We love Spotify, but if there’s one criticism we can levy at it, it’s the lack of a decent recommendation abilities. That all changed this morning with Spotify’s announcement that it’s adding a new Similar Artist tab to its desktop app, as well a new recommendation engine to help you find more music you’ll love.
Spotify says it’s now cross-referencing the millions of music tracks being listened to every day, working out who likes what, and which artists they listen to the most. Think of it as iTunes’ Genius Playlists, but for Spotify, which means you don’t need to buy the tracks before listening to them.
The new Related Artists tab in the Spotify app is the first evidence of the new recommendation tech, letting you seek out similar musicians to the one you’re currently looking at. It’s an important move, and one which makes Spotify more usable. At the very least, it’ll stop us listening to the same albums and artists over and over.
Erik Bernhardsson, Spotify developer and project leader, explained the development, saying “Artist recommendations have been fine-tuned meaning music fans can now dig down much deeper into the Spotify catalogue. Improving the way in which Spotify users can discover exciting new artists and music in general, such as by sharing playlists, will play a vital part in Spotify’s continuing evolution. This is only the beginning.”
The new tab has already turned up in Spotify. Fire it up now, and you’ll see it as part of artist Overview pages.
Out now | £free | Spotify
