Spotify is like a little AI music box in your pocket. Somehow, it can always play what you're in the mood for, it finds you those niche genres so you can find new music, and it still lets you pump some of those top artists you might be a little embarrassed to cop to loving so damn much. The app is chock-full of gems, right down to an annual end-of-the-year playlist that gives you new recommendations based on what you've been listening to for 360-odd days.
But a lot goes into amassing those 100-song playlists and the weirdly specific genres, and there's a whole lot of fun drama surrounding musicians getting that streaming money. Algorithms that tell you all your favorite songs are only a tiny drop in the bucket of all the fun treasures Spotify has for you if you just do a little bit of hunting.
In fact, why don't you put on some Spotify now while you jam out over these interesting facts and hacks about Spotify. Don't forget to check out the Spotify stories that involve the likes of Taylor Swift distancing herself from the brand, before coming on back with Reputation.
'Spotify Running' Keeps You In Your Jogging Groove
"Spotify Running" is a feature that uses your phone's sensors to "detect your steps per minute and finds tracks with a similar beat." It matches music to running tempo to keep you "motivated to move through your run." To use it, pick a playlist and start jogging while the playlist is playing. Spotify will find songs with the same beats per minute: i.e., if you're running 100 steps per minute it will find snogs with close to 100 beats per minute. You can change the tempo through the app but as of 2015 the app doesn't automatically change as your pace changes. Which is probably better for not inducing seizures.
We've all been there – we've gotten a little too trigger happy with the mousepad and accidentally sent a treasured playlist into the abyss of delete-dom. But here's the thing – with Spotify, you can recover those accidentally deleted playlists by going on your account page and clicking the "Restore Playlist" tab.
Shazam is a fantastic way to discover new music while you're on the go; you hear a banger in a restaurant, a bar, a shop and you can learn what that jam is right away. But did you know you can collect all the songs you've ever Shazam'd into one Spotify playlist? If you connect your Shazam and Spotify apps you'll get a playlist called "My Shazam Tracks" automatically. Capturing good music has never been easier.
Spotify has that kind of annoying habit of broadcasting literally every track you spin to your Facebook friends list, right there in the right-hand side of the program. But say you forgot about that and suddenly decide you need to listen to "C'est La Vie" by B*Witched 47 times in a row. Well now you can do that without the judgmental eyes of your friends list calling a totally legitimate song choice a "guilty pleasure." You've got the option to go for a secret sesh with the "Private Listening" function, which you can enable via the drop down menu in the top-right corner. If you're suffering through a breakup and need some lonely solo time, thesetting works great. But
'Discover Weekly' Playlists Are Little Melodious Gifts Straight To Your Account
There's more ways than just giving your "Discover Weekly" playlist a spin to discover new music on Spotify. There's a feature that's similar to the way Pandora operates, in that you can create a radio station based on a specific artist, song or album. But you can go even further in depth then that by creating a radio station for your favorite playlists too; it's like a spin-off playlist of a playlist of a playlist. Thank you, algorithms!
Forget hearing a song, wanting to sing along and having to minimize Spotify to trek on over to Google to find those damn lyrics. Spotify's got those lyrics right there! If you use the app finder, which you can see in the sidebar, you can look in there for TuneWiki which will put those lyrics right up there alongside the song you're listening to. No more wrong song lyrics to embarrass you in front of a room full of karaoke singers. You'll know for sure that Elton John is actually crooning about his lover Tony Danza instead of random "tiny dancers." Or wait - is it the other way around?
