10 tips to get the most out of Spotify

I have written a lot in the past about anxiety and depression, and the various coping mechanisms that I have used. Distraction techniques in particular have their successes and their failures; but in any case they are still useful.

Two of the ways I distract myself from anxiety, trying to prevent myself from over-thinking, are by playing games, or by listening to music. For the former I use Steam and for the latter I use Spotify. As part of my recent reflective mood I went back to take a look at my Spotify Wrapped from 2022 and wanted to share some tips on how to get the most out the app.

For context here are a few highlights from my 2022 wrapped. I spent 27,854 minutes spent listening to music, higher than 83% of other listeners in the UK. My most played track was 'Nothing Breaks Like A Heart - Darren Porter Remix' by Raz Nitzan which I played 208 times. I played 2,404 songs in total spanning 2,154 artists, so I think it's fair to say I get more than my moneys-worth out of the service.

#1 - Create Monthly Playlists

When a new month starts I create a new playlist for the month with the date, April is fast approaching so when it arrives my first playlist will be "2023-04 v1" which will be empty at first. Anything I listen to in April that I like will get added to that playlist, and if the tracks are vastly different and don't gel well then I create a second playlist "2023-04 v2" - doing this as many times as necessary. For March I am on 7 playlists so far, just because my music taste is quite eclectic.

#2 - Release Radar and Discover Weekly

When it comes to finding new music to fill these playlists with, it can feel at times like you get stuck in a bubble much for the same reasons as other digital platforms create bubbles in that emphasis is placed disproportionately on searching as opposed to browsing. With the likes of YouTube and Google you need to know what you want to look for before you can find it, even to be fed suggestions by those sites you need to search for something first.

Spotify however has two go-to playlists created for you that can help with this. If you go to the Spotify home screen and scroll, you should find a "Made for you" section, if you click or tap "See all" you'll see daily mixes that Spotify has created, and 2 special playlists, these last two are quite unique and they're the ones you should be paying the most attention to, Release Radar, and Discover Weekly.

Release Radar is automatically generated and updated every Friday, it contains music released that week by some of the artists you are following, and sometimes artists you don't follow but Spotify thinks you would like them. Every week when this playlist updates I go through it, about 50 tracks or so are included in it. I listen to each one, and any tracks that I like get added to one of my monthly playlists wherever they fit, and any I don't like I just ignore and move on.

Discover Weekly is a similar concept but for old music; again it is automatically generated but updated every Monday instead. It contains music Spotify thinks you might like based on the music you have been listening to, who you follow, and listening trends. Once more I listen to everything in that playlist and add anything I like to my monthly playlists. "Old Music" is defined as anything not released that week, so it may only be a few weeks old or could be decades old.

You can save both of these playlists to your library, which will make them easier to find.

#3 - Follow Everyone

This tip is particularly important to make number 1 and 2 work well, follow everyone. If you hear a track and you like what you hear, then click or tap through to the artist's profile and follow them. Don't worry about being swamped with new music, the algorithm does not feed you every single track an artist releases anyway, you won't miss any more music than you already do by following more artists. The more you follow the better the understanding that the platform will develop of your music taste.

#4 - Exclude the things you hate

That takes us on to my fourth tip, excluding tracks. This involves playlists again, which you might be quite sick of by now but organising things is necessary when there are literally millions of tracks that you could choose from. If you have music you only occasionally listen to but don't want recommendations to be based on them, then you can create a playlist and call it whatever you like "Exclusions" would be simple enough. Fill the playlist with these tracks then click or tap the 3 dots at the top of the playlist and choose "Exclude from your taste profile" - this will tell the algorithm that you like this music but not to base recommendations on anything in that list. This can be particularly useful if like me you occasionally listen to the soundtracks from video games or classical music which you don't want filling up your Release Radar or Discover Weekly playlists.

#5 - Remove Tracks

Following with the theme of exclusions, if you do happen to find tracks in your Release Radar or Discover Weekly that you really hate, next to the heart icon in the track list you'll see a circle with a line through it, you can click or tap that icon to remove the track, this explicitly tells the algorithm to ignore that track and tracks like it. A word of warning however, I would only advise doing this for music you actually hate, if it's something suggested that you just aren't keen on but don't hate then I wouldn't remove it, I would just ignore it; the reason for this advice is that the algorithm has a tendency to "bury" the artists that made tracks you explicitly remove. So if you like other music that they create, just not that track in particular, removing it can make it harder to come across their other work.

#6 - Like Everything

The opposite of number 5, "like" [or "love" or "save" depending on the app] everything that you listen to and like the sound of, not just the tracks you really love. Being sparing or frugal with your likes might keep your library small and make it easier to find tracks when browsing but it will keep you in a bubble. Like everything if you like it, you'll find more of what you like as a result. For the music you really love you can create playlists, and let's face it you probably search for music rather than looking for it in your library manually anyway so share the love.

#7 - Try it and see

I listen to everyone, I listen to music by any artist that is suggested to me no matter what preconception I have of that artist. This openness has led me to explore the back catalogues of artists I never thought would appeal to me and to the discovery of music I never would have sought out. This helps you break out of that bubble of expectation and avoid the pitfall of only finding what you look for and never finding anything new.

#8 - Explore individual artist catalogues

When I do find music that I really like, particularly if it is an artist I have not heard before, then as well as following that artist I will usually go through their profile to see what else they have produced. I explore album by album and like every track that I think sounds good. This is a good way to fill up playlists with a specific theme, like a set genre or a specific language [see number 10] as the algorithm will suggest other artists based on this activity.

#9 - Look forward

Try to let go of the past. Despite the fact I create monthly playlists to organise my new music that I explore, these playlists tend only to get attention during that month. When the month is over, it's rare that I will go back through these playlists in months or years to come. I don't delete them, because although it is rare, it does happen from time to time when I have a song stuck in my head and can't remember its name but have a rough idea when I listened to it. Also at the end of the year I tend to add every track from every playlist in that year to one bumper playlist for that year which I occasionally play on shuffle. Otherwise I try to move forward more than backward and focus on new music more than old music. The tracks I really love get put into regular playlists outside of my archive.

#10 - Go global

Spotify is a global platform, the music you can find on it is not limited to the English language. I have an entire folder dedicated to music in other languages, with sub-folders divided by language, and playlists in those folders in those languages where I collect music that I like.

I have playlists for Spanish, German, French, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Swedish, and Korean music. All you need is one artist that has created music in that language to start with and you can start building a playlist with music they released. The algorithm will feed more tracks to you in that language which will help you explore.

Listening to music in a language you are learning is an excellent way to train your ears to familiarise yourself with the sounds of the language, even if you aren't fluent yet or even if you barely have a basic understanding of the language the exposure is very helpful. This is made even more useful by the karaoke feature of Spotify, with certain tracks that are listed in the Musixmatch database you'll see a microphone icon you can click or tap and see the lyrics to the track [the mobile app usually includes these below the track itself in the now playing view] this is particularly useful when you're learning a language to be able to read the lyrics in that language as you listen.