Mondays and Fridays are eagerly anticipated by music lovers on Spotify who are looking to uncover new artists. Each Monday, Discover Weekly, a playlist that serves listeners with tracks they might like based on their past listening histories, is updated. Friday is Release Radar day, when the playlist refreshes with brand-new songs from a user's favorite artists. And there's even more personalization happening daily on Spotify across playlists our editors curate and playlists users create.
In fact, personalization begins right within the home page, shortly after a new user downloads and signs up for Spotify. New users are prompted to select a few of their favorite artists. From that moment on, the app begins to spin up creators a listener might love based on those they're already familiar with. But that only accounts for a small portion of how we personalize the Spotify listening experience, said Spotify's Vice President of Personalization, Oskar St l, in an interview with For the Record.
How personalization came to life Personalization is what it sounds like: It ensures that the content you receive on Spotify is tailored to you based on the audio you love. It's now regarded as key to the Spotify experience-but Spotify did not always focus there. Spotify was originally created 15 years ago to function more like a library, where you could go and play the songs you were interested in that you already knew about. But over time, our engineers realized that you enjoy Spotify more if you discover more, and most people don't have time to discover on their own, said Oskar.
Perhaps you're a 46-year-old dad with three kids and no time to discover music by yourself, Oskar joked, gesturing to himself, or a student looking for inspiration. It's most helpful when you're served something up and know it will be a mix of what you like and what you might like. Then you'll stay for more.
Personalization, he explains, was an empowering experience for listeners who didn't have the time or knowledge to create endless unique playlists for every dinner party or road trip. It opened up discovery on a broader level, enabling hundreds of artist discoveries per person per year. And most important, personalization helps create a better app experience because it ensures that people want to be on the app-but not spend all their time there. Spotify's approach is to ensure listeners have a fulfilling content diet.
If we really wanted to make you stay on the app three more minutes, we would play your favorite song, Oskar explained. All we'd ever have to do is play your favorite 20 songs on a loop. But that would mean you're not discovering anything, and you'd eventually get tired and bored of the audio experience.
Spotify operates several personalization features within the app for listeners to enjoy beyond the classics like Discover Weekly and Release Radar. Earlier this year, we debuted Spotify Mixes sorted into genres, artists, or decades with music a listener loves or will love. Just last month, we introduced Blend, which merges two listeners' taste profiles, creates a playlist that combines both of their favorites, and allows them to share the results on social media. And most recently, we launched Enhanced playlists, a feature users can toggle on or off that allows Spotify to suggest new songs that might fit in well to a user's custom-made playlist.
All this is in addition to what we call our algotorial playlists: sets of songs our editors put together to evoke a certain mood or moment that are also tailored to the individual user. Songs to Sing in the Car might not look personalized, but it is, said Oskar. Each person is seeing music that fits that categorization, but that is also in line with what they enjoy listening to. In fact, there isn't just one Spotify experience. There's more like 365 million different experiences-one for each user-that's deeply personalized to their wants and needs.
How does personalization actually work? The answer is machine learning, a complex code-based system with thousands of inputs, all laddering up to one song recommendation, done faster than the blink of an eye. But Oskar broke it down:
Imagine you and another person have similar music tastes. You have four of the same top artists, but your fifth artists are different. We would take those two near-matches and think, Hmm, maybe each person would like the other's fifth artist' and suggest it. Now imagine that process happening at scale-not just one-on-one, but thousands, millions of connections and preferences being considered instantaneously, and always updating. Every day, half a trillion events, whether they are searches, listens, or likes, take place on Spotify, powering and guiding our machine learning system.
Machine learning technology has raced forward as Spotify has matured, with enhancements we only once only dreamed of now becoming reality. This reality, too, affects where we can go with personalization and what we can serve up to listeners. Breakthroughs in machine learning have really allowed us to rethink how we can help users discover new audio content. While in many instances machine learning has remained focused on solving for the immediate click- You like this song. Let me offer you more of the same kind of music'-we're now able to better understand content and the ways listeners and creators relate to it.
The future of Personalization at Spotify Podcasts, in particular, pose a significant opportunity, in part because of user input: It takes a bit longer to determine whether you like a particular show or episode or not-much more so than the 20 seconds most people take to pass judgment on a song. But as Oskar points out, we already had a great head start helping you discover podcas
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
08/01/2026
It will be murder on the dancefloor when Dancing with the Stars returns this S...
07/01/2026
Spotify is launching a week-long celebration spotlighting creators at the center...
07/01/2026
We know people use Spotify not just to listen, but to share the songs, podcasts, and audiobooks they love with their friends and family. When we launched Messag...
07/01/2026
This week, all eyes are on the podcast industry as the Golden Globes recognizes ...
