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Why Spotify’s Discover Weekly is getting really boring?

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Re: Why Spotify’s Discover Weekly is getting really boring?

#41

Post by karim »

gcr wrote: post #29
runj__ wrote: post #26

Having talked with people that have close insight into Discover Weekly it actually only checks your last few thousand songs though (weighting them accordingly) and checks if those songs are on other peoples playlists, then choosing the songs on their playlists that are not on yours. This means that you have a pretty big pool of songs to start with (people with similar taste) that is getting smaller and smaller. The f…

Please don't reveal intellectual property secrets on HN. It sounds like you got that information from a privileged source. (EDIT: I was wrong; this algorithm is public knowledge.)

Ha, those algorithms are far from trade secrets! Here's one of the Discover Weekly developers talking about how they implemented this feature: https://atscaleconference.com/videos/creating-and-scaling-sp.... If you're interested, here's a deeper technical explanation of the algorithm used: http://www.columbia.edu/~jwp2128/Teaching/W4721/papers/ieeec...

Re: Why Spotify’s Discover Weekly is getting really boring?

#42

Post by hbosch »

gcr wrote: post #29
runj__ wrote: post #26

Having talked with people that have close insight into Discover Weekly it actually only checks your last few thousand songs though (weighting them accordingly) and checks if those songs are on other peoples playlists, then choosing the songs on their playlists that are not on yours. This means that you have a pretty big pool of songs to start with (people with similar taste) that is getting smaller and smaller. The f…

Please don't reveal intellectual property secrets on HN. It sounds like you got that information from a privileged source. (EDIT: I was wrong; this algorithm is public knowledge.)

It is common knowledge[0] that Spotify peruses and pilfers songs from users with similar listener profiles and trades them around under "Discover Weekly". There aren't any closely guarded IP secrets in the GP comment here.

-

0. http://qz.com/571007/the-magic-that-makes-spotifys-discover-...

Re: Why Spotify’s Discover Weekly is getting really boring?

#44

Post by ivraatiems »

alvion wrote: post #27
ivraatiems wrote: post #18

Discover Weekly in this article is a microcosm of the problems with Spotify generally. Spotify (especially on desktop) has a LOT of issues. From poorly implemented shuffle play to random removal of features (notifications to ctrl-f to playlist organization), and a complicated by a total lack of dev communication on any platform. I think the issue with Spotify is not that their core is bad, it's that they never manage…

Regarding their desktop client; totally true. I recently discovered that keeping the Spotify App idle over 2 days, it had written 50 GB to my SSD. Not worth killing my disk over this service. Recommend this thread, where I became aware of the problem https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/56auoi/huge_amount_o...

Ugh, there's so many things like this. My Spotify is also constantly adding data to my local app directory even though I told it through advanced settings to store all music on a different drive.

For an app that's just a web backend in a wrapper, it is horrifically inefficient.

Re: Why Spotify’s Discover Weekly is getting really boring?

#45

Post by ivraatiems »

NegatioN wrote: post #31
ivraatiems wrote: post #18

Discover Weekly in this article is a microcosm of the problems with Spotify generally. Spotify (especially on desktop) has a LOT of issues. From poorly implemented shuffle play to random removal of features (notifications to ctrl-f to playlist organization), and a complicated by a total lack of dev communication on any platform. I think the issue with Spotify is not that their core is bad, it's that they never manage…

I've switched to Google Music. Although that has its own set of problems, I find it has better (or more dynamic) machine learning implemented for playlists and discovery mechanics. You can even reset the information it has learned from, and start over if you wish. Making Google listen to change-requests (in one of their not-so-prioritized) products will of course not be likely either.

I'd definitely consider switching. Do you happen to know: Are the libraries similar in size/breadth? How is the mobile app support? Would I be able to move my (many many) playlists across services somehow?

I think in our software ecosystem it's just a game of "who is doing the most like what I want at the moment." Communication with customers is largely dead.

Re: Why Spotify’s Discover Weekly is getting really boring?

#46

Post by ivraatiems »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #33
ivraatiems wrote: post #18

Discover Weekly in this article is a microcosm of the problems with Spotify generally. Spotify (especially on desktop) has a LOT of issues. From poorly implemented shuffle play to random removal of features (notifications to ctrl-f to playlist organization), and a complicated by a total lack of dev communication on any platform. I think the issue with Spotify is not that their core is bad, it's that they never manage…

Spotify is running for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week here and I have no complaints. I love the UI and responsivess, even on my 3Mbit ADSL line. It's everything I ever wished for in a music app.

I guess my response would be: Check your disk usage for hidden evil surprises, and give it time. It'll disappoint you. I've been a user for years and it's in the last year or so that things started going downhill. Since the release of "1.0," the redesign that replaced a ton of features with a sleek design and still hasn't caught up to older versions.

Re: Why Spotify’s Discover Weekly is getting really boring?

#47

Post by gcr »

karim wrote: post #41
gcr wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't reveal intellectual property secrets on HN. It sounds like you got that information from a privileged source. (EDIT: I was wrong; this algorithm is public knowledge.)

Ha, those algorithms are far from trade secrets! Here's one of the Discover Weekly developers talking about how they implemented this feature: https://atscaleconference.com/videos/creating-and-scaling-sp... . If you're interested, here's a deeper technical explanation of the algorithm used: http://www.columbia.edu/~jwp2128/Teaching/W4721/papers/ieeec...

I see. Pardon, my mistake.

Re: Why Spotify’s Discover Weekly is getting really boring?

#48

Post by gcr »

ivraatiems wrote: post #44
alvion wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding their desktop client; totally true. I recently discovered that keeping the Spotify App idle over 2 days, it had written 50 GB to my SSD. Not worth killing my disk over this service. Recommend this thread, where I became aware of the problem https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/56auoi/huge_amount_o...

Ugh, there's so many things like this. My Spotify is also constantly adding data to my local app directory even though I told it through advanced settings to store all music on a different drive. For an app that's just a web backend in a wrapper, it is horrifically inefficient.

http://play.spotify.com/

Skip the app!

Re: Why Spotify’s Discover Weekly is getting really boring?

#50

Post by JasonSage »

fecklessyouth wrote: post #25
JasonSage wrote: post #19

I definitely disagree with the premise of the article. I have a playlist where I pull in my favorites from Discover Weekly, and it just turned one year old. I still consistently get great new songs to add to the playlist. I've also gleaned some insight into my general disposition over the least year from the playlist. I can tell exactly when I was in a "mood" or a rut... When I was listening to lots of angry music, t…

>I have a playlist where I pull in my favorites from Discover Weekly Do you do this manually, or use the API?

I do this manually. Usually after several listens to the entire Discover Weekly I'll already have a couple in mind I want to hear more, and I'll pull these into my collection playlist.

On the other end though, some Monday mornings I pull up Discover Weekly and there's this soul-crushing moment when I realize there's a brand new playlist and I forgot to add some treasure I'd been listening to all the last week. I've lost one or two songs in this manner. But if they're still relevant to me in the future, I trust Spotify to eventually lead me back to them somehow. That's how crazy good Spotify is to me. :P

I once saw a service that automatically saves your Discover Weekly to a new playlist each week. I've done this manually to "snapshot" a few great Discover Weekly sets, but if I was a little smarter I'd use automated service to save me from those occasional regretful Mondays.

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