In an age where production companies and TV channels are growing their brands by adding content to streaming services and creating their own online viewing platforms, consumers are pressured into spreading their wallets thin to get a hold of all the different shows that are at the tips of our fingers. This binge-watching culture is expanding exponentially, and choosing which services to pay for is a tough question. However, in terms of binge-listening, the choice is clear. Despite there being many options to choose from (Apple Music, Amazon Music, Google Play, etc.), there is, in my opinion, a definite winner: Spotify.
Spotify is the superior streaming service because it is incredibly personal. There are about 10 different playlists that are curated for you on a daily/weekly basis through algorithms that never fail to expose you to music you’ll love. Here are some of my favorites:
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- Daily Mix series: 6 endless playlists, organized by your most listened to genres and artists, plus new songs that fit along with your favs. My Daily Mixes generally consist of these vibes: Indie, Alt Rock, R&B, Hip Hop, Rap, and Pop. It is the perfect way to organize music outside of my self-made playlists and discover new artists. Playlists are updated and they shift genres daily based on your recent listening habits.
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- Discover Weekly: A weekly-updated playlist of about 30 songs that are similar to the genres and artists you’ve been feeling lately. This is what got me into Spotify in the first place. It is the perfect way to get out of a funk of listening to the same few albums and expand your palate.
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- Release Radar: A weekly-updated playlist of new releases from your saved artists! This is the playlist for people who do not closely follow the work of the artists they like. Or it can be a good way to see songs that your favorite artists may be featured on, rather than releasing themselves.
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- On Repeat/Repeat Rewind: Two playlists, one function. These are playlists that put all of the songs you can’t stop listening to into one mix. On Repeat is your current list of earworms, and Repeat Rewind are ones you had on replay in the past.
There are also a few special playlists that come around once a year, like Top Songs of (Year), Summer Rewind, or Tastebreakers. These are a part of sites and special functions like Spotify Wrapped or Festify. In general, I love how Spotify caters to my interests and constantly tries to expand my music taste. The app also satisfies my podcast needs, which centralizes all of my listening content into one location and provides even more interesting things to listen to, like the Spotify-produced analytical and biographical podcast Dissect.
Like a good friend, Spotify both supports and challenges me. It is constantly fresh and exciting, giving me new artists to explore and reminding me of old ones I had forgotten about. My Spotify evolves with me, and it is up to me to choose how much effort I want to put into that evolution. If I want to create my own playlists, I can seamlessly do so, but if I want to relax and settle into something foreign to me, Spotify is there to help.
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine told me we shared a song appearing in our respective Discover Weekly’s, to which I replied, “Great algorithms think alike!”
