Spotify - anyone heard of it?

But the playlist permission thing is so we can create your "Found Them First" playlist, not so we can play you the songs by the artists you already know. Did you click through to get yours?

― glenn mcdonald, Thursday, September 10, 2015 1:57 PM (35 minutes ago)

I was just kidding around really, Glenn. Will have a look at the playlist when I've some free time later.

Becuz I didn't realize it was strictly hot new artists - somebody had to be in the first however many to listen to Hendrix on spotify, Terence Trent or the feelies, etc

In hindsight I can see this is a buzz bin congratulations thing, but nothing in the text actually suggests as much

So outta curiosity, what IS on a found them first playlist? Those 200 acts? The rando older acts you spun before most? There's no info on the site and Ive been schooled on playing into their game.

Because a program that tells you that you were among the first on Spotify to listen to an already popular artist feels even more niche than what this one already does?

That being said, if I had been listneing to some obscurity from the 60s that suddenly sees a huge jump in popularity due to its use in something like a Tarantino film, it would be kind of neat to see.

I'm willing to admit I was prob naive to expect some kind of "yes you were among the first 20% to play Taylor dayne, you champion" nerdery but I still don't see how this app is in any way rewarding (and if the playlist is the reward its existence shouldn't be a near-secret).

Figuring everyone who found FKA Twigs first got Nao on their playlist.

The playlist you get at the end of the thing is new stuff you might be part of breaking next. Or that's the idea, anyway. Mine had some stuff I already knew and some stuff I didn't, but it was definitely worth checking out.

lol add me to the list of ilxors who didn't know there was a playlist

even if you do bother to scroll over the white dot and learn there's a playlist available - you still don't know WHAT the playlist is, other than tangentially related to your being on the cutting edge re: one of 200 (though seemingly in practice, 5) buzzy acts. not pretending this is actually a big deal or anything, no need for a "settle down," just kinda baffled by the obtuseness of how this is designed.

if the goal is have me let spotify make a RIYL Charli XCX playlist, it's a remarkably ostentatious yet uninviting one

The playlist is based on all your listening, not specifically the artists you "found first".

I didn't have anything to do with the design. You can tell, because there are hardly any screens packed full of tiny inscrutable numeric scores. And no metal.

i want the name of the one person responsible for the absence of tiny inscrutable numeric scores

I can't give you one name, but I could give you 1500 names with a fractional culpability score for each...

I didn't have anything to do with the design.

best thing about it imo - love the colours and animated fx on the artist pics

Would love a big ugly data dump of all the artists where I'm in the first 1-10% of listeners.

Cooler to show who was the first to STOP listening to an artist once they sold out...

i really do miss the snarky 'because you listened to _______ you should check out (horrifying possibly sarcastic suggestion)', really did replicate that old record store experience

I got some right now that sound like a bitchy record store clerk into giving humbling history lessons

You listened to Cheap Trick yesterday. Want to try Styx?

You listened to REM. Check out Chris Isaak.

If you like Soundgarden, we recommend Rush.

You listened to Neil Young and Pulp. Here's an album you might like. *large image of Jefferson Airplane's "Long John Silver"

You listened to the Pretenders. Here's a song you might like. *insanely large image of Neil Diamond's Moods album, track "Song Sung Blue"*

You listened to Cheap Trick yesterday. Want to try George Thorogood & The Destroyers?

I GET IT SPOTIFY, YOU THINK CHEAP TRICK SUCKS.

― da croupier, Saturday, July 27, 2013 12:50 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"you listened to The Battle Of Evermore. Want to try The Mamas And The Papas?"

Is there a way to view a list of every artist and how many followers they have?

In Found Them First, you mean? I don't think there is, and I don't know if that's intentional or not. I'll see if I can find out.

Not find them first - just overall total followers. Something like:
Lana Del Ray - 1,400,000
Grimes - 1,200,000
etc

Ah. No, that's not available anywhere public. Not sure why not, although i know follower numbers don't always track listening volume, so that probably has something to do with it. We used to have some artist charts, but I think it was never quite clear what they were good for, so at the moment all the charts are track-based.

all this themed stuff is fun, whether it works for me or not. discover weekly, fresh finds, found them first (which gave me 0 because i've only recently used spotify properly), throwback sodding thursday, everything.

this week's fresh finds glided so seamlessly through genres that i just let the whole thing play almost without skipping.

Discover Weekly is uncovering artists like NICK CAVE and PIL and WIRE for me this week.

