As someone who's really into music, streaming is incredible. With now 23 years, I'm not that old (compared to most people) but I do remember a time when there was no Spotify or Apple Music. Still, you had the iTunes Store but paying for each song every time you wanted a new song had this mental boundary. Getting unlimited songs in exchange for a fixed monthly fee completely changed the game.
With Spotify on the rise, curated playlists became popular - every mood basically got its own list of songs, which is also a super useful method to discover new up and coming artists.
But from my perspective, Spotify or Apple Music could get a fresh new feature for content recommendation. Something that isn't the result of machine learning algorithms analysing your preferences. Something more personal. Let me do a quick comparison:
Every now and then, I enjoy reading news. But I usually don’t use Apple News or other machine learning based content sites. I subscribed to Newsletters on Substack like the Ben Evans one, Morning Brew or Tim Ferris. Because I really enjoy the personal aspect of it. Meaning that you have someone behind that recommendation who can add that piece of personality and context.
With Spotify on the rise, curated playlists became popular - every mood basically got its own list of songs, which is also a super useful method to discover new up and coming artists.
But from my perspective, Spotify or Apple Music could get a fresh new feature for content recommendation. Something that isn't the result of machine learning algorithms analysing your preferences. Something more personal. Let me do a quick comparison:
Every now and then, I enjoy reading news. But I usually don’t use Apple News or other machine learning based content sites. I subscribed to Newsletters on Substack like the Ben Evans one, Morning Brew or Tim Ferris. Because I really enjoy the personal aspect of it. Meaning that you have someone behind that recommendation who can add that piece of personality and context.
The feature idea of mine is that but for everything audio content related. A thing that can be updated on a daily basis and happens within Spotify or Apple Music. And the curators can range from famous artists like Camila Cabello to the good taste music person in your inner circle.
It's probably nice for radio show hosts, too - who realise that their industry is dying but at the same time have this deep knowledge in music. They can then do Spotify/Apple Music Today as a side gig. I mean, people love the entertainment and talking aspect of radio but the ads just suck so bad. Or for artists who like to share what they listen to in a more storytelling way. Asked my sister and she would be excited to know what songs Harry Styles puts on his AirPods.
I wanna emphasise that I don't believe Machine Learning content is bad or evil or sth. It's super amazing for a lot of situations - like mentioned in the beginning - if you quickly wanna find a playlist for a certain mood. But there is something about these types of friends who recommend you good music. They are kinda special. And maybe this can be their infrastructure.
I wanna emphasise that I don't believe Machine Learning content is bad or evil or sth. It's super amazing for a lot of situations - like mentioned in the beginning - if you quickly wanna find a playlist for a certain mood. But there is something about these types of friends who recommend you good music. They are kinda special. And maybe this can be their infrastructure.