Please give more details to make the best out of Discover Weekly

[eule_7834]

Plan: Premium

Spotify App for Windows

Hello,

I have read this article:

MONDAY ‘MAGIC’
Five Ways to Make Your Discover Weekly Playlists Even More Personalized

https://newsroom.spotify.com/2019-05-02/five-ways-to-make-your-discover-weekly-playlists-even-more-p...

My questions pertaining to Discover Weekly are these:

(They are rather technical and I would appreciate it if someone who understands the matter more deeply would answer.)

__________

1. I use external software that connects to Spotify via API. This software sends playlists to Spotify.

In your excellent article, you write:

"If you’re totally obsessed with a new-to-you track, add it to your own personally curated playlists. This lets us know the song is more than just a momentary obsession, and we’ll be sure to serve up songs in the same vein."

Does this mean that MANUALLY addiding a song to a playlist will cause Discovery Weekly to take notice, but some whole PLAYLIST that is added from somewhere / or by some external app will NOT affect Discovery Weekly? (I would expect it to be like this and that would be good, but it would be important for me that you confirm.)

________

2. In the article you write:

"Love a new track you just heard? Click the “heart” icon next to the song on mobile or desktop, and there will be more where that came from down the road."

Does this mean that if I want to "spice up" Discover weekly, I could go back to my older stuff that I added two years ago, and then un-heart and re-heart a few songs to add a twist to the mix?

___________

3. In your article, you write:

"Not to worry: Listening to a song once without replaying or “hearting” won’t affect your Discover Weekly selections."

(a) Could you confirm that in order for any song to affect Discover Weekly as a result of LISTENING to it, one needs to listen to it exactly at least _T W I C E_ in F  U L L.

(b) And any time I abort the playing of a song (stop listening before it ends, or SKIP parts), it will be as if I never listened to it? It always has to be FULL listening.

I am quite happy with Discover Weekly, but knowing how to optimize it would be really helpful because it has that tendency to suggest stuff of the same kind, and understanding the workings also helps understand WHY it is doing that, and how to use Spotify to get Discover Weekly to make even better and more diverse suggestions over time.

Discover Weekly is the main reason I am using Spotify - so thank you very much for some clarifications.

[Alex]

Hey there @eule_7834,

Thanks for the post and your questions. I'll do my best to answer them to the best of my knowledge.

1 - If you hear a song in Discover Weekly that you like a lot and you click the Like button on it, you'll get more songs like that one in future Discover Weekly mixes. As a whole, the app will give you recommendations for songs that you might like based on playlists and artists you follow as well as songs. This specific part of the article is referring to songs in Discover Weekly specifically. So, if you like a couple of songs from Nirvana this week, it's very likely that you'll get more recommendations by Nirvana (or similar bands) next week. In general, the algorithms will take note what you add to and listen to from your own playlists. Your described scenario is very specific, but I think it shouldn't affect your Discover Weekly as that's bulk data instead of a specific data point that can be tapped into.

2 - This is pretty much the same as point 1. If you Like a dozen of pop songs this week, it's very likely that you'll get more pop next week. The algorithm will adjust to your music taste over time, which means that if you used to listen to a lot of rap songs two years ago, but now prefer pop music, there is no need to unlike older songs in your Liked Songs collection in order to get more recommendations for pop. Just keep listening to what you love now.

3 - You're right on both (a) and (b) - If you start listening to a song and skip it at any point (this includes closing the app), the song won't have an effect on your recommendations. If you however Like the song or replay it a few times over the week, this will tell the algorithm that you like that sort of music.

Hope this info helps 🙂 Let me know if you have more questions.