Spotify Daylist: Can AI Accurately Predict My Music Taste?

Graphic by Louden Johns

Music is the powerful entity playing behind the scenes of our lives, our soundtrack for a walk to class, the deciding factor of a great party, or the new connection between us and a lifelong friend. 

Each of us holds a sense of belonging within our Spotify profiles, as we skillfully sort our nostalgic favorites and new discoveries into curated playlists. But how much do these playlists really speak to who we are? How much do they separate the individual lives of those walking amongst us? And how can something so personal to us be so easily predicted by the expanding artificial intelligence that has found its way into every aspect of our lives?

My Monday began with the words “Hopeless romantic delicate Monday morning,” as I was faced with songs that a detached technological being deemed appropriate for my day. The rest of my week was defined as “Electra electro-pop Tuesday evening,” “funk pop swamp Wednesday morning,” “liminal witchy Wednesday afternoon,” and “melancholy nap Thursday morning.” So, I was forced to wonder if these were correct and if these words and songs were representative of my emotions throughout the week. 

The ability to view our playlists in such a descriptive manner provides a sense of understanding between us and our music. As much as we want our music taste to be unpredictable and uniquely ours, there is something nice about belonging to a specific genre and seeing how these genres can shift throughout the week. 

However, every day brings its fair share of challenges. Whether it’s bad weather, early mornings, midterms or plain bad luck, a “funk pop swamp Wednesday morning” might be the last thing we wanted to hear while trying to get through the day. But music will always be able to set the tone, and that is exactly what Spotify seems to be doing by providing us with curated music for the best version of ourselves at that moment in our weeks.

Although daylists are a fresh new way to view our music profiles, some might not like the idea of relinquishing control of something so personal to artificial intelligence. It is easy to feel that Spotify’s switch to AI has made a part of our identity about patterns and numbers rather than an emotional connection with the music. The daylists prove just that they can attempt to provide a cute little description of how we’re feeling along with a list of songs based on our collective listening patterns, but there is a clear disconnect between this and actual human emotion. 

The best versions of ourselves might be predictable enough to create a decent playlist, but people will always rely on their favorite music for emotions, which is not as easily predicted.