Unlock Spotify Secrets With These 5 Tips
As a long-time Spotify Premium user, I thought I had mastered all its features. From creating the perfect playlists to using the 'Fans Also Like' section for new discoveries, I was confident in my music streaming prowess. But then, I decided to ask ChatGPT if I was missing anything.
While familiar features like Discover Weekly and Daylists are great, I was curious about deeper, hidden tricks. ChatGPT provided a long list of tips, and among the ones I already knew, five genuinely surprised me. Here are the five hacks I learned that have changed my Spotify game.
Keep Your Guilty Pleasures Secret
We all have those guilty pleasure tracks that don't quite fit our carefully curated musical profile. Listening to them can throw off Spotify's algorithm and skew your stats. The solution is a Private Session.
This feature lets you listen to anything you want without it affecting your recommendations or showing up in your friends' activity feeds. The session ends automatically after six hours of inactivity.
To start a Private Session, go to Settings, tap Privacy & Social, and then toggle on Private session.
Find Music Faster with Advanced Search
If you've ever tried to find a specific type of music, you know how broad Spotify's search results can be. Just like with streaming services such as Netflix, you can use search qualifiers to narrow things down. By adding filters like genre or year, you can pinpoint exactly what you're looking for.
For example, if you want to find electronic music from a specific period, you could search for genre:electronic year:2015-2020.
Train Your Discover Weekly Playlist
I've never been a big user of the 'Liked Songs' feature, preferring to organize music into my own playlists. However, ChatGPT pointed out that strategically using your Liked Songs is a powerful way to fine-tune your Discover Weekly recommendations.
If you want your Discover Weekly to feature more of a particular genre, simply add 10-20 songs from that genre to your Liked Songs. Spotify's algorithm will pick up on this pattern and adjust your future recommendations accordingly.
Drift Off to Sleep with the Timer
For anyone who enjoys listening to a soothing playlist or podcast before bed, the Sleep Timer is an essential feature I'd overlooked. This tool allows you to set a timer that will automatically stop the audio after a specified time.
This is perfect for drifting off to sleep without draining your device's battery or having music play all night. To use it, tap the three dots on the playback screen, scroll to Sleep timer, and choose a duration from 5 minutes to an hour, or select 'End of track'.
Explore Niche Genres with External Tools
While Spotify's own discovery features are robust, sometimes you want to dive into hyper-specific subgenres. ChatGPT recommended using third-party tools that integrate with Spotify to expand your musical horizons.
Websites like Stats.fm can give you a deeper analysis of your listening habits. For pure discovery, a site called Every Noise at Once presents a massive, clickable map of virtually every music genre imaginable. Clicking any genre takes you to an introductory playlist on Spotify, offering an incredible way to explore new sounds.
