What you need to know
- Spotify has announced the official launch of its 'Your Daily Podcast' Playlist.
- The service mixes podcasts you subscribe to with Spotify's own recommendations to help you discover new content.
- It's now available in the US, UK, Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Spotify has announced the official launch of its brand new playlist 'Your Daily Podcast', a new playlist that helps you discover new podcast content on Spotify.
In its press release Spotify said:
Spotify transformed music discovery with playlists like Discover Weekly and Daily Mix. Now we've created Your Daily Podcasts—our first daily personalized podcast playlist that gives users an easy way to discover new shows while also keeping up with old favorites. If you've listened to at least four podcasts in the past 90 days, you'll find the playlist in the "Your Top Podcasts" shelf on Home or in the "Made For You" hub on browse.
The algorithm analyses your podcast behavior, along with your listening history and the types of podcasts you like. It will then recommend new episodes for you to listen to. This could be the next sequential episode in a podcast you are currently listening too or a "timely" episode from a daily updating podcast. If it decides you might be interested in a story-driven, sequential show, it will play you the trailer or the pilot to make sure you don't catch any spoilers.
The new feature will be available in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. As you'll note from the release, you need to have listened to four podcasts in the past 90 days in order to get a personalized playlist of recommendations.
The Verge has reportedly been testing the feature for over a month, they note that recommendations are mostly based on listening history and that the playlist features a combination of podcasts you follows and ones you might like:
The playlist will feature trailers, long podcast episodes, and smaller news bites, says Emily Rawitsch, director of product design, and the team isn't committing to any set format or specific ratio of long episodes to short or new shows to favorites. Rawitsch also says there's no "preferential" treatment for certain shows over others or Spotify shows versus other networks. Listeners might be shown an episode in a series they already listen to; a show about a similar topic to something they already like; a popular show in a genre they like; or a show with a host they already enjoy.
The Verge says that in general 'Your Daily Podcast' is a better recommendation system for podcasting on Spotify, however, it muses that an hour-long playlist might prove too much content for some. It is at the very least the beginning of a better podcast discovery process.
