Universal listeners: Spotify expanding people’s musical horizons
Like social media, Spotify has become a platform for people to share a piece of their daily lives. To keep up with apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter Spotify uses AI to understand users’ behavior so that they can provide listeners with a more global experience, therefore, expanding their musical horizons.
As a person born in the twenty-first century, it’s hard to imagine a world without an iPod or YouTube where I have access to music at the click of a button. But in fact, not too long before I was born, people had to take time out of their days to actually leave the house and buy music — rough life right? This was a time where music wasn’t downloadable and was very limited.
How did we get here?
The evolution of recording music that has led us to the creation of Spotify started with the invention of the phonograph, made in 1877, that captured and replayed sound. Later this turned into CDs, MP3s, and eventually the iPod. No doubt all of these devices where milestones in the availability of music but all they did was expose listeners mainstream music or music that was popular in their socio-cultural environment.
Today, streaming music has transformed what we listen to and how we do it. Spotify has taken the lead in introducing people to music from all over the world and using advanced artificial intelligence to understand what users might want to listen to.
Spotify has created a way to listen to any song of personal interest but also get involved with what family, friends, and even celebrities are listening to. Users are allowed to follow other users’ activity and explore already made playlists. This alone allows people to discover music they might have never been introduced to without the app. Spotify doesn’t stop there, however, as they have created daily updated playlists that show the most listened to songs in all country’s that use Spotify. In a matter of seconds, you could be listening to music from Russia, France, Brazil, Spain, while sitting at your house in Lincoln, Nebraska.
What makes Spotify different?
While these features do make Spotify users universal listeners they also exist on other music streaming platforms like Pandora and Apple Music. What makes Spotify different, is the advanced AI and machine learning that uses data to personalize and enhance user experience.
The main feature that has succeeded in broadening people’s musical horizons is ‘Discover Weekly’. Each Monday users receive a customized playlist that contains thirty songs that AI predicts they will like. The selected list of songs aim to introduce users to songs that they haven’t heard before but might like. So if one week you listen to Spotify’s Top 100: Spain, the following week your discover weekly playlist will most probably contain other Spanish songs. This effective function keeps users engaged with the platform but also expands their musical interests as they become more familiar with different artists and songs.
Can Apple Music Really Compete?
Because of these features and Spotify’s ability to expand people’s musical tastes, it succeeds in being the most used music streaming platform in the world. With more than 100 million users worldwide that pay for Spotify Premium and a total of 217 million monthly active users worldwide, including free subscribers. This puts Spotify way ahead of Apple Music that is said to be its biggest competitor.
Apple Music doesn’t contribute like Spotify in broadening people’s musical horizons because it is yet to produce features similar to Spotify. Apple Music so far has just simple references to artists that might be of interest but they are generalized rather than personalized like Spotify. For example, Apple Music might have a playlist called “Pop” and it might put together a bunch of songs thats people associate with eachother, while Spotify’s playlist would be “Pop for Jane Doe”. Overall, Apple Music still works like it always has, through the use of iTunes.
Our Future
As it stands Spotify has been successful in gaining global attention. With its unique features, it has made music streaming extremely accessible while making its users more knowledgeable about the world and the music that lights it up. Everyday Spotify improves their AI systems therefore the platform will continue to expand people’s musical horizons like no other. The question is will Apple Music catch up?
CHECK OUT MY SPOTIFY!
As a long time Spotify user, i’ve found the time to explore my personal taste and create playlists that fit my every mood. As I consider myself a universal listener, I have categorized my playlists mostly by language that include: Russian, Turkish, Spanish, and more!
https://open.spotify.com/user/128016241?si=lnx0Kpk9TT2pC7bQwYCBVA
