Spotify launches Taste Profile to U.S. Premium subscribers

Spotify is now rolling out a feature called Taste Profile to its Premium subscribers in the U.S., giving listeners a direct view of how the platform models their taste across music, podcasts, and audiobooks. The feature was first unveiled by co-CEO Gustav Söderström at SXSW in March and beta-tested in New Zealand; Wednesday’s launch brings it to Spotify’s largest market by traffic and revenue, where it will be tested more broadly with listeners ages 18 and up.

Taste Profile effectively exposes the algorithmic understanding behind Spotify’s recommendation surfaces, including Discover Weekly, Made for You, and Spotify Wrapped. While that algorithmic understanding is widely credited as Spotify’s core advantage, the article notes that recommendations often fail to reflect evolving tastes, sometimes serving too-similar music when users want to branch out. Editing Taste Profile directly lets users request more variety, or more or less of a certain genre, artist, or vibe. It also gives a way to remove recommendations influenced by music that is streamed out of habit but not genuinely wanted, such as nighttime sleep sounds or whatever a teenager plays in the car on a parent’s account.

Previously, Spotify only offered the ability to exclude specific tracks or playlists from a user’s taste profile, and more recently added a toggle to stop kids’ music from affecting parental recommendations. Taste Profile extends this to the underlying model using natural-language commands. In the mobile app, users tap their profile picture, scroll to Taste Profile, see how Spotify currently understands their taste, and then enter what they’d like to adjust under “Tell us more.” Spotify says the Home Page will reflect a different set of suggestions after a few hours. The company suggests the feature for exploring a new genre or era when you don’t know where to start, or for adjusting the vibe, such as requesting more energizing tracks. Podcast and audiobook recommendations can also be shaped through the same interface.

The feature is still in beta, and Spotify has not offered a timeline for when it will reach a wider audience.

Spotify's is giving you the keys to its recommendation algorithm with US launch of 'Taste Profile' | TechCrunch

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