Podcasts about discover weekly

Spotify lanza Snooze para bloquear canciones repetidas y ofrece más control a usuarios Premium  Por Félix Riaño @LocutorCo        Spotify tiene 615 millones de oyentes mensuales, de los cuales 236 millones pagan Premium. La plataforma está probando una nueva función llamada «Snooze 30 días». Los usuarios Premium pueden bloquear temporalmente canciones que no quieren escuchar. La función aparece junto a las opciones de «Ocultar» y permite pausar una canción durante 30 días sin eliminarla. Snooze se está probando en Estados Unidos, Canadá y Reino Unido, y pronto llegará a otros países. Spotify reconoce que su algoritmo a veces repite canciones y ofrece Snooze para que los usuarios tengan más control.     Spotify admite que sus recomendaciones pueden volverse repetitivas.     Spotify ofrece Discover Weekly desde 2015. Cada lunes, esta lista sugiere 30 canciones personalizadas usando un algoritmo que analiza 2 billones de listas y el historial de cada usuario. Pero el sistema tiene un problema: si una canción se reproduce hasta el final, Spotify asume que gusta y la repite. En 2024, Chartmetric mostró que 4 de cada 10 oyentes saltan la misma canción al menos 3 veces por semana. Con Snooze, los usuarios pueden bloquear esas canciones sin borrarlas.     El problema de las canciones repetitivas no solo aburre, también afecta a los artistas. Los músicos emergentes pueden ver su trabajo rechazado si aparece fuera de contexto. Además, los grandes sellos dominan las listas de recomendaciones. Deezer y YouTube Music ya ofrecieron soluciones similares. Ahora, Spotify lanza Snooze para dar más control a los usuarios sin afectar su modelo de negocio.     Spotify no solo añade Snooze. También ha mejorado el botón «Ocultar», que ahora sincroniza la decisión en todos los dispositivos. La sección «Ahora Suena» muestra las recomendaciones futuras y permite eliminarlas. También se añadieron accesos directos a Shuffle, Smart Shuffle, Repetir y Temporizador de Sueño.     Spotify paga a los artistas un promedio de 0,0032 USD por reproducción. Esto equivale a menos de un tercio de un centavo. Un artista necesita 312 reproducciones para ganar 1 dólar. En mercados como Colombia y México, el costo del plan familiar de Spotify se puede dividir entre seis personas, reduciendo el costo mensual a menos de 1 dólar por persona. Esto hace que el servicio sea accesible.     Spotify no paga a los creadores de pódcast. Solo paga a las discográficas por las canciones. Los pódcast son gratuitos para todos, incluso para quienes no pagan Premium. Los usuarios Premium escuchan música sin anuncios, pero los pódcast pueden incluir publicidad, ya que los anuncios son responsabilidad del creador del contenido. Algunos pódcast son de pago y se compran por episodio o temporada.    Spotify lanza Snooze para silenciar canciones repetitivas. También mejora las opciones de control en la cola de reproducción. Los pódcast siguen siendo gratuitos para todos. ¿Te interesa probar Snooze? Síguenos en Flash Diario: Flash Diario en Spotify     Spotify prueba Snooze: pausa canciones repetitivas 30 días, controla tu cola y recuerda que los pódcast siguen gratis.Bibliografía TechRadar     The Verge     TechCrunch     Spotify Newsroom     Conviértete en un seguidor de este podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/flash-diario-de-el-siglo-21-es-hoy--5835407/support.

