Spotify has been praised by many people for its spot-on recommendations.
With the help of its amazing algorithm, Spotify acts like a recommendation engine, suggesting music based on what users have already listened to, or saved for later listening.
However, some people find their Spotify recommendations to be bad. If you’re one of these people, here’s why your Spotify recommendations are so bad and how to fix them.
Why are your Spotify recommendations so bad?
Your Spotify recommendations are so bad because you’re not liking enough songs and creating playlists. The opposite is also true, which is having too many “bad songs” in your library.
1. You’re not liking songs and creating playlists
A big reason why you’re getting bad Spotify recommendations is that you’re too passive. Spotify recommendations are based on what you like and what you add to your playlists.
If you’ve never liked songs, or added songs to your playlists, Spotify won’t know much about your taste. How can they suggest songs you like if they don’t know what you like?
Take “Discover Weekly” for example. Every Monday, Spotify releases a “Discover Weekly” playlist, which is a mix of 30 songs personalized for you based on your music taste.
The “Discover Weekly” algorithm is heavily influenced by songs you add to playlists. You can listen to a song multiple times, but if you don’t add it to your library, you won’t get similar songs.
2. Too many random songs in your library
Your recommendations are bad because you’re not adding songs to your library, but the opposite is also true. There could be too many random songs in your Spotify library.
Take a look at your playlist. Maybe it’s time to get rid of all those 200-song playlists you planned to listen to when you were a teenager. Keep your library clean of songs you dislike.
3. You’re listening to songs in a Private Session
Are you listening to songs in a Private Session? If so, you could be hiding your Listening Activity from Spotify. Recommendations are based on your listening habits, after all.
According to Spotify, listening to a song in a Private Session pauses your Listening Activity and may not influence your music recommendations, like Discover Weekly.
It’s important to turn off Private Session to let Spotify know what you’re listening to.
Can you reset Spotify recommendations?
You cannot reset Spotify recommendations unless you create a new account.
Song recommendations are based on your Spotify listening history and cannot be reset. This is because the tracks are now part of your algorithm and that cannot be manually changed.
You can, however, get better Spotify recommendations.
How to get better recommendations on Spotify
To get better music recommendations from Spotify, they need to know more about your taste. Here are 7 practical tips you can do to get better recommendations on Spotify.
1. Keep listening to songs you like
The best way to get better Spotify recommendations is to keep listening to the songs you like, which will help the algorithm know more about you and your preferred music taste.
It’s normal to get bad music recommendations in the beginning, but keep listening to your favorite songs and playlists, and soon you’ll get the Daily Mix with your music content.
2. Make sure Private Session is turned off
Another important detail is making sure that you don’t have the ”Private session” feature on. Otherwise, you’ll do nothing to improve your Spotify recommendations.
According to Spotify, listening to a song in a Private Session pauses your Listening Activity and may not influence your music recommendations, like Discover Weekly.
Here’s how to turn off Private Session on mobile:
- Tap Home
- Tap Settings.
- Under Privacy & Social, switch the Private Session toggle off.
Here’s how to turn off Private Session on the desktop:
- Click the down arrow in the top right corner.
- Click Private Session.
A padlock on your profile picture means the private session is active. The Private Session ends automatically when you restart Spotify, or after a long period of inactivity.
Generally, if the recommendations you’re getting don’t match your taste, try and avoid using Private Sessions so that Spotify’s algorithms can get to know you better.
3. Listen to new content
The best part of music recommendations is being served songs you never knew about, which is why it’s important to explore new content and browse songs you possibly enjoy.
4. Add more songs to your Liked songs and playlists
Once you do find songs you like, add them to your Liked songs and playlists. To improve your suggested music, it’s important that you actively engage with the content that you enjoy.
Spotify takes your library into account when recommending music, so it’s important to populate your library with more songs that you like. More songs equal better recommendations.
5. Use the “Hide this song” button
The same thing goes for songs. hate. If you dislike a song, it’s important to tell Spotify. While Spotify does not have a “dislike” button, it does have a “Hide this song” button.
If you come across a song you don’t like, don’t hesitate to tap the “Hide this song” button. Tapping the hide button lets Spotify know to skip that track and play fewer songs like it.
Here’s how to hide a song:
1. Open the Spotify app on your Android or iOS device.
2. Find the song you want to hide.
3. Once you find the song, tap on the three dots beside it.
4. Tap on the Hide this Song option.
5. The Hide Song option will be changed to Hidden.
That’s how simple it is. The more you use the “Hide this song” button, the better your Spotify recommendations become because they know more about what music you don’t like.
6. Skip songs you hate before 30 seconds
It’s important to skip songs you hate before 30 seconds. Former product director, Matthew Ogle, said the sweet spot for making recommendations comes at 30 seconds of listening to a song.
One of Spotify’s algorithms looks at how long someone listens to a song. If you listen to a song for longer than 30 seconds, the system recognizes that you like the song.
On the other hand, if you skip the song before 30 seconds, the algorithm interprets it as a “thumbs down” and will not recommend that song again.
7. Be patient and give Spotify to curate songs for you
Last but not least, be patient.
The algorithm is designed to ignore sharp, temporary spikes in new listening activity. It looks at consistency over a long period of time to recommend the best music for you.
This is a good thing. If you’ve given your friend access to your Spotify account, but you don’t share the same music tastes, their listening activity won’t influence your recommendations.