter b...

I've noticed over the experiment that my music taste's are very mainstream. For some people this isn't so bad. However this would be difficult for people who want to explore smaller or older artists as their recommendations will be full with contemporary music. I do get recommended some playlists that consist of older music. Such as: 2000s mix, unwind 00s and 2010s mix However, due to the type of content I am being recommended I rarely get playlists that consist of older music . Its not just myself that has gripes with Spotify's RA, many users on reddit post about their experience. Explaining how they  " wish there was an option to get something less mainstream / more obscure / more random in algorithm-generated playlists. " Most people call this the "Spotify feedback loop" and most studies suggest that they use this in their Recommender system to make you stay on the app more. " Spotify wants to keep you listening by introducing you to new musi...

7.1. Aims - To critically examine users’ experiences with Spotify’s curated playlists. Today I used to Spotify DJ. This is an AI featurw that Spotify introduced around 2023, as a personal DJ that plays your favourite tunes. While using this feature I realised that it was mostly recommending me songs that I have heard alot of the past weeks. I was recommended a lot of House music too.  One song did stand out from the rest however, and this was Get Jiggy by B jack$. This was a NY style drill song and was the first time I had heard anything consisting of Drill. Drill is a subgenre of rap that is mainly made in NY and London. The song came right after a short memo from the DJ explaining how hes gonna "mix things up about and show me some deep cuts". Its nice to see other playlist features providing me with new music. However this was the only song that stood out as new.  From everything Ive heard today it seems that most playlist I am being recommended are either Rap, Rnb, or Hou...

I noticed today that the 'daylist' likes to rotate through out the day. During the morning the playlists recommends me House music and Drum n Base. While in the evening and afternoon it seems to recommend me RnB.  Is the RA influencing my listening habits? Yes, each playlist that I am recommended features content that the RA seems to think I enjoy, it doesn't really deviate from these two genres and forcing my music tastes to be centred around RnB and House music. Do I believe that I am in a filter bubble? Yes I do, the RA is recommending me very familiar and similar sounding content. There seems to be a lack of variety in what Spotify's RA can recommend to you. Have I fought myself out of a filter bubble? You could argue that at times, I have used the curated playlists Spotify provides to climb my way out of certain filter bubbles. During the start of the experiment I was heavily recommended pop music, and by listening to a Drake playlists that featured more RnB music....

The first thing I noticed when logging on today was the introduction of a new subheading. 'Uniquely yours' featured three playlists, each recommending me music that matched the energy to what I most enjoyed and seemed to play more than others. One playlist called 'Daylist' was described as offering me a ' chill and floaty vibe'. Featuring genres like Hip Hop and RnB (It seems like I cant escape this genre) this playlist was providing a sombre vibe and included experimental musicians like Steve Lacy and Tyler The Creator. Overall it was I fun experience and the variety of artists and sounds on this playlist kept it feeling different. However, the experience it was offering was not new, I have heard these artists and genres before. It was advertised as something curated for my tastes though so I can understand why it would so heavily push rap and RnB content. I will say that the Rap artists I was hearing were very different from what I had previously heard. Kanye ...

I got a chance to look into some different playlists. Today I listened to a playlist caled unwind 00s and it consisted of throwback songs from the past decades. It was a fun experience but it didnt really bring any new genres into the recommendation pool.  The playlist was mostly filled with popular artists from around the 2000s such as Bruno Mars and MGMT. 

Unfortunately I havnt had much time to listen to music today as I had urgent matters that I had to attend. This may also be the same tommorow, I will still check out the app and listen to music where I can.  What I did see today was not really new anyway. It does seem like I am being recommended more house music. One thing I will say that really annoys me is that the 'try something else' subheading hasnt changed once during the experiment. Im sure they may have updated and added new songs but they have stayed the same since the start. If this is advertised as something different why does it not update once a week based of your listening habits.  

