Our Spotify Cheat Sheet: 4 Ways to Find Your Next Favorite Song
She dresses with an effortless cool, she knows the best hidden taco joints, and her music taste is always on point. She’s the friend who introduced to that new artist you’re streaming on repeat and brought you to the random concert that, in a nutshell, changed your life.
We’re here to tell you: You can be that cool friend. Whether you’re looking for your next favorite artist or for something a little outside your musical comfort zone, discovery awaits via scrolling and clicking. From personalized playlists to just-for-you radio, Spotify has your back.
Bookmark this immediately. Here are four ways to discover new music on Spotify.
1. Spotify Radio Playlists
If you like the ease of someone else choosing songs for you, you should try Spotify Radio
What it is: Choose a song, artist, or playlist, and we’ll play hours of similar music that matches what you like. For example, get going with Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash into Me” and breeze right into a mix of Tom Petty,Dispatch, and DMB deep cuts that you might have forgotten.
How to do it: Follow a playlist to save it to your radio library, and further personalize it by liking or disliking tracks. On desktop, head over to Radio and click CREATE NEW STATION. Enter a track, artist, or playlist and Spotify will create a station based on that music. Hit FOLLOW to save the station in Your Library, under Stations. Unfollowing the station will remove it.
On the app, hit Radio, then New Station on the top right. Search for a track, artist, or playlist, and choose the song you’d like to start with. On the Station page, tap FOLLOW to save it to Your Library under Stations.
2. Discover Weekly
If you like music that’s totally new to you but would work perfectly with your current playlists, you should try Discover Weekly
What it is: Based on your listening history and that of fans with similar taste, the Discover Weekly playlist is like getting recommendations from the more in-the-know version of yourself. It’s so famous among users for how well it just gets you that this feature has a fair share of groupies. (Seriously. Just ask around.) Because of how well it pinpoints your taste in music, it feels like your Discover Weekly knows you better than your significant other. Better than your sister after 15 years of sharing a room. You get the gist.
Discover Weekly is 30 new songs we think you’ll love, delivered every Monday. Remember that Discover Weekly refreshes every week, so make sure you save your favorites.
How to do it: On desktop or web player, you’ll find Discover Weekly in Your Library (Your Music on web player) under Playlists. On mobile, it’s in Home under Made for You for free users. For Premium subscribers, it’s in Your Library under Playlists, or in Browse under Discover.
The playlist is set to private by default, but you can set it to public, share it with friends, and follow other users’ Discover Weekly playlists. And those private sessions? They don’t influence your Discover Weekly, so your recommendations won’t get thrown off by a little out-of-character listening.
3. Daily Mix
If you like your music divided by genre, with a hint of discovery, you should try Daily Mix
What it is: Daily Mixes are personalized playlists based on the styles of music you listen to. Users can have up to six mixes, based on the variety and amount of your general listening history. So if you’re the kind of person who only listens to indie pop, you might have fewer mixes than your roommate, who wakes up to country, goes for Top 40 in the car and is also up to date on the punk rock scene. The mixes are fresh and familiar at the same time—a mix of new discoveries and tracks you already have on repeat and unbound, meaning it will load more songs instead of stopping.
How to do it: Liking a track (<3) will save it to your Songs collection, while disliking a track (X) means it won’t come up in your mix again. As your music tastes evolve, so do your mixes, so the more you listen, the better they get. It doesn’t refresh completely like Discover Weekly, but rather evolves gradually with your listening. Each mix updates with fresh songs within a day of when you last listened to it, so make sure to save the ones you love. Find your Daily Mix in Your Library if you’re using desktop (Your Music on web player). If you’re using mobile, look in Home under Made for You for free users, and in Your Library if you have Premium.
4. Release Radar
If you like keeping up with recently released music, you should try Release Radar.
What it is: Release Radar is a playlist of 30 songs is updated every Friday with music that has come out over the past few weeks, recommended just for you based on your listening patterns. It includes a mix of new music from the artists you listen to most, plus new singles we think you might like, so you never miss a new release. Maybe you’ve been listening to Justin Timberlake since your dorm room days, but didn’t consider yourself a true TN Kid until “Filthy” popped up in your Release Radar. Suddenly, you’ve got front-row tickets to his Man of the Woods tour.
How to do it: As with most playlists, the more you listen, the better it gets, and liking or disliking tracks will steer the playlist and help tailor future recommendations. Find your Release Radar in Browse when listening on desktop (Home on the web player), or in Home under Made for You on mobile.
Spotify allows you to listen to completely new tunes or current favorites mixed with some discovery. And you can always look to our playlists like RapCaviar and ¡Viva Latino! to influence what you want to listen to, right now. Either way, Spotify offers easy ways to explore music. Pro tip: Remember everything refreshes, so always be sure to save your favorites.
