r/spotify • u/Atari800 • 4h ago
Discussion / Playlist Questions Music recommendations - want to give it a try?
Most people just sign up for a music streaming service, and the service starts making recommendations to them automatically. They accept the recommendations, and custom listening channels, without ever knowing much about how to fine tune it. But if you'd like more control over your new-music-discovery path, here is some info to get you started.
Who might be interested in this stuff?
People that one day decide, "I'm tired of listening to the same old music, I need to find some new favorites or a new direction". People that dislike how online algorithms stick you into a bucket and keep you there, and then repeat the same songs too often. People that want to say, "today, I'm in the mood for music that is similar to X, ignore what else you know about me from the past and play me stuff like X."
By the way, this post is all about automated music recommendations. There are a number of sub-reddits where humans will make suggestions for you, I have a list at the end of this post. But that's not what this post is about. This post is about:
Automated music recommendations - how to get started
Below is a table that summarizes the major ways you can get automated music recommendations.
Each line starts with a link, so you can click that and just go sign up for the service, and try it out, or try their free tier if there is one.
Then there is my ranking, and why I ranked it at that spot.
The other columns are pretty self-explanatory, except "Minutes to see rec". That's my estimate for how long it would take you to see some recommendations, from when you first load their website to when you are looking at a list of suggestions.
I'm not allowed to mention my favorite system here, that would be self-promotion, which is not allowed on this sub-reddit. Here's a list of all of the other systems. They break down into two categories: Interesting "music space browsers" and streaming services.
I have a detailed description of how to get started with each of these services here.
| Service | Rank and why | Account needed? | Payment needed? | Ads? | Minutes to see recs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify | 2-Best known, easy | Yes | No | Yes (free tier) | 20 |
| YouTube Music | 3-Very popular also | Yes | No | Yes (free tier) | 15 |
| Apple Music | 4-The Apple way | Yes | Yes (after trial) | No | 20 |
| Pandora | 5-Spotify passed them by? | Yes | No | Yes (free tier) | 10 |
| Last.fm | 6-Complicated to use | Yes | No | No | days * |
| Music-Map / Gnod | 7-Just a music space browser | No | No | Yes | 5 |
| Every Noise at Once | 8-Strange music space browser | No | No | No | 5 |
| Tidal | 9-Way-cluttered interface | Yes | Yes (30-sec samples free) | n/a | 20 |
| STELL-R | 10-Academic project, complicated | No | No | No | 30 |
* Last.fm: you can browse its similar-artist pages in about 5 minutes with no
account, but its personalized recommendations require days of scrobbling
history first.
Note: Music-Map and Every Noise at Once are "music space browser" tools, not personalized recommenders - they have a limited ability to accept a list of favorites as your input.
Sub-reddits where humans will make recommendations for you:
You can even post pictures in some of these reddits, and say "suggest songs that are similar to this picture!"
| Sub-reddit | Weekly visits | Their description |
|---|---|---|
| r/musicsuggestions | 274,000 | Ask for music suggestions and help others discover something new. |
| r/LetsTalkMusic | 208,000 | For people who are passionate about music. |
| r/MusicRecommendations | 161,000 | Only posts ASKING for recommendations are allowed. |
| r/spotify | 159,000 | Mainly for sharing Spotify playlists. |
| r/ifyoulikeblank | 100,000 | Ask for or provide recommendations of media based on other media people like. |
| r/Topster | 18,000 | Sharing album charts and recommending albums to others. |
| r/SongRecommendations | 10,000 | Ask for a song recommendation! Share songs! |
| r/makemeaplaylist | 3,000 | Reddit's home for playlists. |
| r/MusicMatch | 2,100 | Submit a song/album/artist to let the community suggest similar music. |
So, did I forget anything? Do you disagree with my rankings? Did you discover your new favorite album through an automated recommender, or a human on one of the sub-reddits above? Let's hear your story in the comments!