Today I decided to check out a playlist from the moods subheading and it was a breath of fresh air for this experiment. After multiple days of hearing solely contemporary music and repeating artists, the Lo-fi House playlist introduced a quieter, more relaxed experience and was a perfect playlist for a day of studying.  Previously, apart from 'Discover now', most of the curated playlist's I have dipped my toes into have regurgitated out music that I was already familiar with. I believed a narrowing effect was happening with my recommendation and I could not find a single playlist that seems different and contrasted what the RA was already recommending me.  Well, It seems that I was not looking hard enough. The 'Lo-fi House' playlist brought some fresh content into the mix and left me feeling rejuvenated from the previous days. While I was most likely recommended this playlist because I had recently been listening the Drum and Base, It still provided a new subgenre o...

Surprisingly I have not been advertised or recommended Cartis new album either on release radar or any other playlist. Release radar is back though.  My daily mix one is a drum n based playlist so it seems that the RA is taking my listening habits from yesterday into consideration. However apart from that not much has changed. In future days I might listen to the moods playlist.  One of my goals is to see if I can experience some new genres of music or some really niche genres so this might help. 

After letting my recommendation play after finsihing the Fred Again playlist. I noticed that alot of the music I was being pushed was either EDM or DnB. This mainly took effect, as the recommendations were based of music that was featured within the playlist. Howerver, It was still very surprising to see NO RnB or Alt rock songs in my queue. I am curious to how this will effect my playlist recommendation in the coming days. Interestingly enough release radar has gone. This was dissapointing, as I really wanna see if songs from  PlayboiCarti's new album will be recommended to me. As we know my recommendation have been centred around RnB and Alternative Rock. So the introduction of this Genre of music, known as (Rage Rap), would further show how alot of recommendatons users may see are produced from moneterry reasons. Apart from this, not much has changed in terms of the curated playlists. My homepage has been the same for the last few days, apart from various reshuffles as other pla...

The main agenda today was to listen to the Fred again playlists in an attempt to gain back control from the RA. Plus I went back and listened to the discorver now playlist in hopes that this would help broaden my future recommendations. As of today the Top artists and playlists I am being recommended are centred around RnB AND Alternative rock.  I didnt have time to let my recommendation play after a playlist has finished. However, we will see tommorrow how doing this will effect the content being pushed to me.  One interesting update is the release of Playboi Carti's upcoming project I AM MUSIC which has been marketed by Spotify multiple of times. As I found yesterday in the fine print, some recommendations are for monetary reasons. My questions is. Will this album be heavily recommended to me tommorow and will it effect my fututre recommendations.  This album has been hyped up for 4 years and will most likely be marketed to most users on the application. We will have to...

So its been ten days since I started this experiment and each day has really sent me through a loop. I've felt like I've been trapped in a filter bubble... to then escaping said filter bubble... just to then feel like I've been pushed straight back into a different Filter bubble.  Its almost like the RA cant really widen the content it recommends to you, instead it just hyper-focusses on certain genres it believes you like the most. This narrowing effect I was seeing was most prominent in day 4 when I had finished to 'Uni Bangers' playlist and was letting the RA do its thing.  And that's when I noticed that the content being pushed felt way too familiar. The RA was heavily recommending artists like Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX and Billie Eyelash. Are we seeing a pattern here. Multiple songs from the playlist had been replayed so many times that I was instinctively checking the app just to see if I was had accidently hit shuffle on the playlist. I must've he...

Release radar seems to show me recent drops from artists that I am frequently recommended on other playlists. Artists such as SZA and Drake feature on this playlist and it seems that the application is still pushing Alternative Rock and RnB content to the account. Rap artists such as BBno$ and AJ Tracey were also featured on the playlist which seems to show that the RA is still also recommending me Rap content as well. Unlike the Discover now playlist, this playlist felt boring and lacked variety with the songs it presented me. I noticed a playlist called 'Jungle'. Hoping it was a DnB playlist I decided to give it a listen. However, It was actually for an band called 'Jungle' and this playlist also featured RnB artists such as Frank Ocean and SZA. The playlist also recommended me 5 Sabrina carpenter. I am so confused why she is still being recommended to me after I stopped listening to playlists she featured in. Maybe because of how much she appeared in the beginning of...

