The playlist you get at the end of the thing is new stuff you might be part of breaking next. Or that's the idea, anyway. Mine had some stuff I already knew and some stuff I didn't, but it was definitely worth checking out.
― glenn mcdonald, Thursday, 10 September 2015 15:49 (eight years ago) link
lol add me to the list of ilxors who didn't know there was a playlist
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 10 September 2015 15:50 (eight years ago) link
even if you do bother to scroll over the white dot and learn there's a playlist available - you still don't know WHAT the playlist is, other than tangentially related to your being on the cutting edge re: one of 200 (though seemingly in practice, 5) buzzy acts. not pretending this is actually a big deal or anything, no need for a "settle down," just kinda baffled by the obtuseness of how this is designed.
― da croupier, Thursday, 10 September 2015 15:59 (eight years ago) link
if the goal is have me let spotify make a RIYL Charli XCX playlist, it's a remarkably ostentatious yet uninviting one
― da croupier, Thursday, 10 September 2015 16:02 (eight years ago) link
The playlist is based on all your listening, not specifically the artists you "found first".
I didn't have anything to do with the design. You can tell, because there are hardly any screens packed full of tiny inscrutable numeric scores. And no metal.
― glenn mcdonald, Thursday, 10 September 2015 16:45 (eight years ago) link
i want the name of the one person responsible for the absence of tiny inscrutable numeric scores
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Thursday, 10 September 2015 18:00 (eight years ago) link
I can't give you one name, but I could give you 1500 names with a fractional culpability score for each...
― glenn mcdonald, Thursday, 10 September 2015 18:08 (eight years ago) link
I didn't have anything to do with the design.
best thing about it imo - love the colours and animated fx on the artist pics
― nashwan, Thursday, 10 September 2015 18:20 (eight years ago) link
Would love a big ugly data dump of all the artists where I'm in the first 1-10% of listeners.
― top doctor (seandalai), Thursday, 10 September 2015 18:49 (eight years ago) link
Cooler to show who was the first to STOP listening to an artist once they sold out...
― schwantz, Thursday, 10 September 2015 20:08 (eight years ago) link
i really do miss the snarky 'because you listened to _______ you should check out (horrifying possibly sarcastic suggestion)', really did replicate that old record store experience
― balls, Thursday, 10 September 2015 23:45 (eight years ago) link
I got some right now that sound like a bitchy record store clerk into giving humbling history lessons
You listened to Cheap Trick yesterday. Want to try Styx?
You listened to REM. Check out Chris Isaak.
If you like Soundgarden, we recommend Rush.
You listened to Neil Young and Pulp. Here's an album you might like. *large image of Jefferson Airplane's "Long John Silver"
You listened to the Pretenders. Here's a song you might like. *insanely large image of Neil Diamond's Moods album, track "Song Sung Blue"*
You listened to Cheap Trick yesterday. Want to try George Thorogood & The Destroyers?
I GET IT SPOTIFY, YOU THINK CHEAP TRICK SUCKS.
― da croupier, Saturday, July 27, 2013 12:50 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Friday, 11 September 2015 01:12 (eight years ago) link
"you listened to The Battle Of Evermore. Want to try The Mamas And The Papas?"
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 11 September 2015 10:10 (eight years ago) link
Is there a way to view a list of every artist and how many followers they have?
― calstars, Friday, 11 September 2015 21:48 (eight years ago) link
In Found Them First, you mean? I don't think there is, and I don't know if that's intentional or not. I'll see if I can find out.
― glenn mcdonald, Friday, 11 September 2015 23:18 (eight years ago) link
Not find them first - just overall total followers. Something like:Lana Del Ray - 1,400,000Grimes - 1,200,000etc
― calstars, Saturday, 12 September 2015 01:12 (eight years ago) link
Ah. No, that's not available anywhere public. Not sure why not, although i know follower numbers don't always track listening volume, so that probably has something to do with it. We used to have some artist charts, but I think it was never quite clear what they were good for, so at the moment all the charts are track-based.
