Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

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Jirin
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Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by Jirin »

When I look at the Daily Mix section on Spotify, I'm impressed by their algorithms. They not only figure out what kind of music I like, they figure out how I would 'bucket' them.

For example

Daily Mix 1: TV On The Radio, Future Islands, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Daily Mix 2: Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello, Neil Young
Daily Mix 3: Mount Eerie, Velvet Underground, XTC
Daily Mix 4: Saint Etienne, The Knife, Bjork
Daily Mix 5: Smashing Pumpkins, Beastie Boys, Guns N Roses
Daily Mix 6: Public Enemy, Outkast, NWA

Smashing Pumpkins and Mount Eerie are kind of outliers, but mostly it manages to split things that are in the same genre and same release era into categories of how they 'feel' to me. Something Spotify is doing is able to isolate the quality of 'exotic spaceyness' (Bucket 4) and identify it as a quality that appeals to me personally.

Bucket 5 seems to combine the 90s hard rock and 90s pop rock buckets, and there's a missing bucket for the 'indie folk/country/americana part of my tastes (Where Mount Eerie should be) and no jazz, but otherwise these buckets could pretty much be big circles drawn on a map of music that sums up my taste.

What does Spotify think about you? And is it right?
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ordinaryperson
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by ordinaryperson »

Daily Mix 1: System of a Down, Queens of the Stone Age, The Offspring [Alternative Metal]
Daily Mix 2: OutKast, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys [Hip Hop]
Daily Mix 3: Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, The Beach Boys [Classic Rock]
Daily Mix 4: Perfume Genius, Underworld, DJ Shadow [Electronic]
Daily Mix 5: Talking Heads, Sonic Youth, Husker Du [Alternative Rock]
Daily Mix 6: Eurythmics, Soft Cell, A Flock of Seagulls [80s Pop]

Outside of Daily Mix 1,5, and Underworld I barely listen to any of those artists. They just seem to combine artists by genre and time period.
Last edited by ordinaryperson on Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:54 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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StevieFan13
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by StevieFan13 »

Daily Mix 1: Foo Fighters, Weezer, Red Hot Chili Peppers [aka mostly-American ‘90s alt-rock]
Daily Mix 2: The Easybeats, Crowded House, Divinyls [aka music from Australia and New Zealand]
Daily Mix 3: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Al Green, Stevie Wonder [aka sweet soul music]
Daily Mix 4: Liam Gallagher, Buzzcocks, Joy Division [aka British alt-rock]
There’s usually also a rap mix, but I guess I’ve fallen off the wagon a bit. Gotta say, I think they know me pretty well.
Last edited by StevieFan13 on Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Krurze
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by Krurze »

Daily Mix 1: Kollektiv Turmstrasse, Fritz Kalkbrenner, Four Tet -> The somewhat accesible side of electronic music
Daily Mix 2: Animal Collective, Car Seat Headrest, LCD Soundsystem -> Indie
Daily Mix 3: The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth -> Not sure if I'd put Sonic Youth in here, seems to be the classic rock playlist
Daily Mix 4: FJAAK, Subjected, Floorplan -> Techno
Daily Mix 5: Mall Grab, Justin Martin, Dusky -> House
Daily Mix 6: Foo Fighters, Metallica, Queens of the Stone Age - Alternative Rock

Pretty straightforward I'd say, 50 % electronic music seems about right, too
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bonnielaurel
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by bonnielaurel »

1. Demi Lovato, Natalia Kills, Carly Rae Jepsen [pop]
2. Chelsea Wolfe, Goldfrapp, Zola Jesus [electropop]
3. Esbjörn Svensson Trio, Portico Quartet, GoGo Penguin [nu jazz]
4. Patty Griffin, Father John Misty, Julia Holter [folk rock]
5. Steely Dan, Genesis, Queen [70s rock]
6. D'Angelo, Jill Scott, Sharon Jones [nu soul]

This is a pretty good reflection of what I have been listening to lately.
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by DaveC »

1. The Flaming Lips, St.Vincent, Built to Spill
2. Placebo, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire
3. Steely Dan, The Kinks, Tom Waits
4. Marissa Nadler, Fiona Apple, Lykke Li (That one is interesting as it seems to be gender rather than genre based [it includes Sleater-Kinney & Sleigh Bells])
5. Ghostface Killer, Deltron 3030, Raekwon
6. Salif Kaita, Tinariwen, Cesaria Evora