Through listening to the discover weekly playlist today, I noticed that, while the content being recommended to me seemed new, It lacked variety. The playlist curated to present you "Fresh music" and "Deep cuts" consisted of various similar sounding artists from genres the RA had already recommended me throughout previous years. However there was a decent variety of old and new songs and the playlists did seem to stray away from the Rap and RnB filter bubble that was plaguing my other curated playlists.  The range of music was very different in this playlist though and it still felt fresh and interesting throughout the day  I wanted to come back to this playlist, it has replicability that most curated playlists don't One song that did feel like a deep cut was 'Stephanie' which is a song made by a small artists. However like most of these songs, they are very popular on social media. This suggests that the RA like pumping out content that is popular on ap...

The 'To get you started' Playlist have left my recommendations A new subheading has been introduced named 'Made for You' This is where the discover weekly playlist resides and this will give me an insight for the next weeks coming about my recommendations  Right now the music I am being recommended does feel very similar. It is mostly RnB, rap, and some Alternative rock. The 'One direction' playlist has disappeared as well which is disappointing as that may have switched up my recommended a bit.  Mostly popular American artists still SZA is looking to be the most recommended artists and her song Saturn was recommended to me 9 times during the course of today. I listened to a summer songs playlist which did introduce some new artists  I've noticed that there is no subheading called 'Artists I might like'. This should be a feature it would really help people branch out with their music tastes. Each day I am recommended maybe one or two new playlist but...

Hadn't had much chance to listen to much music today however there are some interesting updates. So the Sabrina Carpenter playlist has been removed and it seems the account is now being pushed more R and B and alt rock playlists and artists. The Drake Playlist is still up and I have noticed that he is present on a lot of these other playlists.  One very interesting update is the inclusion of a One Direction playlist which I will probably listen to tomorrow if it is still there. I think that I have been recommended this playlist as I was hearing a lot of alternative rock artists such as Steve Lacy who have similar fanbases.

The Tyla Playlist which I was going to listen to had disappeared which was disappointing. I believe they change everyday based off your listening habits.  This is interesting and will show me a live update of my recommendations  Instead I will be listening to the Frank ocean mix to see if the account will be recommended more alt r and b and alt rock.  I will monitor if the Sabrina Carpenter playlist is removed and if I will be recommended more rap and r and b content in the coming days.  If I run into the same problems as before in which the account will only be recommended a few genres and artists that are very similar I will again switch up my listening habits if the RA recommends we any alternative options.

It seems that my attempt to move out of the pop centred filter bubble has worked. After listening to the Drake mix playlist for a while it seems that Spotify is now recommending me content similar to him. Artists such as: Travis Scott (Yes his playlist has returned)  Kedrick Lamar Tyla However the account is still being recommeded Sabrina Carpenter playlists heavily. She is a very popular artists right now and her music has been recommended to me quite alot so this makes sense.  The albums the app is also recommending me have been very pop focused and havnt changed much since day 1.  Finally a new subheading has appeared. 'More Like Drake' This features artists such as Travis Scott and Future who have collaborated with Drake many times in the past. However, these are albms so I wont be listening to any of them 

For day 5 I wanted to switch it up, as I felt like I was starting to drift into a filter bubble. So I decided to listen to the 'Drake Mix' playlist that I was shown yesterday. Unsurprisingly, the album had a lot of Drake songs on it. However, What I am hoping for by doing this is to try to expand the data that the RA has on me. So that it will stop recommending me Espresso for the 25 times a day.

Algorithms, almost seems like every year they dictate more and more things we do. From the things we buy, watch, scroll past and listen to. It seems like our whole life will soon be dictated by some algorithm that recommends us the most optimal daily routine taking our daily habits and diet into consideration. I'm sure that's fare into the distant future though there's definitely no apps that are already doing that. (Look dead into camera and pull ‘are you serious rn face)  https://clickup.com With how much Ai is being integrated into our lives it honestly seems like we have no control over what we are being recommended any more. And this is seemingly locking people into certain types of shows they watch, videos they see while doom scrolling and music they hear on apps like Spotify. Like I have a playlist on Spotify with over 2000 songs ok and I swear it feels like the same ten artists are being played more so than others.  The worst part about it though is that I don't...