^this. I mean, nice set of songs. I'm not the target consumer for this thing anyway, I have impeccable taste, don't trust rando people at Spotify to have better taste in music than me. *rewinds side b of invisible touch*

yeah i have to wonder if the goal is maintaining a set of songs i'll enjoy more than actually making me discover anything - increasingly i'm seeing songs - not just artists - that I KNOW i've already played plenty on spotify. i feel like the text would often be "you played World Party's second biggest hit last week, care to discover their biggest hit?" & "you clearly like 'black metallic' by catherine wheel, wanna hear 'black metallic' by catherine wheel"?

that said there ARE some "artist like artist you've played"s between the "other songs by artists you've played" and "songs you've played." I just wish it didn't come off so timid about leaving my safety zone, if it's gonna be sold as DISCOVER rather than ENJOY.

it's not unlike the bit in The Ten with bobby canavale and ad miles

"wanna hear roberta flack?"

"hey, how about Killing Me Softly?"

"eh, that's a little Roberta 101. Here, let's try Greatest Hits, track 2..."

it's possible the average spotify listener blasting early alt-rock on the reg doesn't wanna be pushed any further than "mind if we slip some guadacanal diary in with your cure and depeche?" though

This week I got Brenton Wood's Oogum Boogum Song on my playlist, which I may have heard before but couldn't identify, and I found it delightful. Though now I've just learned that's apparently been used in a KIA ad, so that makes me a little disapppointed.

wish there was a "I am familiar with this artist already, please exclude from future discover playlists" ticker

as much as I love Charli XCX I think I am all discovered on that front

It's true that DW is not really attempting, at the moment, to aggressively push your boundaries. Think of it as just the beginning. If it's getting the kind of thing you like, it's proving that the basic personalization approach is working. Then we can start to apply that personalization to other sources of material, like Fresh Finds or new releases...

I'm pretty cool with it just coughing up more 70s AM gold nuggets not currently in my playlists. The only real problem, as with all things of this nature (Netflix being the worst at this in my experience) is that you can't ever really tell it ''no, I know about that, I just think it sucks'' or ''i only want to listen to that artist in the context of their albums'' or ''i only dig their rambling story-songs, not their stabs at political relevancy'' or w/e. Like if there's any opportunty to low-rate things, I avoid it because I know the machine will never know *why* I'm hitting that button, and the distortions will pile up from there. So it goes.

I'm pretty cool with it just coughing up more 70s AM gold nuggets not currently in my playlists

yeah i'd just like to not see stuff from my playlists

xpost Yes, me too. Which is why we're trying to mostly rely on listening, not "tuning", so you don't waste your time trying to pre-second-guess the robots.

I'd like to convince it I'm not the incarnation of the part of idolator that reads like popjustice

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_in,_garbage_out

i spent last week making a huge '80s playlist so my discover weekly this week is amazing lol

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_in,_garbage_out

― balls, Monday, September 14, 2015 2:22 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's the thing though, no matter how hard I try to influence it, it does not budge.

Maybe try a couple solid weeks of Turkish hip hop and reggaeton.

Beck, Bjork, The Smiths, JAMC, MBV, Cocteau Twins, Belle and Sebastian, Super Furries, Broadcast, plus a side order of The Fall, Talking Heads, Gang of Four, Durutti Column. I haven't escaped the male-centric indie spiral but it's finally figured out when my tastes formed.

Also, does the algorithm for the Discovery Playlist put any thought into order and flow of the playlist, or does it just find a bunch of random songs you might like and puts them in no particular order?

At the moment there's no particular internal order to the tracks, but this is an obvious area for future work...

Maybe try a couple solid weeks of Turkish hip hop and reggaeton.

My Recent Artists over the last two weeks have been mostly metallic (Electric Wizard, Uncle Acid, Earth, Black Sabbath, Candlemass, Cirith Ungol, Enslaved, Myrkyr, Ulver, Opeth, Tribulation) but this week's Discovery Playlist remains much in the vein of the earlier ones I've received, strong on jazz and neo-soul ... the main change this time appears to be less soul and more old post-punk (always welcome) and current indie (somewhat less so). There's one Sabbath track (the atypical"Planet Caravan"), otherwise zero metal.

All my Discovery Playlists have been great so far, with very few tracks I wanted to skip, so I am not complaining at all ... it's just interesting to try to figure out how and when listening history affects results.

Oooh, Running!

Charli XCX was a hidden gem until you took notice.

Now see how much your support means by logging into
Found Them First and watching Charli XCX’s exclusive thank you video.

(I am assuming everyone else got this, or close to this)