Music gets you when other people don’t. If you’re feeling down in the dumps, you’ll likely play a song to match your mood. And when you can’t contain your happiness, you can dance it out to hits like Harry Styles’ “As It Was” or, most recently, “Look At Us Now (Honeycomb)” from Daisy Jones & The Six. Sometimes it’s difficult to summarize your emotions with a single word, thus complicating the song-searching process. There are so many playlists for feel-good and sad songs, and so little that encapsulate more specific, indefinable feelings. Until now.
Spotify’s been busy cooking up something big, and that’s the Niche Mix feature. Spotify has developed a way of personalizing your playlists to match any vibe or aesthetic using tens of thousands of musical descriptors that they’ve created over the years. Pulling from other custom mixes, like the “Made For You” and “Made For Us” features, Niche Mixes are tailored to your most unique music needs, and will include both songs you already know and new picks you may like. And if you have a free or premium Spotify account, you can experiment with them now. Here’s what you can expect from Spotify’s latest update.
How Do I Use Niche Mixes?
I’m glad you asked. You can find this feature under the “Made For You” section, which is located in the Search tab of your Spotify app. Spotify will already have curated a few playlists for you, ranging from anything from psychedelic to hype workout hip hop mixes. These playlists change daily, giving you music suggestions for all kinds of niche moods.
The best part about this feature is that you’re free to personalize your mixes however you want. All you have to do is put some keywords in the Search tab (like “driving late night,” for example) and add the word “mix” at the end. Doing so will generate thousands of suggested playlists, from “Angry Sad Driving Mix” to — my personal favorite — “Lit Driving Mix.” Seriously, it’s that simple.
What Other Niche Mixes Can I Find?
The short answer: anything. Aside from a slew of driving playlists, Spotify will produce mixes for aesthetics like cottagecore, steampunk, sad cowboy (not kidding), and more. To reiterate, you can also find playlists suited for different emotions, from anti-anxiety to “Euphoric Progressive House Mix” (Spotify’s words, not mine). I’ll definitely be hitting up the “Chill Mellow Focus Mix” for finals season.