To give a little bit more context, an RA' is described as an algorithm that provides a personalised suggestion for something that is relevant to the user. (Francesco casolegno) and These types of systems are in affect for most of our daily lives.  Whether it be on social media, content streaming, or online shopping an RA is monitoring your actions, so that it can recommend you more stuff related to your searches.  This may be to get you to buy more products or spend more time on the application and they can seemingly dictate almost everything you watch or look at online.  Link to RA page by wired And these RA's is what Spotify uses to recommend you music while your using the app. And they do this through Recommended albums, curated playlists, and through more niche features like Smart shuffle (which adds new songs to your playlists based of your listening habits) Link to vid for smart shuffle And your probably wondering, well - how is this bad? I want to be recommended ...

Today I finished the 'Uni Bangers' playlist and proceeded to let Spotify recommend me music for the rest of the day. As once you finish a playlist on Spotify the application continues to recommend you music using its RA. With this, I noticed that the music I was being recommended felt very similar; multiple songs were being replayed which was making my experience using the app very frustrating. I believe that I was in a filter bubble today, as I was being recommended no new content. I had to check the app multiple times just to see if I was still on the playlist.  Starting tomorrow I will be venturing out of my 'Uni Bangers' playlist and checking out some of the other curated playlists to see how that may take affect on the RA. My playlists had once again updated today, with two new entries: Drake mix  and Beabadoobee Mix It seems that the 'Drake mix' playlist is more rap focused while the Beabedoobee playlist was centred around Alt rock music which is an intere...

Day three really seemed like the RA was recommending throwback songs throughout my time listening. Songs like: LALALA (Sam Smith) One Dance (Drake) Murder on the Dance Floor (Sophie Ellex-Bexter) This suggest that the RA is continuing to diversify the music being recommended to me. As this was a change from prior days in which I was being presented with Contemporary music that was new and popular. Furthermore, new playlists have been added to the 'to get you started' subheading that feature artists that have been recommended to me more so than others. Artists such as Charli XCX and Tommy Richman playlists have been recommended to me which makes sense as I have noticed their songs being played more.  Also, The Travis Scott playlist has disappeared completely from that subheading. Which suggest that the RA may think that I enjoy listening to pop and alt rock over rap music. This doesn't mean that the RA isn't recommending me rap songs anymore I heard quite a few today, bu...

Through my second day I have been letting the RA play each song I listen to. I will not skip or pick any song from here on out.  With this, I have already experienced content being replayed by the RA. Songs that were replayed include: Espresso (Sabrina Carpenter) Not Like us (KDOT) After listening to music through the day, I believe my theory, that the RA is more focused on pushing more popular content to new users, has been further reinforced as the content that was being recommended to me was mostly contemporary music that seemed popular on both the application and social media. Furthermore, that application has not changed or replaced any of the playlists that were presented to me yesterday. This may changed later down the line as the RA may still not have collected enough data to recommend me different playlists. I also noticed, that a lot of the music I was hearing was music I had already heard on social media. Things that can be looked further into in future research: Does so...

The first day of this experiment was quite interesting. When setting up the new account, the app used some methods of data collection to gain an initial understanding of the music I would like to listen to.  Asking for my: Date of Birth, Preferred Gender,  and artists that I may be interested in To ensure the experiment was fare I chosen artists from three different genres this being: Taylor Swift (POP) Fred Again (DNB) Travis Scott (RAP) When first landing on the Homepage I was presented with different playlists each seemingly related to the artists I had chosen. Three playlists in particular (featured in the 'To get you started subheading') each presented content that featured artists closely related to ones I had chosen and were all drastically different genres wise.  Another subheading labelled 'Try something new' featured playlists that sprinkled in popular songs from genres that I had not chosen. Which to Spotify's credit, did introduce me to some new artists....