I haven't listened to any Rain Dogs tracks for RTT yet, so I was surprised to see Tom Waits pop up. Looking behind the headlines, these playlists are pretty good, but not offering anything unexpected - and the Spotify algorithm doesn't know that unexpected is good.
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by BleuPanda »

1. Sufjan Stevens, Animal Collective, The Magnetic Fields, Swans (indie)
2. Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire, Portishead, Radiohead (indie part 2?)
3. Talking Heads, Kraftwerk, Prefab Sprout, Kate Bush (???)
4. Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails (alternative)
5. Bon Iver, James Blake, Solange, Feist (music with soul influence?)
6. Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Jlin, LCD Soundsystem (electronic)

That's some awkward clusters. I don't know how often I'd be up for Sufjan, Animal Collective, and Swans at the same time. Mix 3 seems to be my only mix with stuff from before the 90s. I'm also not sure what Prefab Sprout, Foo Fighters, Feist, or Jlin are doing as headliners for me.
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by spiritualized »

1. My Bloody Valentine / Teenage Fanclub / The Afghan Whigs
2. Spoon / Feist / Perfume Genius
3. Game Theory / The Boo Radleys / Ultra Vivid Scene
4. The Rolling Stones / The Doors / Leonard Cohen
5. Fujiya & Miyagi / GAS / The Prodigy
6. Joe Jackson / Depeche Mode / The Cure

Spot on, with the exceptions of Feist, Perfume Genius & Joe Jackson, those are all faves of mine and for some, I barely listened to them on Spotify. It is slightly unnerving that a machine knows my musical tastes better than my wife or children...
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by Nassim »

1. Burial, Jlin, Prefuse 73 : this one actually looked even better yesterday, but in the same electronic music genre
2. Q-Tip, the Roots, J Dilla : I usually have MF DOOM in my hip-hop daily mix, Spotify has decided I needed to listen to Hoe Cakes at least once a day. 4th track here is from Madvillain, 5th from MF DOOM and the 7th from Dangermouse so Spotify definitely thinks I love MF DOOM. Also, the opener is Check the Rhime, which is a great way to stop a playlist. On point.
3. Pavement, Grizzly Bear, (Sandy) Alex G (and I see Animal Collective on the cover too). Basically my go to indie rock mix (yesterday Sleater-Kinney was on the names listed though, even better).
4. The Knife, Beastie Boys and Air : pretty strange mix, mix Four Tet, Sonic Youth, Mogwai, The Chemical Brothers, Tricky, Red Hot Chili Peppers... no idea what the common thread is supposed to be
5. Devendra Banhart, Feist, Iron & Wine : folkish indie (and the 2nd of those mixes with The Walkmen's "The Rat"
6. Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire, Interpol : gets more intriguing when you open it, as it features Can, the Velvet Underground, Wire, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Orange Juice up front
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by Jirin »

Today the groups for me are about the same but different specifics.

I'm curious how the algorithm works. Maybe some kind of multiple regression analysis that identifies 'factors' like we have done in the past for our polls. Maybe some kind of neural network that we constantly train.
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by slick »

Daily Mix #1 --- Foals, The Killers, The White Stripes
Daily Mix #2 --- Foo Fighters, Seether, Pearl Jam
Daily Mix #3 --- New Order, The Charlatans, Blur
Daily Mix #4 --- Empire of the Sun, The Naked and Famous, CHVRCHES
Daily Mix #5 --- Van Halen, Guns 'N Roses, Led Zeppelin
Daily Mix #6 --- Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, Dropkick Murphys
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Rob
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by Rob »

My lists today make a lot of sense, but also prove one thing: Acclaimed Music might have too much influence on my listening behavior!

Daily mix #1: The Animals, David Bowie, Buffalo Springfield, The Kinks
Very classic rock. Even the Bowie listed is an early effort (The Man Who Sold the World).

Daily mix #2: Weyes Blood, Parquet Courts, Julia Holter, and the team behind Planetarium
Current alternative music.

Daily mix #3: Ennio Morricone, John Williams, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Angelo Badelamenti
Film scores.