What do Spotify, Google Meet, and your expense report tool have in common? They could all delight your users—if you design for more than just function. In this episode, Dr. Nesrine Changuel breaks down the emotional motivators that transform average products into unforgettable ones. Overview What separates a good product from a great one? According to Dr. Nesrine Changuel, it's not just meeting functional needs—it's creating emotional delight. In this episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast, Brian Milner sits down with Nesrine, a former product leader at Google, Spotify, and Microsoft, to explore how emotional connection is the secret sauce behind the world’s most beloved products. They dive into Nesrine’s “Delight Framework,” reveal how seemingly mundane tools (like time-tracking software or toothbrush apps!) can create joy, and explain why delight isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s a competitive edge. Whether you're a product owner, product manager, or just want to build better user experiences, this episode will change how you think about your backlog forever. References and resources mentioned in the show: Dr. Nesrine Changuel Product Delight by Dr. Nesrine Changuel Blog: What is a Product? by Mike Cohn #116: Turning Weird User Actions into Big Wins with Gojko Adzic #124: How to Avoid Common Product Team Pitfalls with David Pereira Join the Agile Mentors Community Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast Want to get involved? This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input. Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one. Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com This episode’s presenters are: Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work. Dr. Nesrine Changuel is a product coach, advisor, and speaker with over a decade of senior product management experience at Google, Spotify, and Microsoft, where she led major consumer products like Chrome, Meet, Spotify, and Skype. She holds a Master’s in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Media Processing and Telecommunications and is based in Paris. Auto-generated Transcript: Brian Milner (00:00) Welcome back Agile Mentors. We're back for another episode of the Agile Mentors podcast. I'm with you as always Brian Milner and today I have a very special guest with me. I have Dr. Nesrine Changuel with me. Welcome in Nesrine. Nesrine (00:14) Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me. Brian Milner (00:16) I'm very excited to have Nesreen with us. I think this is going to be a really, really great episode for all of you product owners out there or product specialists, anybody who works in the product area. I think you're going to find this really interesting and you're going to want to bookmark this one. Maybe even come back to this a little bit. Nesreen is a coach, a speaker, particularly in the product area. She has previously worked at Google. She's worked at Spotify, at Microsoft, so no stranger to large enterprise, very high profile products that she's worked on in the past. She has a book coming out in May, so look for this book. It's called Product Delight. And that's really what we're going to be focusing on here is the concept of eliciting or generating kind of an emotional response to our product. I guess I'll start by, did you stumble upon this? What drew your interest to people's emotional response to products? Nesrine (01:19) Yes, so maybe I can share the story how I came to this topic and how I became so vocal about it. So in addition to being a product manager and leader over the last decade, I was always and I always enjoyed being a speaker. So I always wanted to go on stage and share insight. This is probably coming from my research background, because when I used to be a researcher, I traveled the world to go and present my research work and When I became a product manager, I kept this habit with me. So I always been on stage and I spoke about different topics like product discovery, product operation, different topics. Until one day I got reached out by a conference organizer and he said, Hey, Nisri, we want you on stage, but we have an idea for a topic for you. I'm not that used. Usually I come up with idea myself, but I said, okay, what do want me to talk about? And he said, Hey, Nusreen, you have been working for Spotify, for Microsoft, for Google Chrome and Google Meet, and we all admire those products and we consider them very successful products. What if you come and tell us what's the common thing that probably is there any common thing that made those products successful? Being an insider, being within those company, could you share with us something that you consider in common between those products? To be honest with you, I found it challenging at the same time interesting as an exercise. I was not, by the way, able at that time to answer the question, what's in common? So I sat down and I did the exercise myself and I started to think what was really in common? What made Skype Skype? What made Spotify Spotify and those Google products so successful? And I came to the following conclusion. I found that what made those products so successful is that they don't only solve for functional needs, but they also solve for emotional needs. So when we use a particular product, we use it for a certain functional need, but we also use it for an emotional need. And without even knowing that I have been doing it for more than 12 years, I came to the conclusion that, my God, during all those years, I have been focusing so much into users need from both angle, functional and emotional. So I came on stage and I spoke about that topic and from that day, I started to give it a name. I'm calling it emotional connection. I'm calling it product delight. And I'm here to share more about it as well. Brian Milner (03:50) That's awesome, yeah. I mean, I think we do hear a lot and we focus a lot on that functional kind of need, the way you differentiate there. think that's a good differentiation, functional and emotional kind of needs or motivators there. yeah, I mean, I've always heard, know, kind of that kind of general product advice is, you know, find the things that... people really, really have as huge needs, the things they would pay someone to do for them. And that's the key to success is finding those huge needs. But we're actually going beyond that to say, yeah, those are important. It's not to say that we should skip that, but it's when there's the emotional connection to a feature or to something that we do that really the light bulb kind of comes on for our customers. Is that kind of what your research is leading to? Nesrine (04:40) you're getting it right. Don't get me wrong. Of course you have to honor the functional needs and serve the functional feature, but the delight or the emotional connection happens when you go beyond exactly how you said it. Let me explain. If you serve only functional needs, you know what you get? You get satisfied users because they are asking for something and they are satisfied about what they are receiving. Now, Brian Milner (04:41) Okay, okay. Haha. Nesrine (05:05) If you surprise them by going beyond, by anticipating their need, by exceeding their expectation, you're not only satisfying them, you're surprising them in a positive way and delight is the combination of surprise and joy. Actually, the theoretical definition of delight is a combination of two emotions, surprise and joy. So going beyond, anticipate need and exceed expectation. is what we should aim for in addition to the functional needs. Brian Milner (05:35) That's awesome. Yeah, I use this example sometimes in, we use this example in the agile world to talk about, you know, the part of the agile manifesto that says customer collaboration over contract negotiation. And, you know, there's an example I use from my past where I used to work at a company that was very contract driven. And, you know, the thing that I always used to kind of take away from that was the very best we could ever do or hope to do. was to meet our customers' expectations. We could never, ever exceed it because we were only doing exactly what they told us to do. So I think this is a really important distinction here to make that just meeting the customer's needs, just meeting the minimal customer satisfaction bar, that's not going to keep you with loyal customers. That's not going to have repeat customers, or they're not going to tell their friends about, you know. That product did exactly what I hoped it would do. But it didn't really surprise me. It didn't really go beyond that. I know you talked about, because I've read your blog and a little bit of the discussion about this. So I know you talk about in the blog kind of the connection to Kano analysis. And I've always thought that's a really great way to try to determine things to target and go after. So talk to us a little bit about that, about Kano analysis and kind of what that uncovers and how that connects to what your research has shown. Nesrine (06:51) Yes. I love Kano by the way. I, I mean, that's one of the framework I have been considering throughout most of my product career. But this framework comes with a limitation and let me explain. So first of all, for those who are not very familiar with Kano, Kano is a visualization or categorization, let's call it. It's a categorization framework that allows to categorize features among different categories. One of them is must have. So these are the things that absolutely have to be in the product. Other that are performances, which are the more you have, the more satisfied users are, the less they less satisfied they are. And of course there are the delighters and delighters are those feature that when they are in the product, users are surprisingly happy. And when they are not, are not even the satisfaction is not even impacted. So the limitation of Kano is that it doesn't tell you how to achieve delight. Let me explain. I think we live in a world that everyone agree that we should delight our users. I mean, this, this concept is now globalized and everyone is talking about delighting users. The issue is that we don't know how to delight them. So we know category, there's a category that called delight, but we don't know how to. So the, the framework that I'm introducing and I'm calling it the delight framework is the framework that allows to first identify. So it's usually, represented into three steps. The first step is to start by identifying the emotional and functional motivators. So let me give you an example. I've been working at Spotify for about four years and as a Spotify user, imagine yourself, you are a Spotify user. You do have, of course, functional motivators. What could be the functional motivators? Listening to music, listening to podcasts, maybe listening to an audiobook. So all those are functional motivators. Now, what could be the emotional motivators as a Spotify user? It could be feeling less lonely. It could be feeling more productive because when you're working you need to listen to something. It could be about changing your mood. It could be about feeling connected. So all those are emotional motivators that drive users to use a product like Spotify. So what I encourage every product manager or every product team to do at first is to dig into identifying, of course, the functional need. And everyone is good, by the way, in identifying the functional needs. But also, while doing that exercise, pay attention to what could be the emotional motivators. So that's step number one is about listing the functional and the emotional motivators. Once you have those, Now we get to the second part of the framework, which is look at your backlog. And I guess you have a very busy backlog and take those features one by one and see for this particular feature, which motivator am I solving for among the functional ones and among the emotional ones as well. So the delight grid, for example, is a visualization tool that I came and created in order to allow product teams to visualize their backlog and see how many of my features are only solving for functional motivators. In that case, we call that category low delight. How many of my features are only solving for emotional motivators? These are very rare, but the best example I would call is, for example, I'm having an Apple watch and one month ago it was New Year Eve and at midnight I get fireworks popping out of my Brian Milner (10:35) Ha Nesrine (10:36) Apple watch and it was a happy new year there's nothing functional in there but it's all about creating some smile I call this surface delight and then how many of your features are solving for both functional and emotional motivators and I call this deep delight so maybe I deviated a bit from your question compared to canoe but it's actually about adding this dimension of connecting features to the real motivators of the users. Brian Milner (11:07) No, maybe a little bit, but you connected it to where we end up going anyway. So I think that's a great connection there. And by the way, for anyone listening, we'll link to all of this so that you can find this and follow up. But I like that differentiation between surface delight and deep delight. I know some of the examples that I've heard used kind of frequently in looking at Kano analysis and kind of trying to find those delighters. And that is kind of the area that it specifies there in Canoe, right? You're trying to find those things that are not expected, but when people find that they're there, they like that it's there, but they don't expect it's there. So if it's not there, there's no negative response that it's not there, but there's a positive response if it's there because they like seeing it. And my boss, Mike Cohn, tells this story about this Nesrine (11:59) Yes. Brian Milner (12:03) There's a hotel in California that became famous because at the pool, they have a phone that's by the pool that's the Popsicle Hotline. And you can pick up the phone and you can order a Popsicle to be brought to the pool. And it's the kind of thing where you're not going to go search for a hotel. Does this hotel have a Popsicle Hotline? I'm only going to stay at hotels with Popsicle Hotlines. It's not that kind of a normal feature. It's a delight feature because when you see it and you find out it's there, it's like, that's really cool. And it can be the kind of thing that says, yeah, I want to search that hotel out again next time I'm in this area because I really thought that was a nice little attention to detail and it was fun. But I think what I'm hearing from you is that might be more of what we would classify as a surface delight. It's not really meeting a deep need. Nesrine (12:35) Yes. Brian Milner (12:56) But it's fun, it's exciting, it's not expected, but it doesn't really cross that threshold into, but it also meets kind of functional delights. Is that kind of what you're saying there? Okay. Okay. Nesrine (13:08) Yes, actually I heard about that hotel story just to tell you how much viral it went. It came to me. So actually you get it correct that I consider that as surface delight and I have nothing against by the way, surface delight. You can add surface delight. The issue is you can end up doing only surface delight and that's not enough. So the idea is to do a combination and I do have two stories to share with you just to compliment on this hotel story. One is personal and one is professional. Brian Milner (13:21) Yeah. Okay. Nesrine (13:37) The personal one just happened to me a month ago. I went to Sweden and I went to Stockholm. That's where I worked for eight years. And I went there for business and I decided to meet some friends and some ex-colleagues. So we all gathered and went to a restaurant, a very nice restaurant in Sweden. And came the time where we had to say goodbye and to pay. And I guess you can feel it immediately when it's about paying and we are a large group and you start to get that anxiety about who's paying what and what did I order? What did I drink? What? I mean, I honestly hate that moment, especially in a large group where you don't necessarily have a lot of affinity with us. Like, should we split in 10? Should we pay each one paying its piece anyway? So that was a moment of frustration, of anxiety. Brian Milner (14:09) right. Yeah. Nesrine (14:28) And I loved how the restaurant solved it for it. You know how they solve for it? I mean, maybe it exists in the U.S., but for me, that's something I never seen before. The waiter came with a QR code on a piece of paper and you scan the QR code. And when you scan your QR code, you get the list of items that got purchased by the table. And all you have is to pick, and that happens automatically real time. Everyone is picking at the same time. You pick the things from the list and you pay. for the things that you order. You can even tip on the bottom. You can give feedback. Everything happened on that QR code. And you can guess how much that anxiety could be removed. So that's the personal story I wanted to share. The second story, which is more professional, I want to share how we try to improve experience at Google Chrome. So I've been the product manager at Google Chrome. Brian Milner (15:13) Yeah. Nesrine (15:25) And we started from the observation that people do have plenty of open tabs. I guess you are one of them, especially on mobile. Like on mobile, you go and check how many open tabs you do have on Chrome and you realize that they are have, we realized at least out of numbers, out of data that people do have plenty of open tabs. So it started as Brian Milner (15:32) You Nesrine (15:47) technical issue. Of course, the more tab you have, the heavier the app is, the slower the app could be, et cetera. So we wanted to reduce the number of unnecessary open tabs in Chrome. So we interviewed users and we started to check with them, why do they even leave their tabs open? So some of them leave tabs because they consider them as a reminder. I mean, if tab is open, it means that you need to finish a task there. Some people really leave tabs just for ignorance. mean, they moved from a tab to another and they completely forget about them. Actually, we realized that the fact of leaving tab open, the reason for leaving tab could be completely different from a person to another. And the other interesting observation, and when I say identify emotional motivators, you will realize that people feel a bit ashamed when they show to us that they do have plenty of open tabs. Some of them would say, sorry, I usually don't even have so many open tabs. It's only now. And I'm like, it's okay. But the point is, if you have this mindset of trying to track the emotional insight from your users, you will take note. And the note was anxiety, feeling ashamed, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that was in introduction for in... Brian Milner (16:42) You Yeah, right. Nesrine (17:04) improving the tab management experience later on in Chrome. Brian Milner (17:07) That's actually a really good parallel, though. I think that's a good example because it reminds me, too, even going back, I remember one of the things, and I'm going way back here, but I remember one of the things about Gmail that was kind of a selling point initially was the concept there of you don't have to worry about maintaining an inbox. keep all your mails and search. And you can search through your mails and find whatever it is. And I remember prior to that, most people would use something like Outlook or something like that to have their mail, there was always this constant struggle of, I've got to keep it down. I've got to delete things. I've got to categorize things. And Google had this different approach of, don't worry about it. Just leave it. And that's a good, I think, example as well of kind of that emotional response of, Nesrine (17:48) Yes. Brian Milner (17:56) Gosh, I'm kind of anxious. I feel bad that my inbox is so big. And I know that's bad, but Google comes along and says, don't worry about it. You're not bad. It's OK. Yeah. Nesrine (18:05) Yeah, yeah. And by the way, I think Gmail is filled with plenty of deep delight features. One of them I can quickly highlight is, you know, when you send an email, we're saying attached file and the file is not there. And when you try to hit send, you get that pop up like a be careful or like a mind, there is no attached file inside. These are for me like very attached to the fact that You don't want to feel ashamed. You don't want to look stupid later on saying, Hey, sorry, I forgot the file. Here's the file. That's, that's a great example. And the other example that come to mind again in Gmail, you know, that smart compose when you're trying to answer an email and you can just hit tab, tab, tab to complete the sentence. I mean, the functional need is to write an email. The emotional need is to get it in a relaxed way. And the combination would allow for something like. Brian Milner (18:49) Yeah. Nesrine (19:00) Smart Compose. Brian Milner (19:01) That's awesome. Yeah, so I guess that leads to the question though, when we're talking about something like Spotify, mean, music intrinsically is emotional anyway, right? It's something that you have an emotional connection to and you feel a certain way when you hear music. But if my product is a, I don't know, expense reporting software, right? Nesrine (19:23) Mm-hmm. Brian Milner (19:25) I can just hear people out there kind of asking, know, and kind of thinking to themselves, yeah, but my product, right, my product is not that kind of, it doesn't elicit that kind of emotional response in people the same way music would. So does this apply to me as well? So how would you answer those people who feel like my products might be a little bit more bland or boring and don't really intrinsically have an emotional connection to them? Nesrine (19:47) Mm-hmm. So my answer is that if your product is boring, then it's even more priority now to focus on emotional connection. But let me elaborate. So that's one of the reflections that came to my mind while writing the book. So while writing the book, I wanted the book to be a storytelling book. So I was writing a lot of my stories, stories from Skype at the time, Spotify and all the Google product. But at some point I said, hey, hey, Nisreen, you need to get more insight from other people and other experiences. So I get to interview product leaders from completely different industries and completely different domain. I interviewed leaders from B2B like Atlassian or Intuit and so many other companies that I don't have so much insight from. I even interviewed people from hardware, like I interviewed someone from Dyson and I was, hey, what makes Dyson so emotionally attractive for me? Cause I love my Dyson vacuum cleaner. But let me get to your point because when I interviewed someone from Intuit, that person told me something super interesting. She told me that at some point she was working at a tool called Tsheet. And Tsheet is a tool that allows you to enter your time report. There is nothing more boring than that. I think I'm picking the one that you're looking for here because it's, it's as a user. The only reason I would use this tool is to report my time so I can get paid. Brian Milner (21:06) Hmm. Right. Yeah. Nesrine (21:19) There is nothing exciting, nothing emotional. And what I got out of that product leader who used to be the head of product at the time, she told me that they were completely aware about the fact that the product is not that attractive. And instead of living with that observation, they did all what they could do to make it even more attractive. So they added some fun. They made the messaging less aggressive and less about enter your time. report but rather into more playful and even the images are more playful. When you press the enter time report you get the congratulation and some confetti if needed. So they explicitly turned and that's a strategy. They turned that boring moment into something even more attractive and they had to do that otherwise the experience will keep on becoming more more boring and the perception of users toward the product will be even less, more and more gray, I would say. Brian Milner (22:22) Yeah, yeah, just that little dopamine kind of kick, right? Just that little bit of chemical reaction in your brain can make a huge difference. That's awesome. That's a great story and a great answer to that question. So I'm curious, we're talking about trying to find these things and trying to see, your matrix here, it thinks about the emotional motivators, the functional motivators, and trying to find those things that kind of cross both planes. Nesrine (22:24) Yep. Brian Milner (22:52) How do you verify at the end? Because if you're lining your features up and think, I think this solves this emotional thing. I think this solves this functional thing. Is there a way to follow up to ensure that it actually is doing that? How do you follow up to make sure it's really doing what you thought it would do? Nesrine (23:09) Yes, so let's imagine you did the exercise well, you filled in the delight grade and you observed that you do have plenty of low delights, which is most of the cases by the way. The very first thing I recommend is to see opportunities for moving or transforming these features into deep delight. And in the book, for example, I talk about the nine delighters. Nine delighters are ways that could be sometimes cheap even to introduce. in order to make those low delight features into more deep delight. This could be, for example, through personalization. We love when the features are personalized, and that's one of the reasons, for example, why Spotify is so successful, is through features like Discover Weekly or RAPT or these kinds of super personalization related features. It could be through seasonality. That's, for me, the cheapest and the most delightful feature you can or aspect of feature you can add to your product. So for example, when I worked at Google Meet, I've been working at the background replace features. So we have been, of course, introducing static image. We have been introducing video backgrounds as well. But from time to time, we always use seasonality to introduce what we call seasonal background. So when it's Easter, we introduce Easter background. When it's Christmas, we introduce Christmas background. Guess what? Even like for Olympic game, we introduce Olympic game background. When it's the Earth Day, we introduced Earth Day background. So there is always an opportunity to introduce some seasonality to the product. And guess what? We relate to those, especially if the product is global. We relate like last, when was it? Like last Wednesday. It was the new year, the Chinese new year. And I was checking when is exactly the exact date for the new year, the Chinese new day. And I put that and you know what happened in Chrome? It got these dragons and those like the celebration within the product, like within Chrome. These of course are surface delight, but you know what? Why not? You see? So there are some tools. Some of them are not that... Brian Milner (25:17) Right. Nesrine (25:22) expensive to introduce to the product. Some would require a bit more thoughtful and thought into it, but there are ways that I detail in the book in order to introduce more delight. And then if you want to validate through metrics, and I guess that's your question where it's heading to, then the good news, and that's something that I discovered recently because there's been a study that was conducted by McKinsey. And you know what they studied? They studied the impact of emotional connection on product adoption. So they actually studied over, I don't know how many industries die, like tourism, IT, energy, whatever. And they interviewed more than 100,000 users or whatever. So the conclusion that they found out of that very interesting study is that emotionally connected users will get you more twice as more revenue, twice as more referral, and twice as more retention compared to satisfied users. I'm not talking about the non-satisfied. So if you take two groups of users, those that you satisfy their needs and those that you go beyond and they are emotionally connected, those that are emotionally connected get you twice revenue, referral and retention. Brian Milner (26:19) Hmm. Nesrine (26:43) So this is just to highlight that for people who say, no, but this is the cherry on the top. This is just like the extra. It's not the extra, it's the way to stand out. I don't know any company that is standing out nowadays without investing into emotional connection, none. Brian Milner (26:54) Yeah. That's a really good point. Yeah, I mean, the example that comes to my mind when you talked about seasonality and other things like that, know, I love my, you know, they're not a sponsor, Oral-B toothbrush, you know, the electronic toothbrush, and you know, there's an app with it and it keeps track of, you know, did you get all the areas of your teeth and did you hold it there long enough and... One of the things I always love about it is when it gets to December, the opening screen when you open up the app starts having snowfall. It's kind of a funny little emotional response, but you look at that and you think, that's cool. Yeah, it is kind of that season where now it's time to get ready for Christmas and it's that special. It's only this month that it's going to be like that. It's going to go away at the end of the month. Nesrine (27:45) Yes. Brian Milner (27:49) feel little sad when it's gone, it's back to normal. But it's such a silly little thing. Does that make any difference in really brushing my teeth at all? Does it change how well I brush my Not really. It's just a fun little thing that when it pops up there. And think how little that took from someone to do that. It's a little animation that they just pop up on a loading screen. But that little tiny bit, think, again, maybe a little bit surface. Nesrine (28:10) Yes. Brian Milner (28:16) but it takes something that would have been routine. It takes something that would have been kind of boring otherwise, and it just added a little bit of fun to it, you know? And I think you're right, that emotional connection is really, really important in situations like that, yeah. Nesrine (28:21) Yes. Yes. Yes, yeah. And the thing that I'm very vocal about nowadays is the fact that this emotional connection is actually not a new topic. It's something that has been extremely popular among marketers. For example, if you think about the best marketing campaign, they are all very emotional. The most successful marketing campaign are. If you think about designers, there are plenty of resources about emotional design. There is a great book by Don Norman. It was called emotional design. Aaron Walter as well wrote something called Designing for Emotion. But you know, the problem is that among engineers and among product manager, we don't talk that much about that. And you know what happened when we are not informed about this topic? There is a gap between the language of marketers, designers, and the engineers and product manager. And that gap doesn't allow things to succeed. I'm trying to educate the engineers and the product world towards this well-known domain outside of the product in order to have this consistency and start making real impactful products. Brian Milner (29:40) Yeah, yeah, this is such a really deep topic and it just encourages me, think, even more to recommend the book there. It's not out yet, time of this recording it's not out, but it's going to be in May of 2025. That's when this book is coming out. And I know it's gonna have a lot of really good information in it. Again, the book is gonna be called Product Delight. by Nesrine Changuel, Dr. Nesrine Changuel. I should make sure I say that. But I really appreciate you coming on because this is fascinating stuff. And I think the product managers, the product owners that are listening here are going to find this really fascinating. So I appreciate you sharing your time and your insights with us, Nesrine. Nesrine (30:26) Thank you, it's my pleasure. I love talking about this topic. Brian Milner (30:29) Ha

