Spotify has become famous for its curated daylists, unique to every user. They are meant to encapsulate the type of music a person listens to at specific times during the day.
Many Spotify users view daylists as a sort of personality test or way to show off their music tastes to friends. This begs the question: how accurate is Spotify’s algorithm for determining personality and music taste, and what can you learn about someone from their daylist?
To answer this question, Elizah Abetti and I conducted an experiment: We sent each other our daylists 1-3 times every day for a week. Then, we created personality analyses based on each other’s daylists and sent them to each other for reflection.
Brylee Williams:
Abetti’s Spotify daylists kept a consistent theme throughout the week. They spanned from titles like “Folkie Mountain” to “Chill Instrumental.” Even though the playlists themselves were a bit niche, they fell into the same general genre. The music was light and down to earth, which says something about Abetti’s personality, or at least Spotify’s perception of it.
Chill and folkie music is typically the exact opposite of my music taste, so it was interesting to listen to Abetti’s recommended artists, many of whom I was listening to for the first time. Noah Khan, The Gray Havens and the “Bridgerton” Soundtrack were common within Abetti’s daylist lineups. Her daylist descriptions noted that her music taste was hipster, joyful and granola. Based on Spotify’s assessment of her music taste and personality, I would assess Abetti as someone who is chill and down to earth, a nature enjoyer, and a fan of “Pride and Prejudice” and “Bridgerton” era stories. From what I know about her personally, Spotify is fairly accurate. While it seems that Spotify captured her general essence well, there are certainly more dimensions to her personality and music taste that technology cannot assess.
Elizah Abetti:
Williams’ daylists show that she greatly enjoys pop and rock music, and leans towards older, nostalgic tunes. Some of it seems messy and or “mcbling,” a term for “a flashy, extravagant fashion style that was popular in the early 2000s” according to Google. Much of the classic music I hadn’t given a thorough listen to before, but enjoyed artists like Bobby Darin, Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. I had only ever listened to the last two artists for Christmas music, so it was interesting to hear classic rock ‘n’ roll from these music icons. The rock music appeared to start out Williams’ week perhaps on a motivational vein, the throwback pop finishing out the week. Some of the pop artists Williams enjoys were Rihanna, Kesha and Katy Perry. Some of the descriptions for her rock daylists were “English Rock,” “British Invasion” and “Retro Rock,” reflecting her love for the oldies. Some of the pop descriptions were “Timeless,” and “Oldies.” Based on these descriptions of her listening tastes, I would assess Williams to have a bubbly, bright, sentimental personality and is appreciative of pop culture, and that she has a flashy, extravagant fashion style. From what I know about her this seems to be pretty accurate, but of course, Spotify only scratches the surface.
It was entertaining to read my Spotify personality assessment, and right now I am only listening to the same kind of music for studying and being at my dorm, so it didn’t surprise me that my daylists reflected this. How accurate was it for my personality? The fact that I’m “basic” and listen to Noah Kahan and enjoy “crunchy granola vibes” definitely makes me feel like my music taste isn’t unique, even if some may call it “niche.” Does that mean I don’t have a unique or complex personality? The categorization of my music preferences according to Spotify somehow extends to the kind of person I am. Its ability to categorize is quite limited, yet it does seem perceptive — revealing parts of me that I don’t necessarily want to admit in my quest for uniqueness. And that is the key. It only reveals parts, not the whole. It misses the core of my personality, which includes passion, need for affirmation and a corny sense of humor. It was difficult to deduce just from daylists, the type of personality that people exhibit. It felt as though I was looking through a very narrow lens at a complex and multi-faceted person, and therefore felt intimidating to draw conclusions on this small scope.
Spotify is using an algorithm to make general stereotypes about people based on their listening styles. From these personality assessments people appear fragmented and thin, with wacky adjectives and assumptions about how people are feeling, but they are rarely accurate. This clever marketing tactic from Spotify takes music from unreachable celebrities and turns and makes it personal. This is a personalization campaign, designed to draw you as a listener in and make you want to listen to more music and promote Spotify as a streaming service over other brands like Amazon Music and Apple Music. The biggest example of this is Spotify Wrapped, with subscribers impatiently waiting towards the end of December for the big reveal of their listening habits which translates into what it says about their emotions and their personality. As soon as it is released, subscribers all over the world share their Wrapped to stories on instagram, comparing with their friends, flexing listening hours and niche artists. And we forget who this is all really for, because we are so focused on ourselves.