[Daily Mix] Does the algorithm recognize skipping as an input?

[fbracht]

When I'm listening to a Daily Mix and I immediately skip a song to the next (without disliking it explicitly), is this just the same as if I'd have listened to the end, or is this something the algorithm can recognize as "oh, he skipped this song, so he must not like it very much, I'm going to lower the chances of it playing in the future"? 

In short: is skipping something like a "soft-disliking", as far the algorithm is concerned? 

Thanks! 

PS.: Any answer other than a "yes", a "no", or a "Spotify does not want the users to know this" will be considered insufficient.

[fbracht]

You really have to wonder what use does a site like this has if you post a question and no one (especially no one from the product side) cares to respond. 

[carolyn9]

Yes, please somebody answer this. 

Btw, I do NOT want skips to be considered soft-dislikes. 

I usually skip a song for other reasons. 

Sometimes I skip a song *because* I really LIKE it a lot and want to wait to listen until I can give it more of my attention. 

[tomshanan · Accepted solution]

"Spotify’s sweet spot for understanding whether a person likes a song or not seems to be 30 seconds. In a 2015 interview with Quartz, Spotify product director Matthew Ogle, who has since left the company, mentioned that skipping before the 30-second mark is the equivalent of a thumbs down for the Discover Weekly playlist."

From: How Spotify’s Algorithm Knows Exactly What You Want to Listen To
https://onezero.medium.com/how-spotifys-algorithm-knows-exactly-what-you-want-to-listen-to-4b6991462...

[fbracht]

Wow, thank you for coming back here with such a definitive answer for this question.

I can’t help but be amazed, though, that this answered came four years after the question was posted (a period in which any Spotify representative could have answered, but didn’t), and three years after I moved definitively to Apple Music.

Thank you for your answer, but Spotify itself can forget about having me as a user with support like that (and its other problems and questionable decisions).

[CrisH]

Interesting - this is definitely something that should be a user preference. I don't think you can know what a song is like a lot of the time until at least 1:00 in, so I would 'record' a skip for algorithmic purposes from that far onwards, for my own listening at least. I also agree with another commenter that you sometimes skip songs you like for reasons (for me, it's that I don't generally like to overplay, so I will usually skip a second play on a given day).

It's something for a more computationally efficient (or just more developed developer) future, no doubt, but I'd like to be able to do 'friendly skips' that aren't the 'soft-dislike' that OP described.