This week's guest, Nik Thakkar, aka NEO 10Y, was born same date that Freddie Mercury died - coincidence or reincarnation? You decide in this week's episode. Sarah and NEO 10Y chat about what it's like living his pop star fantasy, his vegan activism, taking 8 grams of mushrooms for a British reality show and growing up queer - among other things. About NEO 10Y NEO 10Y is a recording artist, media personality, and spiritual revolutionary from London. His purpose is to help manifest a protopian dimension of peace on planet Earth, through the expansion of love energy. He makes consciousness-expanding alternative pop, designed to amplify our collective connection with oneness, tapping into Vedic philosophies of peace with his Indian ancestry. NEO 10Y's sound is a cohesive blend of cinematic-grunge and industrial-R&B, with lyrics written through the lens of self-realization, and philosophies of love and curiosity. NEO 10Y is an independent artist with AWAL, and directs and produces their own hyper reality music videos; the more contentious of which have gone viral. His work has been featured by Billboard, Paper, COLORS, Dazed, BBC, The Evening Standard, Rolling Stone, them, CLASH, Earmilk, Notion, Noctis, L'Officiel, GQ, Gal Dem, Interview Magazine, plus major Spotify, Apple and TiDAL playlists including Glitch, Cosmic Playlists, misfits 2.0, TRANSCEND, Discover Weekly, Your Daily Mix and more.

