All to your taste: Spotify’s ‘Taste Profile’ beta puts you in control of the music you receive
What you need to know
- Spotify’s latest beta announcements highlight Taste Profile, a feature that lets users see how the platform defines their tastes and lets them control it.
- The Taste Profile will bring up the user’s latest artist and genre breakdowns, while giving them a text box to say what they can add more or less.
- Spotify’s latest updates include offline songs and a beta of curated playlists for the US and Canada.
How Spotify measures your music preferences for recommendations is getting an upgrade following a beta that’s getting ready to fly.
In a Newsroom post, Spotify announced that it is preparing to launch a beta version of Taste Profile in select markets overseas. Meanwhile, Spotify says the Taste Profile will be the user’s direct line to how the platform understands what kind of music they enjoy listening to. It adds, “The Taste Profile is designed to capture new dimensions of your taste, such as your current interests and habits.” In an effort to streamline the platform and user experience more towards personalization and “transparency,” Spotify says users in this beta can manipulate their taste profile.
A short video showed that, after installing the Taste Profile beta, Premium testers in New Zealand will see the full classification. This section will contain your “recent tastes,” including the artists you’ve chosen to listen to and any genres. However, the highlight here is when you scroll down to find the “Tell us more” box.
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This text box is where the user can write in what they would like to hear more about. If you were really into metalcore, Sabrina Carpenter, or the K-Pop group, Itzy, let me know your profile. Alternatively, as Spotify says, you can also tell the platform what to exclude from your Taste Profile. If it was giving you a particular genre or artist because you listened to one or two songs that someone recommended, you can tell it’s making fun of itself.
The post says, “Your input helps determine what gets prioritized, what gets replayed, and what you find next on Spotify’s homepage.” As previously mentioned, this is a test for new Premium users in New Zealand “in the coming weeks.”
Walking that personal line
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In the interest of personalization, Spotify had a beta starting this year called “Ordered Playlists.” The feature eventually expanded its beta to users in the US and Canada, giving Premium a chance to tell Spotify’s systems what kind of music they want to hear. A curated playlist will take into account a user’s account history, vibes, cultural influences, and more. After you hit “generate,” Spotify will compile a playlist that (hopefully) matches the description you provided, next to the text description at the top of the list.
Spotify has released several other updates, such as “About this song,” which gives users background information about an artist’s inspiration. February’s top brought offline lyrics to users and the official release of the “Preview” voice when viewing the Now Playing screen.
Android Central Take
Our favorite music can be a conversation starter. I know people who have different music tastes than mine and I’ve tapped into their tastes, right next to me. I listen to Spotify a lot, especially while writing, and there are times when a certain song comes on. Maybe it’s something I was listening to in passing or maybe something from years ago. But this beta, in my understanding, can help us fine-tune it, so that we hear only what we want. Thinking about it that way, I’m happy if this hits the States.
