Spotify Teardown Reflections

Housekeeping

  • The original book notes live here

Utilitarian use of music

Since 2013, Spotify has been marketing music with a utilitarian approach. You can tell from the names of their playlists. This was already seen in Songza, in 2012.

side-effect

this has also affected how other curators present their music, from the type of playlist images & filters used, to the name & description.

how to get there

Search > Mood > See All

mood management is a big part of Spotify’s business

Nils Frahm comments about this

This is basically what most users do with Spotify. They use it to keep this other thing they are doing more effective. src

If memory serves me correct, I read in an interview somewhere that the way he likes to listen to music is in his bed, laying on his back, eyes closed, doing nothing but listening to the music.

I recently switched off autoplay

On all my devices. I enjoy the quiet moment that comes at the end of a body of music, instead of the neverending stream. Sometimes I’ll just carry on with work in silence and that’s cool too.