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Glenn McDonald, author of the new book You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favorite Song: How Streaming Changes Music.I've followed Glenn's work for years now, and this book is the result of decades of work in the field, and comes from a perspective not only of technology's bleeding edge but also a sincere, personal love of music. We spoke about the mechanics of tracking genre data, how streaming has impacted listening trends, and how the model's economics are holding up.The book can be found everywhere books are sold.This interview has been condensed and edited. Glenn McDonald. Thank you so much for coming on. You are the author of You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favorite Song, which is a really compelling title all about the streaming revolution, but more importantly about this really fascinating moment in music data that for much of the past decade, you have been at the front seat for, or even in the driver's seat for. Your work goes back to a really interesting company called The Echo Nest.For new listeners and folks who maybe are unfamiliar with your story, can you just tell me a little bit of the history of this field and your place in it? The Echo Nest was a really fascinating company and I think more people ought to know about it.I had been doing software design for a long time and had worked on a bunch of different things that all had to do with making sense of data for people. None of them had been specific to music data, but I would always use my work tools on my record database or my other various music-related projects. Those were the things that I was really interested in.At some point I ended up tabulating the Village Voice critics music poll every year. This was what big data was for music in the era before streaming: It was like 800 music critics typing 10 album votes into blanks, with typos and everything. The companies I worked for kept getting acquired and my projects would get shut down or something, so every few years I'd need a new job.When this happened in about 2011, I just knew through contacts that there was this company in Somerville a couple of media lab people had started called The Echo Nest, which was trying to do something with music data because there suddenly was a lot more music data. The Echo Nest was trying to do recommendations and categorization stuff for streaming services. This was pre-Spotify launching in the U.S., so 7Digital and Rdio at the time were some of the existing players. And I had done enough music data things to convince them that I was a worthwhile person to add to this effort.I remember my first task at The Echo Nest. I showed up for my first day and they were like, “Oh, Glenn, you're here. Good. We're doing these radio stations for Spotify, this company we're trying to entice into using our services, and we're putting cartoon noises on the Franz Liszt classical station. Can you please figure out why we're doing that and make it stop?”So that was the beginning of the journey. We did not succeed initially at getting Spotify as a customer, because Spotify recognized, correctly, that to do a really good job we had to have listening data, and there was no way they were going to give us listening data when we were also powering their competitors, even though their competitors were small. I remember we tried really hard to convince them. We were like, “We'll keep your data on a server on the totally other side of the closet where we have our servers.” That obviously didn't fly. After a couple of years of doing a lot of other things along the way, it was a race to see whether Spotify would develop their own recommendations and not need us or whether they would just get enough money to buy us first.The money happened faster. We got acquired in 2014 and basically officially became the personalization team at Spotify. A bunch of the things we did had to do with understanding music and understanding taste so that you could do personalization, but it wasn't all directly involved with personalization.That's about when you got on my radar, because I was at the time doing pop culture stuff at 538. I think music was always a bit of an enigma to me, just because there was so much of it, and obviously all the challenges that you were facing at an industrial scale, I was facing on a journalistic scale.When I saw what you were doing — I don't think people really appreciate enough the moment when The Echo Nest got bought by Spotify. Very soon after, that's when you started seeing the level of personalization on the platform skyrocket. Do you want to speak a little bit about that?It was a combination of things, because some of that stuff was stuff that we brought, The Echo Nest, but that acquisition was also Spotify's moment where they bought into the idea that personalization was going to be a big part of this Spotify experience. Discover Weekly, for example, which came along shortly after that, was not an Echo Nest thing. That was done by people who had already been at Spotify, and some of them were annoyed that that feature was described as if it somehow came from the Echo Nest work.But basically everything that came about was because Spotify decided, “All right, personalization is going to be a thing.” At the same time, they acquired another company called Tunigo that was a playlist-making editorial company. And that was the beginning of, “All right, we're really going to have an editorial effort, too.” That was the beginning of both of those areas at once in Spotify's existence.A lot of the interesting stuff in your book comes out of the complications of using algorithms as opposed to taste, and just the serendipity of some of it. I want to play something, because I think it shows the moment that completely shattered something about how I thought about music and how I thought about what the tech was that y'all were building.I have a lot of Spotify playlists, just as anyone else does, and I was on a kick and I added a few songs in a row. The following week, all 10 recommended songs had this kick to start it. It's the “Be My Baby” kick. There's no way you could ask a DJ or even an expert, “Hey, can you find me 10 songs that all have this kick that I'm apparently into right now?”But lo and behold, I would go down this recommended songs list and it would all be that. And that showed me that, man, there's a level of depth here that not only could we never accomplish before, but that is going to change the way we really consume a lot of this stuff. I always found it really fascinating how you were really on the front of that for so much of the time at Spotify.One of the most interesting things to realize for me in this journey was that finding those patterns often comes about not the way you think.How did that happen?You imagine that the computer knows there are those drumbeats, it's found that you like them, and knows these songs contain them and lines them up. In fact, in this feature, that's not happening at all. It's just patterns of playlist making.That recommended feature at the bottom, it uses the playlist title when you don't have anything, but then as soon as you've got stuff in your playlist, it's really just doing a complicated search of songs and playlists from other people that overlap with what you put. Here's what else they did. I found over and over that it was more effective to basically mine listening for the implicit signal that people have created by listening in nonrandom ways than it was to try to find the thing you're actually looking for.If you try to find bands from Estonia, you get screwed up by metadata mistakes and missing data all the time. But if you can find a few bands that you know are from Estonia and use them to find an audience and use that audience to find what's different about those people's listening, then you find all the rest of the bands from Estonia without having to rely on metadata. Even the system doesn't know what it's doing. People have encoded that knowledge implicitly by listening.So I did find someone who'd been on a kick of listening to all the “Be My Baby” hooks in a row. It's fascinating stuff.I want to take it to the book now, because that speaks to a chapter specifically all about how you talk about genres and how genres don't really exist; they're just words that people use to talk about things. You describe them as “distributed communities of interest.” Do you want to speak a little bit about what genres are?We got into this genre thing at The Echo Nest because we promised somebody that we had genre radio. It was the era of Pandora. Algorithmic radio was mostly track and artists seated. That was how people mostly thought about it.We had some customer — I've long since forgotten who they were — who was like, that's too complicated. I just want like 16 buttons. It should just say rock and you hit it and it plays some rock music. And we were like, “Oh yeah, totally. We totally have that.” And then we went back to the office and we were like, we don't actually have that. But we better make it really quick.What we did have was this vast database of word frequencies. We knew what artists were written about in what vocabulary, so we were like, this will be fine. We'll just line up the artists for whom rock is a disproportionately occurring term and we'll sort them by popularity and hit play.We did that and then Rihanna came out and we were like, ah crap. People do say rock about Rihanna. I mean, she has a song called “Rockstar.” It's not crazy, but it was definitely not what these people wanted to have happen.So we had a few days, and I'm like, all right, there's cultural knowledge here. It's not complicated what rock is. We just have to mine this very basic cultural knowledge. We had a table full of interns from Tufts, so I'm like, “Here's what we're going to do. Interns, go for each of these 17 or however many genres we want to demo, and just go find a list of the most obvious artists. Look it up on Wikipedia or Google — don't do anything sophisticated. When someone says rock, what are they probably thinking of? Then we'll take five or 10 of those artists, and because we have this good graph of artist similarity, we'll say, what are the other artists that are collectively similar to those five or 10 seed artists for each genre? That'll probably get us close.”And that was right. That basically worked. If you feed in that what we mean by rock is The Who and Lynyrd Skynyrd and Led Zeppelin, you get a set of artists out. If you say, no, what I meant was The Black Keys and the Foo Fighters and Coldplay, then you get a different set of artists out. So that was where we began. I didn't have a theoretical framework for what I was doing; I just had a thing that we needed to produce really quickly.But as I got into it and tried to extend this from 16 to 300 and then to 1,000, what I realized I was doing was scouring the planet to find communities, literal communities. Sometimes of artists, sometimes of listeners, usually of both but not always, and usually with some element of practice to them, but not like a list of criteria in the classic musical logical sense. You can describe the difference between Baroque music and ragtime in informal music theory terms, but that's not really helpful because people's interest is much more specific than that. You can't just say this is definitely formally a hip-hop song, and therefore you as a hip-hop fan are going to like it, because if it's in Turkish and you only speak Bulgarian, it's probably useless to you.Once I understood that, then it became easier to think about how we proceeded: that we're trying to find communities and show them back to themselves. And they usually have names for themselves. Sometimes we would find communities that didn't yet have a self-identification and we would have to make up names for them, but the goal of doing that was to be able to show those people, here you are, here's your taste. You're an audience, you have a taste. If you think of a name for it, tell me and I'll replace it. But I gave it a name so that we can at least talk about it.It also gets at a big issue with music in general. Even going back to radio times, there are a lot of genres that truly don't exist, that are entirely manufactured. Things like classic rock or oldies are referendums on not just what you played, but how long ago you played it. And even things like indie rock says more about the economics of the people who distributed your record than perhaps you yourself. But nevertheless, these communities are constituencies that have an expectation that if they press an indie rock button, they want to hear some indie rock.Indie rock is a great example where there are 12 good answers to that depending on who you are, and we couldn't call them all indie rock. Some of the exercise in making up names was like, all right, how am I going to differentiate between 12 historical, regional, philosophical variations that each think of themselves as indie rock? I have to tell the story a little differently.Yeah, I dig that. That's a really exciting challenge.I want to talk a little bit about some of the things that make streaming unique as a distribution format and a distribution medium. Whenever you have a new medium emerge, you have new intersections of how people work with that and consume it. You see it time and time again that technology can inform what's done.You have a whole chapter in your book about this: “Chill is the new music.” It talks about essentially background and foreground sounds, whether that's lo-fi hip-hop radio, which is fairly well known, or things like a peaceful piano playlist. Things that would not exist in any previous iteration of the music industry are now dominant forms of consumption for lots of people. Do you want to speak to how this emerged and how you assess the space?My favorite example of this is nature sounds. I had a CD of rainforest noises, and I would play it sometimes, but I was never going to buy another one. I think this is true of most people. I think most people had zero or one background noise CD in the CD era. The worldwide market of rainforest noises was probably a dozen, and you could compete between those dozen which was going to be the one that an individual user bought, but you couldn't go much further than that.Streaming has made it possible to have that for no additional costs. It's like, it's not that I was against hearing a different rainforest. Costa Rica was superior to Indonesia.Borneo is lovely this time of year.One of the finest rainforests to listen to. But we unlocked that because now I can just put on a playlist of rainforest noises and I can hear new rainforest noises.Does it really matter in rainforest noises? No, but it matters more in lo-fi hip-hop, where it is sort of a substance and you may prefer to hear new examples of the same form. That suddenly became totally viable. Peaceful piano is another one of those. I think a lot of people owned one classical CD and they would it put on when they needed something in the background. “I'll put on the classical music I own.”Not only did streaming unlock the rest of the classical catalog, but then suddenly people were like, not all classical music works that well. I can just make stuff that's perfect for this mode. It's the perfect size and it's exactly as soothing, and it's not going to do some interesting thing that Chopin did because Chopin was interesting. Let's make it all fit this need. And I think there are a lot of needs that you wouldn't have spent a lot of money to satisfy, but they're needs you will spend a little bit of time to satisfy if it's free and it's easy to find them.Fascinating. The rise of that has just been such an interesting side effect of the business model, in some way, but also a side effect in terms of how people want to listen to something pleasant in the background but not necessarily shell out for it. It just seems like it's a novelty of the distribution format that I enjoy, but can really only exist at this time in history.Yeah. And it's not just streaming, too, because it's a synergy of streaming and having phones with you and earbuds and the expectation of music in all parts of your day. The idea that not only do you have earbuds, but everybody has earbuds, so it's normal for you to have your music in a public environment without bothering other people.I want to talk a little bit about another side effect of the streaming model. This is one of the first times I've seen someone who was actually inside the house recount what this looks like, but streaming fraud has a lot of folks in the industry on edge or concerned —folks who are trying to manipulate the eventual rankings of things or the eventual performances of artists, whether it's for financial reasons, they want their artists to get more money, or they just want more people to see the person for whom they belong to the Army.I thought this was just a really interesting look inside a company that has to deal with this and how obvious it can look at you. You had a story about Beyoncé in there that was fascinating, but I would love to hear about what streaming fraud and Army-style tactics look like from the inside.I never intended to be involved in fighting streaming fraud at all. But as I explain in the book, I fell into it just because I was looking for patterns and sometimes the patterns that I'd find would make no sense. I'd be like, what? In one of the earliest examples, I was starting to try to look at what was different about listening in each city, and a lot of cities made sense. I could say, all right, I know what people in that region like and I can see it in the city.And then Buffalo, New York, was all church music. I've realized in this process that I don't know that much about the world, and I've been surprised many times by things that turn out to be real features of how people move around the planet. So I tried not to jump to conclusions. I was like, okay, maybe Buffalo's a really religious place and it's a really common usage to have organ music that you play off Spotify. That theory didn't hold up very long. It was obviously not what was actually happening. I found that a lot of times, whenever I would go looking for interesting patterns in small subsets of people, whether they be geographic or by age or demographic or whatever, some of them would be weird. I realized that I'd found a subset of accounts, but not a subset of people.Having spent 10 or 12 years at this, depending on how you look at it, if I wanted to live a life of crime, this is definitely the life of crime I am best prepared to enter into, and I would not do it. That's my message to aspiring fraudsters: shoplift, go do something else. Anything is better than this. This is a really bad way to try to earn money, because anything that you do that earns enough money forms obvious patterns and it's just trivially easy to detect. Sometimes it took me half an hour to figure out the exact pattern that some new cluster of bots was using to manipulate things in slightly different ways, but it never took long. It was always trivial to block them. It depended on the magnitude, whether Spotify would care and go after them in any punitive sense, but blocking whatever they were trying to do was never hard once it reached any magnitude where it would matter.I always knew, and have been saying for years, that Buffalo Bills-based organ music was an industry plant. Thank you for confirming that for me.That is actually a fun segue, because one of the most interesting chapters in here, I think, was about how the streaming model has winners and it has losers, and it has genres that are in fact losers. I know we've already agreed that genres are mere communities of sound, but for all intents and purposes, but let's go back to the more traditional sense here.You write a lot about how genres like jazz, classical, experimental music, these aren't really being well served by the streaming model. And you actually write a little about whether streaming actually makes discovery of this stuff easier or harder. What got you aware of this potential side effect of the model and how do you assess where it's at?This was always interesting to me because although I like Taylor Swift and I have some Ed Sheeran songs that I love, my taste includes a lot of obscure things. I'm very attached to those things existing and the people who make those things managing to somehow live in such a way that they get to keep making, you know, extremely florid gothic symphonic metal albums, or weird wedding music from Limpopo, or Filipino pop punk.As a human, I want all these things to be viable whether they are super popular or not. The genre project could have stopped at 300 if it only cared about the popular genres. It kept going to 6,000 because I think everything deserves to have the same chance to find its audience, whether that audience is small or not.As I say in the book, I think the way royalties work now in streaming is, in economic terms, actually slightly progressive. It's hard to guess this, but I didn't have to guess. I could run the numbers on the whole Spotify. I could run alternate economic models on literally all the Spotify data. That doesn't always tell you how the future will be, because sometimes when you change things, people change behavior, but I could definitely evaluate other proposals for how the existing money should be divvied up. What I found was that the model we're currently using is a slight subsidy of less popular artists by the most popular artists in practice, which is the opposite of what some people surmise, which was interesting in itself.And really, the headline is that it's a small factor. It doesn't actually matter very much. But every medium, like you say, has winners and losers by the nature of the format. There was a sort of artist that would appeal to the people who bought the most CDs, and in the CD era, I spent thousands of dollars. I was one of those people that spent thousands of dollars a year in order to discover all the music I was curious about, because I had software jobs and I could afford it. Therefore, I had a lot of economic power in that model. People like me exerted a lot of economic power. As an artist, if you were the kind of artist that I bought, that was excellent.Now I spend $10 or $11 a month on streaming like everybody else, so that power has been distributed a lot more broadly. It's a lot less concentrated now, which I think is good on the whole. I think that's good for society. But it does mean there were people who thrived very specifically in the CD era, and they could put out limited editions and CD singles. This seems crazy to me in retrospect. I would spend $12 on an imported UK CD single to get one B-side that I hadn't heard, and now that's a whole month of my listening. The crazy part of that was the former state, paying $12 to hear one B-side. That's crazier than the current model.But it's true that with a lot of things, when individual artists tell a sad story of how they used to have a career and now they don't, sometimes it's for this reason. They had found a niche and that niche went away and there are new niches. The system overall is producing as much money and it supports obscure things in general just as readily, but they're not necessarily the same obscure things to the same level.Interesting. And that $12 single, you can't be alone. They released it for a reason. There must've been a critical mass that in the aggregate means now they have to spend another day on the road, or rely on superfans. The main way you can reach them these days, if everybody's only tithing $15 or so a month through their streaming, is through appearances or tours or other kinds of onerous things.It's true, but also availability is totally different now. I think people sometimes fall into the trap of trying to compare the money as if the behavior is the same. They're like, a person would have bought my CD for $10 at my show, and now they're going to stream my song once and I only get a third of a cent. Not very many people are going to come to your show, and of them, only a few are going to buy your CD, and the number of people who are going to buy that $12 CD single to hear that B-side is really small.That B-side now could be on a playlist and a million people who've never heard of you could come across it. The dynamics are now completely different, and not everybody adapts to them immediately, but you now have a very, very broad potential casual audience that is only going to spend a third of a cent on you, but there are a lot of them. Maybe 10% of them will spend 12 cents on you by listening to a whole album a couple times, and a few of them will listen to your whole catalog and they'll buy tickets to see you when you come.Overall it's about the same money. The music industry is, in absolute terms, now past the CD peak. Adjusted for inflation, it's not quite there, so we're not quite as far into the streaming era as the CD peak was in the CD era. It seems possible still that the CD peak will be surpassed by the streaming peak in overall money, which is good, I think.That's neat. To back out a little bit, the book is excellent. People can find it wherever books are sold, and it's called You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favorite Song.You are also known for another project, Every Noise at Once. You've since departed Spotify, and as a result of that departure, the availability of Every Noise was in jeopardy for a little bit there. You mentioned that you have a lot of physical media and I would love your view on this: How do we preserve our understanding of how music works at this point in time? Down the line, things are going to be fundamentally shifted, as the industry inherently does. You've been involved in a number of projects that have relied on some of these big players to fuel their data.Where do you come down on how we can preserve a lot of this discovery and a lot of this understanding moving forward, even if we are losing the data through our fingers as it comes in?Part of it is understanding what the data is and what we've accomplished. I got laid off from Spotify, and I'd been there for a good long time, so for me I could be like, that's fine. Twelve years is longer than I had at any other job. I can do something else now and that's all right.But it definitely hurt because I built this thing and my attachment to it was very heavily tied up in its ability to constantly change. We were still adding genres to it and one of my, and a lot of people's, favorite features of it was a thing that took every week's new release list and organized it by genre. That immediately stopped working, for no good reason. It's not confidential information that the Spotify API is not arranged in such a way that you can get the information out, even though it would be in Spotify's interest to have people better able to find new releases. When I worked at Spotify, I could route around the structural problem and just ship a CSV file to my website and then everybody could see those things.I lost that ability and initially I was like, oh, the website is dead, but then with 30 seconds more thought I realized that this is what happens to most things. They build for a while, and then they reach a state and that's the end of building them, but now they're real. That map of 6,200 genres remains a map of world listening up until 2023, and there's more music in that than you'll ever be able to listen to or discover; for practical purposes, if what you care about is exploring the world, it's still a very interesting map that will help you do that.If what you care about is organizing what happened last week, then for now I don't have the tools to help do that in public in a way that I wish I did. But I'm still hopeful that we'll get that back. We only need one music service to say, “All right, you can get a list of this week's new releases from our API now, and it's not limited to 1,000,” and then I'll be able to revive that.Amazing. Glenn, I really love the book. Why don't you tell folks where they can find it, where they can find you, and why they should check it out.It's on Bookshop.org and Amazon. The original publisher is British, so if you are in the U.K. you might be able to find it in stores. If you are somewhere else you might have to order it, but that's how most things get out now. There's a Kindle version if you don't care about paper, and if you do, it's got a blue cover. It's nice.It's a good-looking cover. Hey, thanks so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. Again, I've been such a fan of yours for so long, and just to see this finally come out is really cool.Thanks for reading.Edited by Susie Stark.If you have anything you'd like to see in this Sunday special, shoot me an email. Comment below! Thanks for reading, and thanks so much for supporting Numlock.Thank you so much for becoming a paid subscriber! Send links to me on Twitter at @WaltHickey or email me with numbers, tips or feedback at walt@numlock.news.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.numlock.com/subscribe

