If like me you are relatively new to the whole Spotify music craze or even want to get more out of it, then this blog may be of use to you. I’ve never been a big lover of pop music, don’t get me wrong there is always someone or some band that grabs my attention and in fairness it is hard to escape. It used to be really hard to find music I really liked and in the past you would take gambles on CD’s not really knowing what they were going to be like, only having heard one song but buying the album. Oh how times have changed, you can now search the internet for new music and people sharing their tastes and discoveries. Spotify is perfect for this, it even makes playlists for you and where you can follow other people who have done the leg work for you. So how do we get the most out of our Spotify account?
Discover weekly is one of the most important playlist you will need to get yourself acquainted with. This playlist changes every Monday morning and contains all the best new music to hit Spotify that week. This is where you are going to be in front of the wave and a good trick is to download each playlist before it refreshes every Monday, because we don’t always have time to sit around and just listen to music that intently. I then save the songs I like to a playlist and get rid of the rest, keeping as on top of the Discover Weekly playlist as I can.
You can also follow other people on Spotify like your friends, but that doesn’t mean you have the same taste in music, so why not follow strangers you have a similar taste as you. You could also follow Barack Obama if you wanted. Some recommended people to follow would be; Michael Alan Perry for his Indie Playlists and We Are Going Solo for a more Eclectic list. What is also great is that record labels are also making lists for their new releases.
With Spotify becoming the Netflix of music streaming, there are now tons of apps to help you out. Remember when iTunes had Genie? It would give you suggestions based on the song you were playing at that time. Well there’s an app for that. MagicPlaylist will whip you up a playlist based on one song you like. Stick in Kodaline, Brother and watch it search through the Spotify database and bring together all the similar sounding tunes in one playlist. Another must have app is Playlist Miner which will again create a playlist based on a single search word like ‘Chilled’ and will go through the most popular playlists with that in the title and collect the songs that appear the most in each playlist. There are many more helpful apps.
I also like to list to music for moods and I am a big fan of the ‘Easy’ playlist from Spotify at the moment. I am only starting to really get the most out of my account. Spotify are constantly improving and creating new features like ‘Who’s playing near you’ where you can listen to artist performing near you, what they’re playing and also you might want to go see them and had no idea they were playing. It has had some stick in the past and Spotify is always in and out of law suits with Taylor Swift but you cant argue that it gives you a lot of choice and helps you find music for you not for everyone else.
WORDS BY STUART GRAHAME
Stuart is one of our regular hosts and over the years has become something of an expert in dating. Watch out for his regular posts full of dating tips and advice.