Discovery Cheat Sheet : 4 Ways to Find Your Next Favorite Song
She looks effortlessly chic, knows the greatest hidden taco spots, and her music tastes are always on target.
She’s the friend who introduced you to the new musician you’ve been listening to on repeat and took you to the random concert that, in a word, transformed your life.
We’re here to tell you that you have the potential to be that awesome friend. Whether you’re looking for your next favorite musician or something a touch outside your musical comfort zone, scrolling and clicking will get you there.
Spotify has you covered with tailored playlists and just-for-you Radio.This should be saved immediately.
Here are four strategies for discovering new music on Spotify.
1. Spotify Radio Playlists
If you prefer the convenience of having someone else choose songs for you, you should try Spotify Radio.
What it is: Select a song, artist, or playlist, and we’ll play hours of music similar to what you like.
Start with “Crash into Me” by Dave Matthews Band and proceed right into a mix of Tom Petty,Dispatch, and DMB deep cuts you may have forgotten about.
Follow a playlist to store it to your radio collection, and then personalize it by like or disliking tracks. Navigate to Radio on the desktop and select CREATE NEW STATION. Spotify will create a station depending on the music you enter, whether it’s a track, an artist, or a playlist.
To save the station in your library, go to stations and follow the instructions. The station will be deleted if you unfollow it.
Select Radio, then New Station in the upper right corner on the app. Search for a song, artist, or playlist, and select the song you want to start with. On the Station page, tap FOLLOW to store it to Your Library under Stations.
2. Discover Weekly
If you want music that is completely new to you but would fit in nicely with your current playlists, Discover Weekly is a terrific place to go.
What it is: The Discover Weekly playlist is like getting recommendations from a more informed version of yourself, based on your listening history and those of people with similar tastes.
This feature has a lot of groupies because it’s so well-known among users for how well it just gets you. (Seriously. Simply ask around.) Your Discover Weekly seems to know you better than your significant other because of how accurately it pinpoints your musical tastes.
After 15 years of sharing a room, you’re better than your sister. That’s the gist of it.
Every Monday, we’ll send you 30 new pieces of music that we believe you’ll enjoy. Remember that Discover Weekly is updated once a week, so save your favorites.
How to get it: Go to Your Library (Your Music on web player) and look for Discover Weekly under Playlists on your desktop or web player.
For free users, it’s in the Home section under Made for You on mobile. It’s in Your Library under Playlists or Browses under Discover for Premium subscribers.
By default, the playlist is private, but you may make it public, share it with friends, and subscribe to other users’ Discover Weekly playlists. What about those one-on-one sessions? They have no bearing on your Discover Weekly, so a little out-of-character listening won’t affect your suggestions.
3. Daily Mix
Daily Mix is for you if you enjoy your music sorted by genre with a hint of discovery.
What it is: Daily Mixes are customized playlists based on your favorite musical genres. Based on the variety and quantity of your general listening history, users can have up to six mixes.
So, if you solely listen to indie music, you might have fewer mixes than your roommate, who wakes up to the country, listens to Top 40 in the drive, and keeps up with the punk rock scene.
The mixes are both new and familiar, with a mix of new discoveries and tunes you’ve already heard on repeat, and they’re unbound, which means they’ll keep loading songs instead of stopping.
How to do it: Liking a track (3) adds it to your Songs collection, whilst hating a track (X) removes it from your Mix.
Your mixes will improve as your musical tastes change, so the more you listen, the better they will get. It doesn’t entirely refresh like Discover Weekly but rather changes over time while you listen.
Within a day of the last time you listened to a mix, it will be updated with new tracks, so save the ones you like. Look for your Daily Mix in Your Library (Your Music on web player) if you’re on a desktop.
Look for free users in Home under Made for You, and Premium users in Your Library if you’re on a mobile device.
4. Release Radar
Release Radar is a good app to use if you appreciate keeping up with new music.
- What it is:
Release Radar is a 30-song playlist that is refreshed every Friday with new music released in the previous few weeks and is personalized for you based on your listening habits.
It’s a combination of new music from your favorite artists, as well as new tracks we think you’ll enjoy, so you’ll never miss a new release.
Maybe you’ve been a Justin Timberlake fan since your freshman year of college, but you didn’t consider yourself a true TN Kid until “Filthy” appeared on your Release Radar. You’ve been given front-row seats to his Man of the Woods tour.
- How to do it:
Like most playlists, the more you listen, the better it grows, and liking or disliking tracks will help guide the playlist and customize suggestions.
When listening on a desktop (Home on the web player), look for your Release Radar in Browse, or on a mobile device, look for it in Home under Made for You.
Spotify allows you to listen to brand-new music and old favorites mixed in with some discovery. Also, our playlists like RapCaviar and Viva Latino! might help you decide what you want to listen to right now.
In any case, Spotify makes it simple to discover new music. Remember that everything refreshes, so save your favorites frequently.