Deze nieuwe aflevering wordt nog het beste geduid als pratende "Discover Weekly". Waar Spotify je zonder context iedere week een nieuw-samengestelde playlist voorschotelt, trachten wij nu mét context hetzelfde te doen. Onze recente gulden vondsten gebundeld in één lange aflevering. Van Boyd's roodharige reisvriend Adam tot aan Iers-klinkend Arkansas, laat nieuwe muziek je ogen openen!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sanket works as a Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Spotify working on building end-to-end audio recommender systems. Models built by his team are used across Spotify in many different products including Discover Weekly and Autoplay. Join us at our first in-person conference on June 25 all about AI Quality: https://www.aiqualityconference.com/ MLOps podcast #232 with Sanket Gupta, Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Spotify // RecSys at Spotify. A big thank you to LatticeFlow for sponsoring this episode! LatticeFlow - https://latticeflow.ai/ // Abstract LLMs with foundational embeddings have changed the way we approach AI today. Instead of re-training models from scratch end-to-end, we instead rely on fine-tuning existing foundation models to perform transfer learning. Is there a similar approach we can take with recommender systems? In this episode, we can talk about: a) how Spotify builds and maintains large-scale recommender systems, b) how foundational user and item embeddings can enable transfer learning across multiple products, c) how we evaluate this system d) MLOps challenges with these systems // Bio Sanket works as a Senior Machine Learning Engineer on a team at Spotify building production-grade recommender systems. Models built by my team are being used in Autoplay, Daily Mix, Discover Weekly, etc. Currently, my passion is how to build systems to understand user taste - how do we balance long-term and short-term understanding of users to enable a great personalized experience. // MLOps Jobs board https://mlops.pallet.xyz/jobs // MLOps Swag/Merch https://mlops-community.myshopify.com/ // Related Links Website: https://sanketgupta.substack.com/ Our paper on this topic "Generalized User Representations for Transfer Learning": https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.00584 Sanket's blogs on Medium in the past: https://medium.com/@sanket107 --------------- ✌️Connect With Us ✌️ ------------- Join our slack community: https://go.mlops.community/slack Follow us on Twitter: @mlopscommunity Sign up for the next meetup: https://go.mlops.community/register Catch all episodes, blogs, newsletters, and more: https://mlops.community/ Connect with Demetrios on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpbrinkm/ Connect with Sanket on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sanketgupta107

Podcast My Playlist #Discover Weekly Djvalmix.mp3 by lerebours valery

Episode Summary In this episode of Sunny Side Up, Gareth Noonan interviews Alex Donics on Spotify's evolution in mastering engagement and measuring success. Alex highlights the importance of personalisation, noting that Spotify prioritises individual user experiences. This focus on personalisation, coupled with an emphasis on the needs of creators and listeners, has contributed to Spotify's incredible reach across 184 markets with 550 million listeners. Podcasts, especially during COVID-19, have emerged as powerful tools for topical exploration, allowing creators and brands to connect deeply with audiences. Alex dives into how Spotify has refined its strategies to offer brands effective means of engagement and debunks common myths about audio advertising's measurability. About the Guest Alex is the Global Director of Demand Marketing at Spotify, where he leads a global B2B marketing team that is responsible for growing demand for Spotify Advertising. In his five years at Spotify, Alex has held leadership roles that span marketing, strategy, and partnership development. Prior to joining Spotify in 2018, Alex held several B2C marketing roles at PepsiCo, covering product innovation, channel marketing, and brand communications, working with several of the company's most-loved trademarks. Before his time at PepsiCo, Alex spent over six years on the agency side, working in communications planning at Publicis Groupe's Starcom Worldwide.  Connect with Alex Donics Key Takeaways - Personalisation lies at the heart of Spotify's user experience, ensuring no two listener experiences are identical. - By focusing on the needs and preferences of creators and listeners, Spotify has ensured consistent growth and user engagement. Their emphasis on discovery features enhances their value proposition to both parties. - Spotify's reach across 184 markets and 550 million listeners is a testament to its adaptability and understanding of global music and audio content trends. - Collaboration and open-mindedness in leadership can lead to unexpected successes, as in the evolution of the "Discover Weekly" feature. - Personalisation isn't just a feature—it's a core philosophy that drives growth and user loyalty. - While scale is essential, ensuring quality reach for brands is paramount for impactful advertising. - Audio shouldn't be boxed into just upper-funnel campaigns; it has potential across various marketing funnels. - Successful audio campaign measurement hinges on three pivotal metrics: reach, resonance, and reaction. - Effective communication is more than just data-driven precision; it's about connecting with audiences on a deeper level. Quote "What drives our engagement is that we always put the creator and the listener first.” – Alex Donics  Recommended Resource Exit Five - B2B Marketing with Dave Gerhardt The B2B Marketing Podcast The Bigger Narrative with Andy Raskin ⁠Connect with Alex Donics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠| ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on LinkedIn ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠

Spotify intensiveert de samenwerking met Google. Het audioplatform gebruikt al sinds 2016 de cloud en machine learning van de techreus, maar wil daar nu nog meer op leunen om zelf een stap te maken in onder meer aanbeveling van muziek en podcasts. Spotify zet AI-taalmodellen van Google in om ervoor te zorgen dat je gemakkelijker betere nieuwe muziek vindt, met gepersonaliseerde afspeellijstjes zoals je Discover Weekly, evenals podcasts die worden aangeraden. Met deze technologie moet Spotify ook beter kunnen modereren, als het gaat om schadelijke content. Verder in deze Tech Update: De veelbesproken Europese AI-wetgeving staat op losse schroeven Staatssecretaris Van Huffelen (Digitalisering) nuanceert eerder bericht dat AI-toepassingen zoals ChatGPT aan banden worden gelegd voor Rijksamtenaren See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over de date van Björk. Als je lang niet naar je Discover Weekly luistert, wordt ie beter. En een accapella dance act?

Re-emerging from a 6 year hiatus, alternative R&B artist ZuP joins us in the studio for a look back at the empire he built in the 2010s and how it felt to return to the stage just earlier this year. We were able to catch this performance and then again at his sold out show at The Foundry, where he announced the release of his full-length album "For Me".ZuP also brings DJ Dick on the mic, who started as a fan back in the day and now accompanies him in his performances as well as other artists in Cleveland. We cover how to write sad songs when you're in a good place, Biden Bucks funding our passions, and shoutout Discover Weekly and Spotify's algorithm in general. HEY, ARTISTS - SOME HOMEWORK FOR YOU: In accordance with ZuP creating artwork for each single on the album, we want YOU to paint, draw, or design some visual art to pair with a song/lyrics  you're writing or have written. Send it to us via email (loclegrown@gmail.com) or tag us on Instagram and we will share it!!Thanks again for joining us ZuP! See more of what he's got going on here on his Linktree! And listen to his latest album "For Me" on all streaming platforms now!SONGS PERFORMED:CouchLightning RodPlease support LG by following to get the latest episodes, leave us a review and/or 5-star rating, and following us on Instagram!linktr.ee/loclegrown

Episodio 229. Jaime Limón, un padre católico en confesión absurdamente básico, hasta que no se tome un vaso de agua de Marte buscará un mundo de paz, progreso, arte y ciencia, pero obligado por los extraterrestres, incluyendo las gallinas. Flip y flop. ✅ Follow Up Jaime tiene stickers Alfredo trato la semana pasada de admitir su error, pero no fue lo suficientemente claro. Alfredo también tiene stickers, pero de los de RFID que si le funcionan. Alfredo “resuelve” el “misterio” de los alienígenas asesinados. https://www.nasa.gov/jpl/the-solar-system-and-beyond-is-awash-in-water/ Alfredo compra otro teléfono **doblable Jorge prueba iCloud+ Custom Domain Email y Fastmail Menos mal que Jorge no instaló Sonoma Beta porque salió Safari Beta para Ventura Jaime prueba Safari Beta (y el problema del modo incógnito) El cambio de Bitwarden a iCloud Keychain Beta Report: arreglaron la automation mas criticada y Alfredo tal vez resuelve todos sus problemas de automatización con ingenuidad y dinero. Apple Pay llega a Chile (https://www.macrumors.com/2023/08/07/apple-pay-launch-vietnam/)

Spotlight On producer and editor Michael Donaldson and host Lawrence Peryer communicate constantly throughout the research and production of each episode, but they rarely actually speak in person. So when Michael suggested they spend time catching up to discuss some topics of shared interest, the pair decided to press ‘record' and share their discussion with listeners. The two had a freewheeling and sprawling talk which Michael worked his editing magic on in order to bring to you. Enjoy. ------------------Dig DeeperFollow Lawrence Peryer on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTubeFollow Michael Donaldson on Mastodon, LinkedIn, and 8sided.blogthe musical genre is dead, gen z killed itCollege Radio: What's changed—and what hasn't.The Elephant 6 Recording Co.A Weird, Wonderful Conversation With Kim Stanley RobinsonIt's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's…Some Dude?!Actors and Writers Strike 2023, Explained: What Happens Now?Will A.I. Replace Pop Stars?A Brief History of Virtual Pop StarsTiny AccidentsThe Case Against Music CurationSpotify's Discover Weekly explained At 85, Sam Rivers Creates A Scene In Orlando------------------• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate Spotlight On ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. • Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of Spotlight On in your podcast app of choice. • Looking for more? Visit spotlightonpodcast.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Spotlight On email newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spotlight On producer and editor Michael Donaldson and host Lawrence Peryer communicate constantly throughout the research and production of each episode, but they rarely actually speak in person. So when Michael suggested they spend time catching up to discuss some topics of shared interest, the pair decided to press ‘record' and share their discussion with listeners. The two had a freewheeling and sprawling talk which Michael worked his editing magic on in order to bring to you. Enjoy. ------------------Dig DeeperFollow Lawrence Peryer on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTubeFollow Michael Donaldson on Mastodon, LinkedIn, and 8sided.blogthe musical genre is dead, gen z killed itCollege Radio: What's changed—and what hasn't.The Elephant 6 Recording Co.A Weird, Wonderful Conversation With Kim Stanley RobinsonIt's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's…Some Dude?!Actors and Writers Strike 2023, Explained: What Happens Now?Will A.I. Replace Pop Stars?A Brief History of Virtual Pop StarsTiny AccidentsThe Case Against Music CurationSpotify's Discover Weekly explained At 85, Sam Rivers Creates A Scene In Orlando------------------• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate Spotlight On ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. • Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of Spotlight On in your podcast app of choice. • Looking for more? Visit spotlightonpodcast.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Spotlight On email newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E48 - Spotify Debuts a New AI DJ, Right in Your Pocket - My Reaction Spotify Debuts a New AI DJ, Right in Your Pocket - Personalization is at the heart of what we do at Spotify—just think of fan-favorite playlists like Discover Weekly, or our annual Wrapped campaign. The beauty of these experiences is our ability to deliver the right piece of music for that exact moment in time, and maybe even connect you with your next favorite artist in the process. We're building on that innovation by harnessing the power of AI in an entirely new way. And today, we're excited to share that we're taking our personalization to a whole new level with DJ.  Ready for a brand-new way to listen on Spotify and connect even more deeply with the artists you love? The DJ is a personalized AI guide that knows you and your music taste so well that it can choose what to play for you. This feature, first rolling out in beta, will deliver a curated lineup of music alongside commentary around the tracks and artists we think you'll like in a stunningly realistic voice.  It will sort through the latest music and look back at some of your old favorites—maybe even resurfacing that song you haven't listened to for years. It will then review what you might enjoy and deliver a stream of songs picked just for you. And what's more, it constantly refreshes the lineup based on your feedback.  If you're not feeling the vibe, just tap the DJ button and it will switch it up. The more you listen and tell the DJ what you like (and don't like!), the better its recommendations get. Think of it as the very best of Spotify's personalization—but as an AI DJ in your pocket. To create the DJ we reimagined the way users listen on Spotify. The DJ knows you and your music taste so well that it will scan the latest releases we know you'll like, or take you back to that nostalgic playlist you had on repeat last year. Never before has listening felt so completely personal to each and every user, thanks to the powerful combination of: Spotify's personalization technology, which gives you a lineup of music recommendations based on what we know you like.  Generative AI through the use of OpenAI technology. We put this in the hands of our music editors to provide you with insightful facts about the music, artists, or genres you're listening to. The expertise of our editors is something that's really important to our philosophy at Spotify.  We have experts in genres who know music and culture inside and out. And no one knows the music scene better than they do. With this generative AI tooling, our editors are able to scale their innate knowledge in ways never before possible. Where to find the DJ Ready to have the DJ soundtrack your day? It's rolling out in English starting today for Spotify Premium users in the U.S. and Canada.  Head to your Music Feed on Home in the Spotify mobile app on your iOS or Android device. Tap Play on the DJ card. Let Spotify do the rest! The DJ will serve a lineup of music alongside short commentary on the songs and artists, picked just for you.  Not feeling the vibe? Just hit the DJ button at the bottom right of the screen to be taken to a different genre, artist, or mood. At Spotify we're uniquely positioned to transform audio. We're always looking for innovative new ways to improve our users' listening experiences to meet their needs—so stay tuned for more. *Update May 16, 2023: DJ is now rolling out in the UK and Ireland https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-02-22/spotify-debuts-a-new-ai-dj-right-in-your-pocket/ Add To My Playlist Website

In the digital economy, recommendation algorithms get…a LOT of attention. To some, they're the special sauce behind everything from Spotify's personalized playlists to Tik Tok's “For You” page. For others, they represent a dark, vibe-generating demiurge slowly sapping music's social power. But for all the discussion of how these programs are transforming our world(s), there's surprisingly little analysis of what—exactly—they are, or how they're meant to work. Answering these seemingly simple questions is the goal of Nick Seaver's new book “Computing Taste,” which explores the identities, goals, and practices of the programmers behind these technologies. Far from Machiavellian manipulators, the coders he describes are surprisingly idealistic music-lovers, desperately trying to analyze an almost infinitely complex cultural practice. Their failures to do so—and the ideologies they adopted as a result—would have enormous implications for the development of digital music, remaking genres, redefining listening, and shaping the platforms at the heart of the modern industry. Put it this way—we'll definitely never look at a "Discover Weekly" playlist the same way again.