― glenn mcdonald, Saturday, 12 September 2015 02:21 (eight years ago) link
all this themed stuff is fun, whether it works for me or not. discover weekly, fresh finds, found them first (which gave me 0 because i've only recently used spotify properly), throwback sodding thursday, everything.
this week's fresh finds glided so seamlessly through genres that i just let the whole thing play almost without skipping.
― Autumn Almanac, Saturday, 12 September 2015 08:44 (eight years ago) link
Discover Weekly is uncovering artists like NICK CAVE and PIL and WIRE for me this week.
― passive aggressive DN (onimo), Sunday, 13 September 2015 20:27 (eight years ago) link
^this. I mean, nice set of songs. I'm not the target consumer for this thing anyway, I have impeccable taste, don't trust rando people at Spotify to have better taste in music than me. *rewinds side b of invisible touch*
― brimstead, Sunday, 13 September 2015 22:43 (eight years ago) link
yeah i have to wonder if the goal is maintaining a set of songs i'll enjoy more than actually making me discover anything - increasingly i'm seeing songs - not just artists - that I KNOW i've already played plenty on spotify. i feel like the text would often be "you played World Party's second biggest hit last week, care to discover their biggest hit?" & "you clearly like 'black metallic' by catherine wheel, wanna hear 'black metallic' by catherine wheel"?
― da croupier, Monday, 14 September 2015 14:15 (eight years ago) link
that said there ARE some "artist like artist you've played"s between the "other songs by artists you've played" and "songs you've played." I just wish it didn't come off so timid about leaving my safety zone, if it's gonna be sold as DISCOVER rather than ENJOY.
― da croupier, Monday, 14 September 2015 14:20 (eight years ago) link
it's not unlike the bit in The Ten with bobby canavale and ad miles
"wanna hear roberta flack?"
"hey, how about Killing Me Softly?"
"eh, that's a little Roberta 101. Here, let's try Greatest Hits, track 2..."
― da croupier, Monday, 14 September 2015 14:22 (eight years ago) link
it's possible the average spotify listener blasting early alt-rock on the reg doesn't wanna be pushed any further than "mind if we slip some guadacanal diary in with your cure and depeche?" though
― da croupier, Monday, 14 September 2015 14:33 (eight years ago) link
This week I got Brenton Wood's Oogum Boogum Song on my playlist, which I may have heard before but couldn't identify, and I found it delightful. Though now I've just learned that's apparently been used in a KIA ad, so that makes me a little disapppointed.
― MarkoP, Monday, 14 September 2015 14:39 (eight years ago) link
wish there was a "I am familiar with this artist already, please exclude from future discover playlists" ticker
― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Monday, 14 September 2015 15:38 (eight years ago) link
as much as I love Charli XCX I think I am all discovered on that front
― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Monday, 14 September 2015 15:39 (eight years ago) link
It's true that DW is not really attempting, at the moment, to aggressively push your boundaries. Think of it as just the beginning. If it's getting the kind of thing you like, it's proving that the basic personalization approach is working. Then we can start to apply that personalization to other sources of material, like Fresh Finds or new releases...
― glenn mcdonald, Monday, 14 September 2015 16:43 (eight years ago) link
I'm pretty cool with it just coughing up more 70s AM gold nuggets not currently in my playlists. The only real problem, as with all things of this nature (Netflix being the worst at this in my experience) is that you can't ever really tell it ''no, I know about that, I just think it sucks'' or ''i only want to listen to that artist in the context of their albums'' or ''i only dig their rambling story-songs, not their stabs at political relevancy'' or w/e. Like if there's any opportunty to low-rate things, I avoid it because I know the machine will never know *why* I'm hitting that button, and the distortions will pile up from there. So it goes.
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Monday, 14 September 2015 17:05 (eight years ago) link
I'm pretty cool with it just coughing up more 70s AM gold nuggets not currently in my playlists
yeah i'd just like to not see stuff from my playlists
― da croupier, Monday, 14 September 2015 17:19 (eight years ago) link
xpost Yes, me too. Which is why we're trying to mostly rely on listening, not "tuning", so you don't waste your time trying to pre-second-guess the robots.
