Why your Spotify algorithm is lazy

We’ve all been there. You click on Discover Weekly, hoping for a fresh alt-rock track, but instead you get a top 40 song that sounds like it was copied and pasted from the last one. Spotify used to feel like entering a lair, one where you could curate and be curated by the algorithm. Now, it feels like a lazy shuffle button that you would rather just shut off. 

There is actually a reason behind this new reality. The metric that Spotify cares about most has been prioritizing user retention over discovery and artistry. Since we naturally get dopamine from familiarity, the algorithm has begun to play it safe, so you leave it on as background noise instead of skipping due to a jarring intro. The result is that our music feeds start being an echo chamber of similarly produced songs. 

The algorithm Spotify uses is essentially terrified of the skip button. If you skip a track before a certain amount of time, the algorithm treats that as a failure. So to avoid a skip, the AI stops taking risks on genre-bending or experimental music, and instead defaults to the beige-sounding music you already know. 

If you want better recommendations, you have to actively fight AI. Here is how to shake it up:

 1. Save songs to specific playlists so the algorithm knows you care

2. Go to your settings and hide your sleep playlists, workout tracks, or lo-fi study beats so they stop bleeding into your main feed 

3. Go on a digital cleanse and look into hyper-specific genres, physical copies of obscure music, or listen to your local college radio station

In my opinion, you should stop being lazy by letting this AI algorithm design your taste. And better yet, if you do not approve of AI, you can unsubscribe from streaming services, listen to your local college's radio station, buy physical copies of music, or go to concerts instead to support artists. 

I implore you to step out of the algorithm and go find some wacky music.