The word of the day is "distinguish."  It's Oscar's season.  If you see Oscar, let him know he still owes me $20 all season!  Live in the past, live in the future, I don't really care where you live, but do it elsewhere.  You can't live in the closet in my guest room anymore.  I'm sorry, I just don't have the room.  I know you said you'd stop eating the shirts, but I don't know if I can trust you anymore.  Max got a visit from the FBI (Federal Block Inspectors).  Stretch your gams, stretch your truth.   Michael is still learning Spanish from an insect.  You read that right, he's learning another language from a freaking bug.  Elementary!  We're breaking ground, we're breaking hearts, we're getting lavs."This really is a brutal afternoon"Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intheminivanFollow us on instagram: @intheminivanpodFollow us on twitter: @intheminivanFollow us on TikTok: @intheminivanpodcastWe're on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxCtwpkBssIljyG6tdJbWQGet in the Discord: https://discord.gg/YWgaD6xFN3Episode Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0wRNorrrCeR5PHGY71mC0t?si=ad3b3a5e73ae4465THE MASTER PLAYLIST: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2saxemA3MOXcjIWdwHGwCZ?si=ee3444c085714c46Support the show

Olivia King is a Pop/Soul singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. With a combined social media following of 250,000+, 8,000,000+ streams on Spotify, and a reach of 35M+ in the last 30 days on Instagram, she has been a force in this industry. Her songs have been featured on the iTunes Charts, Spotify's New Music Friday, Fresh Finds, Fresh Finds Pop, R&B Slow Jams, Discover Weekly, and Release Radar Playlists, and placed in a campaign for Caleb McLaughlin from the Emmy Award Winning Netflix Series "Stranger Things” and is in the new hit show "One of Us is Lying" on Peacock. Her latest release is on Apple Music's popular R&B Playlist “Brown Sugar.” One of her releases, "There 4 You" was exclusively released through Tidal and featured as the cover of Tidal's "Pop Rising" Playlist. She is partnered with the popular app, Triller and has been featured on their 'Trendy Playlist.' Olivia's latest release is currently on YouTube's Official 'R&B on the Rise' & 'New Pop Releases' playlists. You can hear Olivia's song she wrote & performs as the walkout song for her brother, Michael (New York Yankees) at all home games in Yankee Stadium. The song is now playing on ESPN and Sports Illustrated has covered the story! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/steven-cuoco/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/steven-cuoco/support

For almost an entire year, my Spotify listeners and streams declined, but something happened in July of 2022 and things started to trend back up. And not only did my Spotify listeners and streams start to grow, but I started to see more consistent pushes on Discover Weekly as well. I have tested a lot of different strategies to grow on Spotify, but this year I really cracked the code. Here is the best Spotify growth strategy I found in 2022. Watch the original video on my YouTube channel. Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!

In episode 111 JR does his first show from his new location now that he's almost fully moved out of his old house. Also, Discover Weekly strikes again, and bravo, USPS. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/threethingswithjr/support

This week I'm speaking with Ian Rogers. As a kid growing up Indiana, Ian's only plan was to smoke weed and ride skateboards for the rest of his life, and while he has managed to accomplish those goals, Ian has also established himself as one of the most influential voices of the digital age. From music, to fashion, to finance his ability to successfully navigate the intersection of human beings and technology is second to none and it is executed with a humility that only the Midwest could produce.It was as a student at Indiana University where his passions for music and computers would collide, resulting in one of the first music streaming platforms, a feat of engineering that he would continue to refine for more than two decades, culminating in the launch of Apple Music in 2015. Seeking new challenges while catering to his preference for discomfort, Ian made his way to LVMH, where he was tasked with digitizing the world's largest luxury conglomerate. After working with names like Louis Vuitton, Celine, and Dior, Ian found himself immersed in cryptocurrency, NFT's, and digital security with French start up, Ledger.While Ian's timing has certainly contributed to his wins, it is his curiosity and belief in the mission at hand that has fueled much of his success, and even some of his failures. During the course of our conversation, we discuss the importance of knowing when to leave the party, the niche culture of the Internet, and why Spotify's Discover Weekly recommendations are so good.It is my pleasure to present Ian Rogers on The Days Between..

Chủ đề của Discover Weekly lần này là phương pháp C.O.D.E giúp quản lý kiến thức và công việc dễ dàng hơn. Phương pháp này sẽ giúp bạn kết nối kiến thức, ghi chú, từ đó sáng tạo nên những góc nhìn mới.Vậy có những yếu tố quan trọng nào trong C.O.D.E, cách mà 2 hosts đã áp dụng phương pháp này như thế nào và có những lưu ý gì - tụi mình sẽ chia sẻ hết trong số Discover Weekly 12 này. Hãy cùng lắng nghe và khám phá những khía cạnh thú vị của phương pháp này nhé!--------

Join your host Greg Howard Jr as he gets to the heart of what makes a musician tick with the incredibly talented BRYCE BOWYN!Based in Washington, D.C, Bryce Bowyn's anthemic electropop tracks have captivated audiences throughout the nation's capital and beyond. After releasing a few singles under the mononym “Bryce,” he decided that 2020 called for a refresh, rebrand and reintroduction with a name change and a collection of addictive pop bops leading up to his debut EP A Rosy Retrospect.   With songs like “Just Love Me,” a smash inspired by the beauty of queer nightlife entertainers, and “Bye Bye,” a four-on-the-floor soundtrack to farewells, Bowyn juxtaposes familiar, late 2000s pop soundscapes with self-aware, cutting lyricism. An innovative audiovisual artist and horror buff, Bowyn contrasts his bouncy, irresistible melodies with unexpectedly dark and esoteric music videos. The demonic bloodbath of “Nostalgic” and unnerving thrills of “Ruthless” turn up the heat, showcasing the complex and expansive spectrum of Bowyn's vision and unfiltered dynamism.Inspired equally by legendary pop mainstays Lady Gaga and Britney Spears, and fringe 80s synthpop (Erasure, Marc Almond and Giorgio Moroder) Bowyn's live presentations combine infectious, synth-driven tunes with tight choreography and dazzling  theatrics. He's performed across the nation including at Pittsburgh's 2019 PrideFest, and headlined hometown events like BRYCE: Hydrogen Blonde (Capital Fringe). Bryce Bowyn is an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and mental health, and has garnered high praise from outlets such as The Art of Being Queer, the Q Review, and Culture Fix, along with official playlist support from Spotify via Discover Weekly. As “God's favorite pop child,” expect even more sonic and visual blessings from Bowyn in the coming year.Bryce on InstagramTwitterFacebookYouTubeBryce's WebsiteSUPPORT THIS SHOW

In this episode of No Nonsense Music Marketing, we dive into the difference in Spotify's Release Radar, Discover Weekly & Radio Algorithm Playlist.Links from this episode:Omari Music Promotion: www.omarimc.com/promotion Tunecore Discount (Receive 20% off your first upload with our link): https://www.tunecore.com/?ref=omarimcpodcast&jt=omarimcpodcast Merch: https://musiquo.com/$OMARI Coin: https://rally.io/creator/OMARI/ Learn More About Our Incubator Program: https://www.omarimc.com/incubator/Submit Your Music To Omari MC Here:https://www.omarimc.com/submit-your-music/

In technology, as in life, bad experiences often start with bad data. This is as true with a misguided aunt setting you up on a blind date as it is with machine learning recommendations about which podcast you might want to listen to next. High quality data is essential to making sure every Spotify listener has a rewarding experience made just for them. But with a half trillion events happening on the platform every day, how do you even begin to sort all that data out? Enter Laura Lake, senior director of Spotify's Personalization Insights team. When she first arrived here, even simple questions were difficult to answer without teams having to “knit together 50 different data sources”. In this episode, she talks with host Dave Zolotusky about a critical point in Spotify's growth and the yearslong journey that resulted in improving and ensuring the quality of the data that all our developers rely on. Hear about the technological and cultural changes that led to both better quality data and better collaboration between our teams — and how we use the data to build the knowledge models that lead to Discover Weekly, Daily Mix, and a more personalized experience for every one of Spotify's hundreds of millions of listeners. How do we know if our ML models are doing what we want them to? Did our listeners actually discover something new? Let's dig into the data. This is the second episode in our miniseries about machine learning and personalization at Spotify. Listen to Ep.08 “Humans in the Loop” to learn what the research tells us about the long-term satisfaction of our listeners — and what makes the job of an ML engineer so different from other kinds of software engineers. Read what else we're nerding out about on the Spotify Engineering Blog: engineering.atspotify.com You should follow us on Twitter @SpotifyEng and on LinkedIn!

Raised in upstate New York, Kevin Andreas is a writer, producer, singer and multi- instrumentalist hailing from Brooklyn, NY. He broke out singing the hook on A$AP Rocky's first hit,”Peso," and consistently writes/produces for incredible artists. He co-wrote and produced the breakout single '90s Kids' for the then American Idol and now TikTok sensation Jax. The once sideman and studio musician released a debut that took off beyond expectation. Vents Magazine called it "sexy, haunting and utterly awesome." while Paste Magazine called the track an “empowering anthem that combines energetic instrumentation and rock bombast with a soft, soulful melody." Soon it was featured on Filtr's Spotify "NEW MUSIC" playlist, as well as Filtr's "Artists to Watch" Spotify playlist. By late 2016, the track had garnered enough acclaim to warrant Spotify to place it on "Discover Weekly," leading the track to garner 130,000+ streams, all while still completely independent. Now releasing a string of singles leading up to an album, Kevin is also collaborating with members of Prince's infamous band, The Revolution. Kevin has been chosen to perform as direct support for Sabrina Carpenter (Hollywood Records) at Musikfest, and has also opened for Andy Grammer. He has performed at notable NYC venues such as Highline Ballroom, Brooklyn Bowl, Gramercy Theater, BB Kings and Webster Hall.

In this episode of No Nonsense Music Marketing, we dive into how to get on discover weekly & release radar consistently.Links from this episode:Omari Music Promotion: www.omarimc.com/promotion Tunecore Discount (Receive 20% off your first upload with our link): https://www.tunecore.com/?ref=omarimcpodcast&jt=omarimcpodcast Merch: https://musiquo.com/$OMARI Coin: https://rally.io/creator/OMARI/ Learn More About Our Incubator Program: https://www.omarimc.com/incubator/Submit Your Music To Omari MC Here:https://www.omarimc.com/submit-your-music/Other links mentioned in this episode:Learn More About Our Music Promotion Service Here:https://www.omarimc.com/promotion

