It’s been a busy week for Spotify. In addition to news of a forthcoming HiFi tier, and an appearance at a parliamentary inquiry, the streaming giant has also found time to release new features to help listeners curate their sprawling libraries of ‘Liked Songs’.
From today, Spotify is offering free and premium users, with at least 30 tracks in their ‘Liked Songs’ playlist, the option to filter their favourite tracks using up to 15 personalised mood and genre categories.
The new options can be accessed by heading to ‘Liked Songs’ in the ‘Your Library’ tab. The filters you see will be unique to your specific tastes, and Spotify reports they will update as your collection evolves.
For now, Spotify hints there will be a mix of styles already available from the 'Browse' page, such as dancehall, J-pop, bluegrass, along with more abstract subcategories like 'pump up', 'moody' and 'soulful'.
We think this has the potential to be a useful function as the Spotify algorithm is already one of the most nuanced of the big streaming services. ‘Liked Songs’ playlists are a showcase of every user's most diverse tastes, from old favourites to those impulsively added after one appearance on a daily mix. The option to listen to familiar music without running the full gamut of genres lurking beneath the ‘shuffle’ button could help set Spotify even further apart from other services in terms of content curation, if not yet in sound quality.
When we tried to access the new filters, we found the feature wasn’t live, but the rollout will be staggered over the coming weeks to listeners on Android and iOS devices in English speaking markets, including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
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