Daily mix #4: Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, The Killers, Joy Division
Modern rock. Plus Joy Division.

Daily mix #5: Caeteno Veloso, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes, Jorge Ben
Latin music, obviously.

Daily mix #6: The Roots, Madvillain, Run the Jewels, A Tribe Called Quest
Hip-hop.

These are very solid mixes, though hardly an overview of my taste. I hardly listen to Latin music or hip-hop on my own. But recently I have listened to a lot of music for AM: my top 6.000 Songs series, the Moderately Acclaimed game, the top 1000 albums, the 2000's poll, A Taste of MegaCritic. That's what you see here. Only Parquet Courts, the Planetarium project and movie music are exceptions.

One thing that hasn't been commented on here is that all mixes consist of songs heard in the last half year or so. There are no recommendations, just tracks I previously listened to. There are no exceptions. Although they are well put together I don't find them as interesting as the Weekly Discovery list, which contains things I don't know. I never listen to the Daily mixes.
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by Honorio »

My daily mixes include PJ Harvey, Björk, Ibeyi, Ike & Tina Turner, Destiny's Child, Janet Jackson, Feist and St. Vincent among others. It seems that the listening I'm doing for the "women in music" poll has not been unnoticed by Spotify.
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by Nassim »

Rob wrote:
One thing that hasn't been commented on here is that all mixes consist of songs heard in the last half year or so. There are no recommendations, just tracks I previously listened to. There are no exceptions. Although they are well put together I don't find them as interesting as the Weekly Discovery list, which contains things I don't know. I never listen to the Daily mixes.
That's strange, my mixes have songs, and to a lesser extent bands and artists, I have never listened to. I'd say around 40%.
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by BleuPanda »

Nassim wrote:
Rob wrote:
One thing that hasn't been commented on here is that all mixes consist of songs heard in the last half year or so. There are no recommendations, just tracks I previously listened to. There are no exceptions. Although they are well put together I don't find them as interesting as the Weekly Discovery list, which contains things I don't know. I never listen to the Daily mixes.
That's strange, my mixes have songs, and to a lesser extent bands and artists, I have never listened to. I'd say around 40%.
Interesting...I thought the whole point of the Daily Mixes was that they exclusively pulled from music you had previously listened to.
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by Nassim »

BleuPanda wrote:
Nassim wrote:
Rob wrote:
One thing that hasn't been commented on here is that all mixes consist of songs heard in the last half year or so. There are no recommendations, just tracks I previously listened to. There are no exceptions. Although they are well put together I don't find them as interesting as the Weekly Discovery list, which contains things I don't know. I never listen to the Daily mixes.
That's strange, my mixes have songs, and to a lesser extent bands and artists, I have never listened to. I'd say around 40%.
Interesting...I thought the whole point of the Daily Mixes was that they exclusively pulled from music you had previously listened to.
Well today my mix #4 is pretty bad, and I can 100% guarantee I never listened to Grand Corps Malade, Tryo or La Rue Kétanou ! My mix 1 have a lot of songs from albums I've never heard from bands I have listened to before (Yeasayer, Of Montreal, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah...)
Plus the descriptions write (loosely translated from French) : Your favorite songs, but also new gems you are going to love.
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by Jirin »

I think they also include music frequently listened to by people who listen to the stuff you frequently listen to.

I have very interesting Daily Mix 6 today. Kronos Quartet, Mils Frahm, Ornette Coleman. It also has Tim Hecker and Stars Of The Lid.

Looks like non-vocal bucket except that it also has Julianna Barwick and Brian Eno.
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Re: Your daily mix: What does Spotify think of you?

Post by Sunwoo1213 »

Daily Mix 1: Tom Waits, The Bands, Van Morrison
Daily Mix 2: Wire, Husker Du, Pavement
Daily Mix 3: Danny Brown, Deltron 3030, Gang Starr
Daily Mix 4: Autechre, Harold Budd, Eluvium
Daily Mix 5: Aimee Mann, Elliott Smith, Laura Marling
Daily Mix 6: Nirvana, Dead Kennedys, NIN

Actually I don't like Tom Waits, Wire, Dead Kennedys a lot.. but they are in my daily mix
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