Maybe your morning routine looks nothing like the people you follow on social media, maybe you slide back into bed after you take the kids to school for just a few more minutes of peace before chaos consumes your day, or maybe you flow through the day taking things as they come. What you're missing is the synchronicity you love experiencing when that song you love comes on your Discover Weekly - something meant just for you. Something to literally brighten your day. Something like a tarot reading. Miss Cleo wouldn't know what to do, The Psychic Friends Network called, and the latest daily podcast coming to Spotify is just what the cards predicted: Tarot Today. Tarot Today is a new daily podcast from Maggie Wilson author of the best selling Metaphysical Cannabis Oracle Deck from Liminal 11 and Unions Square & Co that gives you a an indepth look at the cards, every day until the official release! Maybe you need clarity on an event or trauma, or you're seeking confirmation that you made the right decision, and maybe you just want a creative perspective on what the universe wants you to know, whatever it may be Tarot Today is ready to be ready for you. Tarot Today offers daily readings for each of the 78 cards per day, from now until the official release party. From the Meta Arcana to the cannabis suit, to asking for answers, and everything under the sun, people have long used tarot as a form of divination. We know that the tarot can't tell our future or solve our problems, but it can give us a deeper connection to our own self, our personal guides, and our connection to the unlimited universe. The cards have no mercy leaving you to ask yourself the question: When did you forget that you were divine? Starting today, get the daily dedication of a tarot reading and the infinite vortex of the metaphysical, all in the familiar space of your favorite Spotify podcast. Click the link below to be taken to all of the following. Download FREE worksheets to work with any tarot or oracle deck Take the FREE Quiz to find out your Cannabis Oracle Get 1 of 5 Spaces on my yearly calendar for personal mentoring (nearly SOLD OUT!) Get Healthy CBD Edibles without any added sugar, vegan, and organic FRUIT SLABS CBD All HERE --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Maybe your morning routine looks nothing like the people you follow on social media, maybe you slide back into bed after you take the kids to school for just a few more minutes of peace before chaos consumes your day, or maybe you flow through the day taking things as they come. What you're missing is the synchronicity you love experiencing when that song you love comes on your Discover Weekly - something meant just for you. Something to literally brighten your day. Something like a tarot reading. Miss Cleo wouldn't know what to do, The Psychic Friends Network called, and the latest daily podcast coming to Spotify is just what the cards predicted: Tarot Today. Tarot Today is a new daily podcast from Maggie Wilson author of the best selling Metaphysical Cannabis Oracle Deck from Liminal 11 and Unions Square & Co that gives you a an indepth look at the cards, every day until the official release! Maybe you need clarity on an event or trauma, or you're seeking confirmation that you made the right decision, and maybe you just want a creative perspective on what the universe wants you to know, whatever it may be Tarot Today is ready to be ready for you. Tarot Today offers daily readings for each of the 78 cards per day, from now until the official release party. From the Meta Arcana to the cannabis suit, to asking for answers, and everything under the sun, people have long used tarot as a form of divination. We know that the tarot can't tell our future or solve our problems, but it can give us a deeper connection to our own self, our personal guides, and our connection to the unlimited universe. The cards have no mercy leaving you to ask yourself the question: When did you forget that you were divine? Starting today, get the daily dedication of a tarot reading and the infinite vortex of the metaphysical, all in the familiar space of your favorite Spotify podcast. Click the link below to be taken to all of the following. Download FREE worksheets to work with any tarot or oracle deck Take the FREE Quiz to find out your Cannabis Oracle Get 1 of 5 Spaces on my yearly calendar for personal mentoring (nearly SOLD OUT!) Get Healthy CBD Edibles without any added sugar, vegan, and organic FRUIT SLABS CBD All HERE --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Maybe your morning routine looks nothing like the people you follow on social media, maybe you slide back into bed after you take the kids to school for just a few more minutes of peace before chaos consumes your day, or maybe you flow through the day taking things as they come. What you're missing is the synchronicity you love experiencing when that song you love comes on your Discover Weekly - something meant just for you. Something to literally brighten your day. Something like a tarot reading. Miss Cleo wouldn't know what to do, The Psychic Friends Network called, and the latest daily podcast coming to Spotify is just what the cards predicted: Tarot Today. Tarot Today is a new daily podcast from Maggie Wilson author of the best selling Metaphysical Cannabis Oracle Deck from Liminal 11 and Unions Square & Co that gives you a an indepth look at the cards, every day until the official release! Maybe you need clarity on an event or trauma, or you're seeking confirmation that you made the right decision, and maybe you just want a creative perspective on what the universe wants you to know, whatever it may be Tarot Today is ready to be ready for you. Tarot Today offers daily readings for each of the 78 cards per day, from now until the official release party. From the Meta Arcana to the cannabis suit, to asking for answers, and everything under the sun, people have long used tarot as a form of divination. We know that the tarot can't tell our future or solve our problems, but it can give us a deeper connection to our own self, our personal guides, and our connection to the unlimited universe. The cards have no mercy leaving you to ask yourself the question: When did you forget that you were divine? Starting today, get the daily dedication of a tarot reading and the infinite vortex of the metaphysical, all in the familiar space of your favorite Spotify podcast. Click the link below to be taken to all of the following. Download FREE worksheets to work with any tarot or oracle deck Take the FREE Quiz to find out your Cannabis Oracle Get 1 of 5 Spaces on my yearly calendar for personal mentoring (nearly SOLD OUT!) Get Healthy CBD Edibles without any added sugar, vegan, and organic FRUIT SLABS CBD All HERE --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Maybe your morning routine looks nothing like the people you follow on social media, maybe you slide back into bed after you take the kids to school for just a few more minutes of peace before chaos consumes your day, or maybe you flow through the day taking things as they come. What you're missing is the synchronicity you love experiencing when that song you love comes on your Discover Weekly - something meant just for you. Something to literally brighten your day. Something like a tarot reading. Miss Cleo wouldn't know what to do, The Psychic Friends Network called, and the latest daily podcast coming to Spotify is just what the cards predicted: Tarot Today. Tarot Today is a new daily podcast from Maggie Wilson author of the best selling Metaphysical Cannabis Oracle Deck from Liminal 11 and Unions Square & Co that gives you a an indepth look at the cards, every day until the official release! Maybe you need clarity on an event or trauma, or you're seeking confirmation that you made the right decision, and maybe you just want a creative perspective on what the universe wants you to know, whatever it may be Tarot Today is ready to be ready for you. Tarot Today offers daily readings for each of the 78 cards per day, from now until the official release party. From the Meta Arcana to the cannabis suit, to asking for answers, and everything under the sun, people have long used tarot as a form of divination. We know that the tarot can't tell our future or solve our problems, but it can give us a deeper connection to our own self, our personal guides, and our connection to the unlimited universe. The cards have no mercy leaving you to ask yourself the question: When did you forget that you were divine? Starting today, get the daily dedication of a tarot reading and the infinite vortex of the metaphysical, all in the familiar space of your favorite Spotify podcast. Click the link below to be taken to all of the following. Download FREE worksheets to work with any tarot or oracle deck Take the FREE Quiz to find out your Cannabis Oracle Get 1 of 5 Spaces on my yearly calendar for personal mentoring (nearly SOLD OUT!) Get Healthy CBD Edibles without any added sugar, vegan, and organic FRUIT SLABS CBD All HERE --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Maybe your morning routine looks nothing like the people you follow on social media, maybe you slide back into bed after you take the kids to school for just a few more minutes of peace before chaos consumes your day, or maybe you flow through the day taking things as they come. What you're missing is the synchronicity you love experiencing when that song you love comes on your Discover Weekly - something meant just for you. Something to literally brighten your day. Something like a tarot reading. Miss Cleo wouldn't know what to do, The Psychic Friends Network called, and the latest daily podcast coming to Spotify is just what the cards predicted: Tarot Today. Tarot Today is a new daily podcast from Maggie Wilson author of the best selling Metaphysical Cannabis Oracle Deck from Liminal 11 and Unions Square & Co that gives you a an indepth look at the cards, every day until the official release! Maybe you need clarity on an event or trauma, or you're seeking confirmation that you made the right decision, and maybe you just want a creative perspective on what the universe wants you to know, whatever it may be Tarot Today is ready to be ready for you. Tarot Today offers daily readings for each of the 78 cards per day, from now until the official release party. From the Meta Arcana to the cannabis suit, to asking for answers, and everything under the sun, people have long used tarot as a form of divination. We know that the tarot can't tell our future or solve our problems, but it can give us a deeper connection to our own self, our personal guides, and our connection to the unlimited universe. The cards have no mercy leaving you to ask yourself the question: When did you forget that you were divine? Starting today, get the daily dedication of a tarot reading and the infinite vortex of the metaphysical, all in the familiar space of your favorite Spotify podcast. Click the link below to be taken to all of the following. Download FREE worksheets to work with any tarot or oracle deck Take the FREE Quiz to find out your Cannabis Oracle Get 1 of 5 Spaces on my yearly calendar for personal mentoring (nearly SOLD OUT!) Get Healthy CBD Edibles without any added sugar, vegan, and organic FRUIT SLABS CBD All HERE --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Maybe your morning routine looks nothing like the people you follow on social media, maybe you slide back into bed after you take the kids to school for just a few more minutes of peace before chaos consumes your day, or maybe you flow through the day taking things as they come. What you're missing is the synchronicity you love experiencing when that song you love comes on your Discover Weekly - something meant just for you. Something to literally brighten your day. Something like a tarot reading.  Miss Cleo wouldn't know what to do, The Psychic Friends Network called, and the latest daily podcast coming to Spotify is just what the cards predicted: Tarot Today. Tarot Today is a new daily podcast from Maggie Wilson author of the best selling Metaphysical Cannabis Oracle Deck from Liminal 11 and Unions Square & Co that gives you a an indepth look at the cards, every day until the official release! Maybe you need clarity on an event or trauma, or you're seeking confirmation that you made the right decision, and maybe you just want a creative perspective on what the universe wants you to know, whatever it may be Tarot Today is ready to be ready for you.  Tarot Today offers daily readings for each of the 78 cards per day, from now until the official release party. From the Meta Arcana to the cannabis suit, to asking for answers, and everything under the sun, people have long used tarot as a form of divination. We know that the tarot can't tell our future or solve our problems, but it can give us a deeper connection to our own self, our personal guides, and our connection to the unlimited universe. The cards have no mercy leaving you to ask yourself the question: When did you forget that you were divine? Starting today, get the daily dedication of a tarot reading and the infinite vortex of the metaphysical, all in the familiar space of your favorite Spotify podcast. Click the link below to be taken to all of the following.  Download FREE worksheets to work with any tarot or oracle deck Take the FREE Quiz to find out your Cannabis Oracle  Get 1 of 5 Spaces on my yearly calendar for personal mentoring (nearly SOLD OUT!)  Get Healthy CBD Edibles THAT WON'T MELT and also don't have any added sugar, are vegan, and Koser Certified....FRUIT SLABS CBD #notagummy  All HERE --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

If your songs do well on Spotify, it means reach and revenue for your music. Sending the right signals to Spotify can lead to huge audience growth driven by personalized playlists like Discover Weekly and Release Radar.But sending the wrong signals to Spotify can ruin your presence on the platform, which means you'll need to spend more time and effort to build back your standing. There are five major ways artists self-sabotage the work they've done on Spotify. We'll outline each of them and offer some tips to build and maintain your presence on Spotify. 

Maybe your morning routine looks nothing like the people you follow on social media, maybe you slide back into bed after you take the kids to school for just a few more minutes of peace before chaos consumes your day, or maybe you flow through the day taking things as they come. What you're missing is the synchronicity you love experiencing when that song you love comes on your Discover Weekly - something meant just for you. Something to literally brighten your day. Something like a tarot reading.  Miss Cleo wouldn't know what to do, The Psychic Friends Network called, and the latest daily podcast coming to Spotify is just what the cards predicted: Tarot Today. Tarot Today is a new daily podcast from Maggie Wilson author of the best selling Metaphysical Cannabis Oracle Deck from Liminal 11 and Unions Square & Co that gives you a an indepth look at the cards, every day until the official release! Maybe you need clarity on an event or trauma, or you're seeking confirmation that you made the right decision, and maybe you just want a creative perspective on what the universe wants you to know, whatever it may be, Tarot Today is ready to be ready for you.  Tarot Today offers daily readings for each of the 78 cards per day, from now until the official release party. From the Meta Arcana to the cannabis suit, to asking for answers, and everything under the sun, people have long used tarot as a form of divination. We know that the tarot can't tell our future or solve our problems, but it can give us a deeper connection to our own self, our personal guides, and our connection to the unlimited universe. The cards have no mercy leaving you to ask yourself the question: When did you forget that you were divine? Starting today, get the daily dedication of a tarot reading and the infinite vortex of the metaphysical, all in the familiar space of your favorite Spotify podcast. Download FREE worksheets to work with any tarot or oracle deck HERE Take the FREE Quiz to find out your Cannabis Oracle HERE Get 1 of 5 Spaces on my yearly calendar for personal mentoring (nearly SOLD OUT!) HERE Get Healthy CBD Edibles without any added sugar, vegan, and organic FRUIT SLABS CBD HERE --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Elan Suave (“Elan”) is an indie hip-hop artist from New York City. He began his quest for stardom in March 2018, at age 14, with the release of his first song. By December 2018, he released his 1st EP, “Elan's World". The EP was accompanied with two music videos for the most popular songs: “One On One” and "Hundreds". The "One On One" video was placed in 100 media and lifestyle outlets, including BetJams and Footlocker in the USA, while the song, "Hundreds”, was added to Spotify's Discover Weekly. The EP was followed by four singles in 2019, all of which were added to Spotify's Discovery Weekly. This helped Elan to amass over 1M Spotify streams in 2019. Elan continued his journey in 2020 with the release of his 2nd EP, $uave $eason, in February. Through 53 media outlets, the EP was placed in stores, shopping malls, and digital platforms worldwide. Elan released two music videos for the most popular songs on the EP, “Found Me” and "Jealousy". The videos are on YouTube. Both songs were added to Spotify's Discovery Weekly. Elan next released two singles, "Sleepless Nights" and "Hard". Hard was added to Spotify Discovery Weekly. They were followed by the single, "Dangerous", on July 31, 2020. These songs are preludes to the release of his 3rd EP, $uave $eason Vol 2, dropping October 9, 2020. Elan is demonstrating that his quest for stardom is more than wishful thinking. Rather, he has the talent to be a star. Website: elansuave.com ; Social Media @theofficial.elan @bbpllcmusic ; Youtube : Elan Suave --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/whataword/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/whataword/support

