Spotify Review 2023

I had no intention to write a Spotify review this year, but at the end of August, I received an opportunity to get two free months of Spotify Premium. I am interested in Artificial Intelligence, so I had to take the opportunity to try out the new AI DJ feature.

I decided to write this review because I was surprised at how good I found the experience of using Spotify and how much Spotify seemed to have changed in the 18 months or so since I cancelled my subscription.

What is Spotify?

Spotify is an audio streaming application that has moved from music streaming to podcasts and audiobooks. It is the number one streaming service in the world, with 80 million or so tracks available for streaming.

It is available with a few pricing points, from free to a paid premium service that removes ads and offers extra functionality, such as the AI DJ, which is currently in Beta. You can find the current pricing plans for the UK here.

As I used the premium plan while trying Spotify, this review is written on my experience using Spotify Premium.

Music discovery on Spotify

This has always been Spotify strength. It is still the best music streaming platform for discovering new music.

Discovery Weekly and Release Radar are at the heart of the recommendation service on Spotify. Discovery Weekly is updated on Monday, and Release Radar is updated on Friday. Discover Weekly recommends an assortment of tracks the algorithm thinks you will like. In contrast, Release Radar contains new music from your favourite artist and other select tracks.

There are then many manually created playlists based on various genres of music, which are also a good choice for new music.

The alert system will also advise you of new releases that Spotify thinks you will like. This is a system I don’t use very much since the tracks will likely be in the Release Radar playlist.

The critical thing with Spotify is when you find a track like it, that action will provide feedback to the algorithm, improving its ability to recommend new tracks.

Spotify AI DJ

I was initially going to have my section on Spotify AI DJ under the music discovery. But the DJ doesn’t just recommend new tracks.

Spotify AI DJ is available only to premier members and is still in its Beta. It does do some strange stuff sometimes, like repeating the same section again if you have changed devices, even though it claims it’s not on a playlist.

As I mentioned earlier, I last used Spotify some 18 months ago. Still, before then, I had subscribed to Spotify for about six years. So it had some data to go on. But it has improved during the last two or three weeks as it gets more up-to-date data on my current music tastes.

Others have compared it to having your own radio station, which is valid.

I have been testing it during my working day. It can go from playing popular tracks from when you were at school to selecting a few tracks from the same artists, and the selected artists will vary to your tastes. For example, it selected Sam Fender and David Bowie. To new releases in the genres of music you like. It occasionally attempts to get you to listen to music outside your comfort zone.

I wanted to start with what I really like about Spotify AI DJ. There is a lot to like as it helps you explore your musical tastes and history, from the tracks I listened to back in 2016 to the latest indie tracks. It serves up an ongoing stream of music you will likely like with no effort other than liking the tracks you enjoy.

Next, let’s move on to the things I hope Spotify will look to improve. Each selection of music lasts for about five tracks. I would like it to switch things around after every two or three tracks. I would also like it to tell me more about the history of the track of the track it playing next. Really go for the personal radio station vibe.

Also, if you jump from one device to another, it shouldn’t replay any previous selections.

Spotify playlists

In this section, I will discuss Spotify playlists, which allow different tracks to be grouped into collections. Over the years, I liked to group my tracks into playlists, such as my greatest hits and the decades it was initially published.

As well as your own collections, Spotify and other users will create playlists, which can be great sources for identifying new music.

Spotify used to allow you to create radio stations from a shortlist just as you can from a track or the artist. That feature isn’t available anymore. I used to use it to find new music.

The Spotify Daylist is a playlist which is updated several times a day and recommends tracks based on the type of music you listen to at that time of day. I’ve only discovered it, but it could be a game-changer.

Spotify Music Quality

This section of the review could age very quickly as rumours are circulating that Spotify HI-FI is incoming and speculation that it will be a superpremium tier. I will ignore this specification as Spotify announced HiFi music in 2021, and we are still waiting at the time of writing.

Other music streaming services besides YouTube music offer Hi-Fi quality music or higher. For an increasing number of users, including myself, it is an important factor in choosing my streaming service. Spotify, you really need to sort this out, and I hope the reports of Hi-Fi quality streams are correct.