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Show HN: Selecta – Tune Your Own Spotify Recommendation Algorithm

selecta.ciaran.co.za

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Show HN: Selecta – Tune Your Own Spotify Recommendation Algorithm

#1

Post by parabyl »

I posted here a while back with this app I'd been working on. In short:

It allows you to talk to Spotify's recommendations API to specify musical features you'd like recommendations similar to.

It's loads of fun to mess around with, and I've given it an overhaul to include many more dimensions ito. musical features, as well as the ability to log in with Spotify, and save things you find to a playlist. You don't need a subscription to Spotify to use the app either.

Thanks to @Mockapapella for the tagline when I posted the first version: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35907215

Show HN: Selecta – Tune Your Own Spotify Recommendation Algorithm
selecta.ciaran.co.za

Re: Show HN: Selecta – Tune Your Own Spotify Recommendation Algorithm

#6

Post by parabyl »

Euphorbium wrote: post #5

I will try this out later, I find spotify recomendations a pure torture. The best I got was old last.fm recomendations, while they still had streaming, then soundcloud and pandora. The best ones had dislikes, not just likes.

They really can be terrible sometimes. I loved last.fm too - still sporadically scrobbling at https://www.last.fm/user/Knightspore. But today my profile mostly serves as a record of music I had come across more 'organically' prior to mainly consuming via streaming services.

Re: Show HN: Selecta – Tune Your Own Spotify Recommendation Algorithm

#8

Post by digging »

Interesting! Too late for me; Spotify's declining recommendation capability was one of several issues that allowed me to cancel my subscription.

I really wish streaming services would just let us give conscious direction instead of trying to hack our brains. They're not as good at as they think.

Re: Show HN: Selecta – Tune Your Own Spotify Recommendation Algorithm

#9

Post by parabyl »

digging wrote: post #8

Interesting! Too late for me; Spotify's declining recommendation capability was one of several issues that allowed me to cancel my subscription. I really wish streaming services would just let us give conscious direction instead of trying to hack our brains. They're not as good at as they think.

If you still want to give it a shot, you shouldn't need an active subscription for it to work. But I do totally get moving away from the streaming world. Even bandcamp is losing its ground as a safe a haven for making sure artists are paid their worth.

Re: Show HN: Selecta – Tune Your Own Spotify Recommendation Algorithm

#10

Post by phaedrus »

A feature I've long desired would be to be able to ask what lies between or along the average or sum of the vectors representing two arbitrary songs or bands. For example what music is midway between "Florence and the Machine" and "Primus"? Or, what happens if you take the vector from Green Day to Modest Mouse and extend it - do you land on another (presumably obscure indie) band?

If Spotify won't give me those toys, are such things possible via the API that Spotify has provided?

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