― glenn mcdonald, Monday, 14 September 2015 17:21 (eight years ago) link
I'd like to convince it I'm not the incarnation of the part of idolator that reads like popjustice
― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Monday, 14 September 2015 17:23 (eight years ago) link
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_in,_garbage_out
― balls, Monday, 14 September 2015 18:22 (eight years ago) link
i spent last week making a huge '80s playlist so my discover weekly this week is amazing lol
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Monday, 14 September 2015 18:31 (eight years ago) link
― balls, Monday, September 14, 2015 2:22 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
that's the thing though, no matter how hard I try to influence it, it does not budge.
― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Monday, 14 September 2015 19:06 (eight years ago) link
Maybe try a couple solid weeks of Turkish hip hop and reggaeton.
― glenn mcdonald, Tuesday, 15 September 2015 00:02 (eight years ago) link
Beck, Bjork, The Smiths, JAMC, MBV, Cocteau Twins, Belle and Sebastian, Super Furries, Broadcast, plus a side order of The Fall, Talking Heads, Gang of Four, Durutti Column. I haven't escaped the male-centric indie spiral but it's finally figured out when my tastes formed.
― ledge, Tuesday, 15 September 2015 12:42 (eight years ago) link
Also, does the algorithm for the Discovery Playlist put any thought into order and flow of the playlist, or does it just find a bunch of random songs you might like and puts them in no particular order?
― MarkoP, Tuesday, 15 September 2015 14:25 (eight years ago) link
At the moment there's no particular internal order to the tracks, but this is an obvious area for future work...
― glenn mcdonald, Tuesday, 15 September 2015 15:06 (eight years ago) link
My Recent Artists over the last two weeks have been mostly metallic (Electric Wizard, Uncle Acid, Earth, Black Sabbath, Candlemass, Cirith Ungol, Enslaved, Myrkyr, Ulver, Opeth, Tribulation) but this week's Discovery Playlist remains much in the vein of the earlier ones I've received, strong on jazz and neo-soul ... the main change this time appears to be less soul and more old post-punk (always welcome) and current indie (somewhat less so). There's one Sabbath track (the atypical"Planet Caravan"), otherwise zero metal.
All my Discovery Playlists have been great so far, with very few tracks I wanted to skip, so I am not complaining at all ... it's just interesting to try to figure out how and when listening history affects results.
― Brad C., Tuesday, 15 September 2015 16:02 (eight years ago) link
Oooh, Running!
― MarkoP, Tuesday, 15 September 2015 16:37 (eight years ago) link
Charli XCX was a hidden gem until you took notice.
Now see how much your support means by logging into Found Them First and watching Charli XCX’s exclusive thank you video.
― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 21:15 (eight years ago) link
(I am assuming everyone else got this, or close to this)
― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 21:16 (eight years ago) link
lol i just got one of those for k. michelle
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 21:17 (eight years ago) link
would watch k michelle's exclusive thank you video
― Meta Forksclove-Liebeskind (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 15 September 2015 22:34 (eight years ago) link
Ron Jeremy was a hidden gem until you took notice.Now see how much your support means by logging intoFound Them First and watching Ron Jeremy’s exclusive thank you video.
Now see how much your support means by logging intoFound Them First and watching Ron Jeremy’s exclusive thank you video.
― Cosmic Slop, Tuesday, 15 September 2015 22:41 (eight years ago) link
https://www.spotify.com/us/jobs/view/oTes1fwk/
― Meta Forksclove-Liebeskind (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 20 September 2015 16:02 (eight years ago) link
from the "what you'll do" section of above job description:
Identify and substantiate playlist hypotheses.
should be new description of ILM. though maybe it's a little too on-the-nose.
― fact checking cuz, Sunday, 20 September 2015 16:15 (eight years ago) link
That's good solid Spotify-speak. You will really do that. You will really talk and think about it that way.
― glenn mcdonald, Sunday, 20 September 2015 17:19 (eight years ago) link
Finally clicked on Discover Weekly about an hour ago. Few tunes and even fewer artists I was unfamiliar with, but still a pleasant listening experience. Seems like more than one of us got recommended "Mystic Eyes," by Them.
― The Starry-Eyed Messenger Service (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 21 September 2015 04:25 (eight years ago) link