Up until about a year ago, I swore by Apple Music. I didn’t think I’d ever switch because I didn’t want the hassle of starting over with my music, but my friends finally convinced me that Spotify is the superior streaming site. So over quarantine, I made a student premium account and started adding songs. Here are all the ways I’ve been able to build up my library over the past year!
- Made for You
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One of the best things about Spotify is how many custom playlists they make for you. There is a whole tab called “Made for You” where you can find your Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and Daily Mixes. Your Discover Weekly is just a mix of songs that Spotify thinks you will like, while your Release Radar is full of new tracks from artists you have already liked. The Daily Mixes are maybe my favorite ones to listen to because they are sorted by genre and mood. If you are anything like me your music ranges from slow and sad Taylor Swift to hardcore A Day to Remember so you’re Daily Mixes allow you to pick a mood instead of skipping through your whole library. These playlists are updated every Friday so there is always new music to be found. If you want to look even further Spotify also has other custom playlists like Time Capsule, Summer Rewind, and On Rewind. They even have some playlists that have a mix of music and podcast like Daily Sports, The GetUp, and my personal favorite Daily Wellness.
- Friends
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If you have friends that have Spotify accounts, then you can search for them and look at any public playlist they have on their profile. I have a few friends with super good music taste, so I love jumping to their account when I’m in a music rut. If there is a specific playlist your friends listen to a lot, then you can always share it with each other, so it always shows up on your account too. My friends and I have this one party playlist that is our go-to. Finally, one of my favorite Spotify features is the shared listening session. This is perfect for when you and your friends can’t decide who should dj. Someone needs to first hook up to their speaker then go to now playing, click the little device button in the bottom left corner, and now you just have to hit “start listening session” and you can invite your friends or have them scan your code. Once your friends are in the session you guys can all add songs to the queue from your own phone. Not only is just fun in the moment but it is also an easy way to download songs on your phone that you like as you hear them.
- Recommended Adds
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When you go to make a playlist on Spotify, they always recommend songs that they also think you should add to the playlist. I always start by adding a few songs that fit the vibe I’m going for and then I scroll down to look at what Spotify recommended. Every time you add a song it will disappear and a new song will appear in its place. If you run out of songs on the list that you want to add you can also hit the refresh button and a whole new list will appear. This neat feature not only helps you build your playlist, but it can always be super effective at just finding new music since Spotify doesn’t only pull songs from your library. This helped me a ton when I was trying to make a fun Christmas playlist since I didn’t have all the classics saved already.
- Fans Also Like
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This is something I just recently learned about, but I think it could be super helpful. If you click on an artist there will be a little tab called “Fans Also Like” to help you find similar artist. This is all based off what other Spotify listeners have already downloaded, which is kind of cool. The best part about this is you won’t just find new songs, but you can discover a whole new band or artist that you like, or you might just discover an artist that you have forgotten about. This just happened to me when I was making a playlist of songs I liked when I was in high school and I rediscovered a ton of artist I forgot existed. (Another pro tip: Follow the artist you like so you can get notifications about when they come out with new stuff.)
- Radio
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Now, this is a feature that I don’t personally use much but if these other tricks don’t work for you then I think it could be a fun way to find songs you like. These are just different playlists that are based on certain artists you already have downloaded. I recommend listening to these when you have time to actually listen to the music and decide if you like it. This way when you hear a song you like you can favorite it. If you don’t want to do it that way you could also just scroll through the playlist and pick and choose which songs to test out. This could also be a great way to build up your library if you are just starting out by discovering songs and artists you already know.