Stefan Prescott writes to us:
Before you dismiss (Spotify’s) discovery chart, remember it’s the same model as we had at our record stores when folks would come in and we would hand them a pile of records. Spotify have nailed doing this at scale based on listener’s data. I love the list; every week so far I have added music from their discovery chart to my various playlists. They have also solved the issue that iTunes and Amazon have not been able to do in their downloading model: offering visibility to millions of songs that are not necessarily new releases that folks would never hear otherwise. This list is not something derived from record label / artist manager marketing efforts. It works because the data is personalized. Finally, from experience, nobody recommends with 100% accuracy, but at least I am getting thirty tracks a week that I am interested to hear.
Great comments, which inspire me to investigate Spotify’s auto-curation a bit further.
I responded:
I am mostly interested in the differences in methodology rather than any outright dismissal, and I see Spotify’s as more rewarding for emerging artists which is where my preference actually lies. I just know, on a visceral level, the ‘For You’ tab on iTunes Music _feels_ more personalized, even though Spotify’s discovery list may actually be more so.
Those seemingly intangible factors that can make digitally delivered music connect or not connect with individuals … this is something that I will certainly be exploring further on this page.
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