07/01/2026
Podcasts are stepping onto a new stage this week as the Golden Globes recognize the medium for the first time. To mark this milestone moment, we're hosting ...
06/01/2026
Spotify is launching a week-long celebration spotlighting creators at the center...
06/01/2026
Lorde. A$AP Rocky. JENNIE. Baby Keem. KATSEYE. That's just a taste of who...
06/01/2026
Channel 4 and UKTV are giving viewers even more reasons to stream, with UKTV's U service set to feature thousands of hours of free, unmissable and bingeable...
06/01/2026
Tuesday 6 January 2026
An update on our Sky Mobile prices
Devesh Raj, Chief Operating Officer, Sky
Today, we've announced some changes to the prices of ...
06/01/2026
Comscore Launches Daily Program-Level Reporting with Deduplicated Insights on Sh...
06/01/2026
Comscore Completes Recapitalization Transaction with Preferred Stockholders Foll...
05/01/2026
Bad Bunny's DeB TiRAR M S FOToS defined the sound of 2025 for listeners eve...
05/01/2026
As the clock struck midnight and 2026 was born, so was an exciting range of new ...
05/01/2026
These Sacred Vows starring Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Justine Mitchell and Jason O'...
05/01/2026
DANDANCING WITH THE STARS RETURNS TO SHAKE UP SUNDAY NIGHTS
Reigning Rose of Tr...
02/01/2026
Any Given Day: Cork University Hospital premieres Wednesday 7 January on RT One and RT Player at 9:35pm
RT will debut a powerful new six-part documentary se...
02/01/2026
Friday 2 January 2026
All episodes of Heated Rivalry will be landing on Sky and...
02/01/2026
Sequins, chat shows, live sporting action, ground-breaking docuseries and brand-new Irish drama to kick off 2026
New Year, New Content Coming Soon across RT
...
01/01/2026
We had been using the club's previous console for the last ten years, so we researched manufacturer information very carefully, says venue audio manager Mr...
30/12/2025
Your live countdown to 2026 with Inhaler, David Gray, Lyra, Garron Noone, Sharon...
29/12/2025
From crisper Lossless audio and immersive music videos in beta to new Audiobooks+ plans, custom transitions between tracks, and in-app Messages, we keep levelin...
24/12/2025
RT has unveiled an exclusive first look at the new Dancing with the Stars promo...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
23 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan and Rakuten Symphony Collaborate to A...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Monday 22 December 2025
Sky extends PGA TOUR partnership until 2029, as Sky Spo...
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
John Shortt named Young Sportsperson of the Year Kerry are the Team of the Year
...
19/12/2025
With Playout Release 2025.4, ToolsOnAir continues to push professional playout w...
19/12/2025
19 Dec 2025
VEON's Mobilink Microfinance Bank Launches Islamic Banking Oper...
19/12/2025
The six-part drama, set in a close-knit Welsh town fractured by an unspeakable c...
19/12/2025
Rohde & Schwarz drives the future of mobility at CES 2026 At the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Rohde & Schwarz will present a powerful lineup o...
19/12/2025
RT is proud to return to the RDS to support the 2026 Stripe Young Scientist & T...
18/12/2025
Canada's largest indoor arena has transformed its live production capabilities with a full ST 2110 infrastructure and Calrec's compact Argo S console. S...
18/12/2025
Long-term agreement includes the SES SCORE platform and hybrid distribution worldwide to deliver more than 5,000 hours of golf tournaments annually featuring th...
18/12/2025
18 Dec 2025
VEON Upgraded to Nasdaq Global Select Market, Enhancing Investor Visibility Dubai, December 18, 2025 - VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON), a global digital o...
18/12/2025
Thursday 18 December 2025
Sky Sports remains the exclusive home of the Masters ...
18/12/2025
Using the additive process of 3D printing, layer after layer gets printed until an object is as close to the final shape needed as possible. Historically, machi...
18/12/2025
In 2025, RT proudly supported 185 arts and cultural events across the island of Ireland, reflecting significant growth since the scheme was re-launched in 2014...
18/12/2025
RT Sports Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
18/12/2025
RT lyric fm presents a very special Winter Solstice edition of Ambient Orbit, l...
18/12/2025
At 7.45pm on 1st January 1926, the precursor to RT , then 2RN, delivered the fledgling new Irish state's first public radio transmission. From those first c...
18/12/2025
December 18 2025, 05:30 (PST) The Movie Experience SLO Becomes First U.S. Exhib...
Mondays and Fridays are eagerly anticipated by music lovers on Spotify who are looking to uncover new artists. Each Monday, Discover Weekly, a playlist that serves listeners with tracks they might like based on their past listening histories, is updated. Friday is Release Radar day, when the playlist refreshes with brand-new songs from a user's favorite artists. And there's even more personalization happening daily on Spotify across playlists our editors curate and playlists users create. 