When Alex Norstrom started working at Spotify in 2011, CEO Daniel Ek told him there were three goals: Growth, growth, and growth. But Alex — now the Chief Freemium Business Officer — argued that his team would be better motivated by an “impossible goal,” something like reaching 100 million users. To which Daniel replied: “Let's do it. Your goal is to get us to 100 million users. Please begin.”In this episode, Alex and Joubin convene at Spotify's brand-new Stockholm studio to discuss his first job, the “shadow” mentorship program Alex runs, how Facebook changed everything for the gaming company King, thinking about the “bigger picture,” the tremendous effort happening behind the scenes before Spotify launched in each new country, “optimizing for surprises,” Joubin's embarrassing Spotify playlists, why we're still in the early innings of podcasting, Alex's lowest point at Spotify, partnering with FC Barcelona, and culture as currency.In this episode, we cover: The surprising lack of media coverage of Alex despite his prominence at Spotify (05:56)  Working at his mother's Chinese restaurant and his relationship with food (12:21) The early “fiascos” in Alex's career, and how he came to work at Candy Crush Saga creator King (18:01) How Spotify CEO Daniel Ek convinced Alex to work for him (25:38) Why Alex has tried to set “impossible goals” since his first day at Spotify (28:40) Why the freemium business model works (34:21) Spotify's hardest and biggest market: The USA (38:39) Pivoting to a mobile-first strategy and the pricing trick that turned conversion numbers around (42:59) The invention of Discover Weekly, and Spotify's deep bench of other features (51:21) How Spotify got interested in podcasts, and the decision to put them in the same app with music (57:50) The odd but crucial lesson Alex learned early in his career: Stay near the laughter (01:06:46) Being ubiquitous on many platforms, and the art of pitching big & partnering smart (01:09:05) The end of free growth on the internet, and the power of Spotify Wrapped (01:15:07) Links: Connect with Alex Twitter LinkedIn Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com  Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry's leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details. In 2022, there are more ways to discover music than ever. Listeners can utilize multiple streaming platforms, dive into artists' playlists, enjoy algorithmic internet radio, find songs playing in public via Shazam, and—as always—exchange mixes with their closest friends. That doesn't account for countless music blogs and publications, charts, and other social metrics one could use to learn who is hot in entertainment right now. As the avenues for music discovery have increased and the barriers to accessing music decreased, the number of artists vying for your attention has reached an all-time high. That in itself isn't bad. Everyone who desires to make and promote music should be able to do so easily. However, the impact of that demand for attention on consumers is something we still don't fully understand. Think about it for a second. As a consumer, you always want to find the next great thing. It's instinctual. We cannot help being this way. It doesn't matter if we're discussing restaurants or bathroom cleaners; people want the best. The same is true in music. We love the artists we love and have preferences, but a part of us is always looking for the next song or album or person or group that can make us feel alive all over again. So, consumers want the next thing great song or artist as fast as possible, and more artists than ever are promoting more songs than ever to meet that demand. What could go wrong? In short, burnout. On both ends. Artists are becoming so conditioned to the constant churn of the modern industry that they abandon material almost as soon as it is released. It's as if the three-to-six-month promotional cycle that precedes an album's release is the only push the songs will receive outside of the artist's subsequent touring. When those shows end, they will release more music, and it too will be largely forgotten in a few months. Meanwhile, listeners look to playlists such as Spotify's New Music Friday and Discover Weekly as the go-to destinations for new music. If an artist doesn't make it into one of the very limited spots on this list, they have to hope an influencer with a decent playlist following or a massive brand uses their song. Otherwise, it's up to fate and luck and whatever good word-of-mouth that artist has been able to build. But that is an incomplete picture of discovery. Music discovery extends far beyond release week. The long tail of music promotion is never-ending, and the proof is everywhere. Catalog streams are on the rise, as are catalog sales. Industry professionals realize that all material has value in the digital age, and they are scrambling to find ways to promote the content they'd previously left to rust. Before you fall victim to thinking your opportunity to be discovered has already come and gone, please remember these five cold hard truths about music discovery.

Today's guest deejay is Damián Schneider, one-half of Munknörr. I discovered Munknörr by way of Heilung. In the beforetimes, a friend posted a link to Heilung's new album, Futha, on Facebook. I listened to a few songs and scoffed that Heilung was a Nordic version of Enya. But Heilung's costumes captured my imagination, and I went back and listened to their album in its entirety and became a fan. So much so that I went to perform when they were in Los Angeles. Heilung we're excellent! I was transported to an age undreamt of for the next hour or so. Heilung looked like Nordic shamans and cheiftans. Aside from the band, there were a dozen warriors and shield maidens. Antlers adorned microphone stands. Some of the audience dressed almost as provocatively as I saw on stage. Spotify started to serve up music much like Heilung on my Discover Weekly playlist within a few weeks. It dawned on me that what Heilung called amplified history was a genre. And that's how I came across Munknörr. Munknörr means “the ship of the mind,” and this music on today's show will transport you to other worlds and times. If you're new to Munknörr, today's show is an excellent place to start. Damián's mix explores their many singles and albums. Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Darren McClure. See you then. Munknörr “Sigel” Munknörr “Laguz” Munknörr “Uruz” Munknörr “Deyja” Munknörr “Andi (feat Sigurboði)” Munknörr “Huginn and Muninn" Munknörr “Heimdallr” Munknörr “Othila” Munknörr “Wolf Spirit” Munknörr “Thurisaz” --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/soundwavemix/message

Vi snackar om det uppiskade kriget på sociala medier efter att Moderaterna använt musik av First Aid Kit i ett videoklipp, coronahundar, att måla med bred pensel och en havererade Discover Weekly, bland mycket annat. Dessutom har Ricky Holmquist lyssnat på hela tre covers medan Mikael Mjörnberg grävt fram en demo från 2001 och lyssnat på nytt från black metal-veteranerna Dark Funeral. I vårt hiss och diss-segment "hög och mög" sågar vi restriktioner och hyllar ett kommande skivsläpp. Musiken som diskuteras i avsnittet hittar ni här: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3eMEgCFxzGfU5jz4p15fdp?si=7a80e93076934c5f Vinjettfoto: Martin Wilson (https://www.facebook.com/fotografmartinwilson) Vinjettmusik: Systemet (https://www.facebook.com/systemetmusic)

今回は音楽回。月水金が音楽回。火木土がトーク回です。何となく。Discover Weeklyで知ったアーティストなどを7曲お送りします！ ▶︎ https://linktr.ee/potaufeu #ポトフさん https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7KDH6nfjODVuPW6rwXlB6V?si=af883d43f8dc4813 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/potaufeu/message

In this episode, we discuss Spotify's Discover Weekly, Nobody, and superheroes. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/threedollarsdown/message

It's time to let the algorithm determine the algo-rhythm on this Discover Weekly episode of Setlist in Seattle!

Recording Artist Jon Davis has been quick to establish himself and his artistry; finding his way onto playlists all around the world with his first three singles, “Easy,” “Goodbye,” and “You Will Be Loved.” His earliest releases are currently featured on Spotify's Discover Weekly, along with features from LUM Music on playlists such as “Pop X” and “Today's Top Hits.” Jon Davis is known for his lyrical work and powerful vocals born of contemporary and classical vocal training from esteemed coaches such as Seth Briggs and Karen Parks. Jon is distinctive in his approach to songwriting, and brings a fresh perspective to modern contemporary music.

In this episode, I excitedly talk about setting up my new laptop, including the new gadgets and gizmos I bought online to ensure that it lives a healthy and long life. I also give a huge list of the movies and TV shows that I have been watching and that no one asked for (common themes include: jungle, superpowers, and action!). We learn some more about Apollo's flings and wraths in Mythical Minute, and, straight from my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify, today's song recs are strong vocals and catchy melodies!

Why should bands quit complaining about Spotify royalties? I explain: Why Spotify's real value is discovery via their curated playlists (eg Rap Caviar) and algorithmic ones like Discover Weekly and Your Daily Mix Spotify vs Bandcamp in terms of royalties and discovery How Spotify is like Amazon, Wal-Mart, and other distribution channels Follow The Punk Rock MBA on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Follow Finn McKenty on Instagram and Twitch. PRMBA Merch Produced and edited by Deanna Chapman. Support The Punk Rock MBA on Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

音频文字稿发布在“北京读天下”公众号。2015年6月，Spotify发布算法驱动的播放列表功能“每周发现”（Discover Weekly），每周一向用户推荐30首个性化歌单。6个月内，这项功能带来的访问量就超过了17亿次。

How does Discover Weekly work? We speak with Music Hacker Hall of Fame inductee Paul Lamere, part of the team that created Spotify's Discover Weekly service. Discovery Weekly automatically creates a playlist of 30 new songs for you to discover each week. We learn about its early roots in the Echo Nest platform, how it works today and some tips for listeners to optimize their own weekly discoveries. We talk through the upsides and the downsides of computer-generated playlists. While it's almost as is if we all have our own personal music guru telling us what we should listen to next, how does a fresh new artist get a share of our attention and break onto the scene? How are biases introduced that skew playlists towards, say, male artists? Paul has a language for understanding our musical listening habits, like: ‘tilt' (how much we lean into new vs. old familiar tracks) and ‘functional music' (what we listen to passively while perhaps working, driving or cooking). We discuss some of Paul's music hacks including Boil the Frog, which lets you create a playlist of tracks that gradually takes you from one music style to another. You can try it yourself at: http://boilthefrog.playlistmachinery.com More of his musings and legendary music hacks can be found on his blog, Music Machinery http://musicmachinery.com ... Beatseeker has been selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 10 Music Technology Podcasts on the web: https://blog.feedspot.com/music_technology_podcasts/ Learn more: beatseeker.fm Insta: @beatseekerpod Twitter: @beatseekerpod Facebook: facebook.com/beatseekerpod Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/beatseeker Beatseeker is sponsored by the Boombox Music League: boomboxsoftware.com

  How To Get Your Song On A Spotify Playlist by Ari Herstand: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/06/21/spotify-playlists/ Welcome to another week of the ManageMental podcast with Blasko and Mike Mowery. In this episode the hosts tackle details every artist needs to understand about Spotify before trying to get on a Spotify Playlist. From the article: Streams are not equivalent to downloads or sales. When someone bought a song or an album it was because they were a fan of that song or artist. Fandom came first, typically, and purchasing came second. Now, streaming comes first, fandom comes second. “Consumer consumption no longer means fandom. It's not hard to stream a song. And it's not hard for a lot of people to stream a song [from] a popular playlist. That doesn't mean that you have millions of fans- it means you have millions of people who happen to hear your song. Who knows if they even dug it. So that all being said, how do songs get into playlists? How can you get your songs into playlists? Well, there are a few ways to go about this.     First, you have to understand what kinds of playlists exist. There are 3 kinds of playlists on Spotify: 1) Spotify Curated Playlists   The first category is something everyone is familiar with. These are the playlists “Created by Spotify.”   2) User Curated Playlists   The second category are playlists created by users of Spotify (yes, anyone can create a playlist) or a company, blog, label, org, what have you 3) Algorithmically Generated Playlists   And the third category are not human generated at all. These are the Discover Weekly, Daily Mix (which are actually customized per user) and Fresh Finds – which is generated based on tastemaker accounts.     Open SpotifyIn the search bar type in your genre. In this example I typed in Death Metal. Scroll down to PlaylistsFind a playlist with a lot of followers. In this instance I found “Best of Melodic Death Metal” that has 7500 followers. Click on the creator. Make sure it's not Spotify. If their profile photo looks like it might be a Facebook profile photo you are on the right track. Copy and paste his name into the face book browser. You should be able to match the photo. If they are on Facebook, and most Spotify users are, then open their account. Direct message them. Using tactics from the last episode compliment their playlist and their taste in music etc. Build a relationship. Offer to pay to be added if necessary. Spotify publicly shuns payola but they are too large to police every playlist and independent curator.     Mentioned by Mowery: Lefsetz Letter - Comparing Mediabase Charts  http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2017/08/11/comparing-mediabase-charts/ Email any questions or comments to askblasko@gmail.com Find Blasko on Twitter and Instagram: @blasko1313 Find Mike Mowery on Twitter and Instagram: @mikeoloop ManageMental is part of the Jabberjaw Media Network. www.jabberjawmedia.com    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk about chronological snobbery, signaling theory, and the Chicken Connoisseur.We also discuss social cognition, Discover Weekly, and subjective taste. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe