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...
29/01/2026
RT has today announced that Annette Malone has been appointed to the role of Chief People Officer, RT following a public competition.
As Chief People Officer...
28/01/2026
Music discovery should feel intuitive and personal. That's why we're continuing to give you more control, so you can ask for what you want, shape what y...
28/01/2026
Today, Charlie Hellman, Spotify's Head of Music, shared the following note on the Spotify for Artists blog that the company paid out more than $11 billion t...
28/01/2026
As demand for more complex live sports coverage grows, Balkan broadcast specialist MVP has upgraded its flagship HD1 progressive OB truck with the installation ...
28/01/2026
Luxembourg, January 26, 2026 - SES S.A. ( SES or the Company ), a leading space solutions company, acknowledges the credit rating action announced by Fitch to...
28/01/2026
28 Jan 2026
VEON Notes Kyivstar Group Publication of Selected Full Year 2025 Fi...
28/01/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to host 2026 edition of its online event Demystifying EMC Rohde & Schwarz invites the global EMC community to join a crucial discussion on pre...
28/01/2026
Stadtwerke Wolfhagen Modernize Customer Management with AEP.energysuite from Arv...
27/01/2026
Click for Japanese version
Tokyo, Japan - January 27, 2026 - Akamai Technolo...
27/01/2026
Today, Spotify is proud to support our partner Backline, an industry-leading men...
27/01/2026
With nearly 29 million monthly listeners and clear momentum on Spotify, Net n Ve...
27/01/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
27/01/2026
New agreement for uninterrupted UHF connectivity for Australian Defence Force through 2033, With Options Extending to 2041
Luxembourg, January 13, 2026 - Satel...
27/01/2026
Tuesday 27 January 2026
SNL UK creative team expands as Pauli Lovejoy, Annie Ha...
27/01/2026
RT Supporting the Arts is delighted to support a dynamic programme of cultural events taking place across Ireland this February. From visual art, film, music, ...
26/01/2026
Music videos play a huge part in how fans connect with their favorite songs, but...
26/01/2026
Wuppertal January 26, 2026
Riedel and Media Tailor Deliver Unified Broadcast a...
26/01/2026
26 Jan 2026
VEON Unveils the New Beeline Uzbekistan Network Operations Center, ...
26/01/2026
Bookish is created by and stars Mark Gatiss
Images available HERE
Following th...
26/01/2026
Monday 26 January 2026
New Sky Original Series explores Entertainment Juggernaut, The X Factor
Sky today confirmed it has greenlit a premium, definitive docum...
26/01/2026
Monday 26 January 2026
Sky confirms major investment to transform Livingston ca...
26/01/2026
Software for Stable Data Management and Lasting Business Success in Uncertain Ti...
26/01/2026
RT is today publishing a statistical summary of the Register of External Activities for the third quarter of 2025.
The RT Register of External Activities com...
24/01/2026
RT and Virgin Media Television kick off comprehensive free-to-air coverage of t...
23/01/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 29 July, 2025 - Yospace, the global leader in Dynamic A...
23/01/2026
Spotify's annual Best New Artist celebration honors the rising stars whose talent, creativity, and dedication have propelled them to the music industry'...
23/01/2026
Paramount is transforming its operations by unifying the media supply chains of their top brands into a scalable global pipeline.
This transformation enhances ...
23/01/2026
Every delay costs. When a subtitle fails QC, even the smallest issue can mean missed deadlines, extra vendor costs, or frustrated teams. The new Accurate.Video ...
23/01/2026
Find out where Sare and Suze are now on RT One and RT Player Thursday 29 January at 10.15pm
Hit drama SisterS, created by, written by and starring real-life ...
23/01/2026
Friday 23 January 2026
Sky appoints Lisa Clark as Commissioning Executive for SNL UK
Lisa Clark headshot
PNG (468KB)
Lisa Clark joins Sky as Commissioning E...
23/01/2026
RT is delighted to announce that the RT and F s ireann / Screen Ireland supported short film Retirement Plan has been nominated for Best Animated Short at th...
22/01/2026
Last November, Ed Sheeran returned to his musical roots for an intimate, one-nig...
22/01/2026
Every delay costs. When a subtitle fails QC, even the smallest issue can mean missed deadlines, extra vendor costs, or frustrated teams. The new Accurate.Video ...
22/01/2026
Thursday 29 January 9:35pm on RT 2 and RT Player
The dating show returns with something old, something new and a dater you may already know
Thursday evenings...
22/01/2026
Rohde & Schwarz, Qualcomm, and Motorola demonstrate successful 5G Broadcast comp...
22/01/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
21/01/2026
Wednesday 21 January 2026
Backing Britain on the global stage: Sky becomes an o...
21/01/2026
Fox Corporation Executives to Discuss Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Financial Resul...
21/01/2026
Baselight v7 brings colourists and post-houses smarter mattes, faster workflows and deeper control
FilmLight, known for its detailed colour toolset and longsta...
21/01/2026
RT News is pleased to announce the appointment of Jackie Fox as its new Washington Correspondent. Jackie is a multimedia journalist with RT News and has repor...
19/01/2026
Monday 19 January 2026
Sky News reinvents News at Ten for the modern audience with The Wrap
Sky News today announces The Wrap, a bold evolution of its 10pm ou...
19/01/2026
DPA Microphones is striking a new chord in piano miking with the debut of its DPK2015 Piano Stereo Kit, an out-of-the-box, plug-and-play miking solution that ta...
19/01/2026
DPA Microphones will present its 4099 CORE Instrument Microphone and redesigned...
19/01/2026
Trianel relies on Arvato Systems for future-proof data center operations
Moving to the cloud: Arvato Systems implements extensive IT migration project
Migrat...
19/01/2026
Celebrating 21 Years of the RT Choice Music Prize
RT Choice Music Prize
In association with IMRO and IRMA
Irish Album of the Year 2025 - Shortlist Announce...
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. 
