YouTube Music’s Spotify-esque Discover Mix now widely available

By Parker Hall and Simon Cohen Updated December 18, 2019

In September, we discovered that YouTube Music was playing around with a not-so-subtle copy of Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist; called Discover Mix. Fast-forward to the present and it’s now clear that what might have started as an experiment is here to stay: YouTube Music has officially launched Discover Mix to all of its subscribers, along with two other algorithmically chosen playlists: New Release Mix and Your Mix.

Clearly, Discover Mix is intended to compete with Spotify’s popular Discover Weekly playlist, which uses algorithms to analyze listeners’ favorite genres of music, artists, and listening habits, and then recommend a new playlist of tunes each week. Discover Mix works much in the same way, using your listening history to suggest new tunes you might enjoy. YouTube says the goal is to “keep you up to date on what’s just been released and introduce you to a wider range of artists and sounds based on your personal taste.”

Recommended Videos

YouTube Music’s Discover Mix playlists feature 50 songs and are updated every Wednesday — as opposed to Discover Weekly’s Monday update cycle. There’s even better news for longtime subscribers: The more you have listened, the better the musical suggestions appear to be.

Its New Release Mix focuses on keeping you up to date on the latest releases from your favorite artists, and any others the algorithms think you’ll dig. Major updates will happen every Friday to coincide with when new releases are typically added, but there could be mid-week releases, too.

Finally, Your Mix — as the name suggests — is a mix of all your favorite artists and tracks, with some songs and artists you’ve never heard before just to keep things interesting. This one isn’t updated on a specific schedule but will still be adjusted regularly.

This isn’t the first time that YouTube Music has added a Spotify- or Apple Music-pioneered feature to its streaming service. In August, Google added the “Released” playlist, which is aimed to compete with Spotify’s New Music Friday and Apple Music’s New Music Daily.

The new playlists can be found within the home tab of the YouTube Music app for iOS or Android or on the web.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…

Audio / Video

Tidal vs. Spotify: Which music streaming service has the features you need?

Tidal home page on iPhone.

If you in the midst of choosing which music streaming service is best for you, when comparing Spotify and Tidal, price is an important, but not the only, factor to consider. Spotify stands out with its flexible subscription options, offering individual, family, and student plans, each with its own unique benefits. In contrast, Tidal offers various subscription plans, too, but Tidal's calling card is that it includes premium and hi-fi options, with the hi-fi plan providing access to lossless, hi-res audio. Spotify does not offer this ... yet.

Spotify uses the Ogg Vorbis and AAC audio formats for streaming, delivering audio at varying bitrates. At the same time, Tidal's hi-fi subscription offers lossless, CD-quality audio and hi-res audio files in FLAC and HiRes FLAC formats.

Audio / Video

How I added a handful of hidden YouTube TV channels for the Olympics

Olympics channels on YouTube TV.

We're halfway through the Paris Olympics, and something just hadn't felt right. NBC and Peacock have done pretty well with the Paris Games. You can watch pretty much everything live, or catch up later in the day in the U.S. But this is 2024, and it just seemed like I didn't have any options -- and options in high-res -- as I might have expected, being a subscriber to YouTube TV.

Turns out, I was right. And it's a good reminder of one of my larger complaints about the biggest live streaming service you can get. (That's the pessimistic view. The optimistic view is that this is still a cool YouTube TV tip.)

Audio / Video

What is a network music streamer, and why do you need one?

Cambridge Audio's Evo 150 DeLorean edition network streamer.

The Cambridge Audio Evo 150 DeLorean Edition amplifier and network streamer Cambridge Audio

Whether your main source of music comes from old-school physical media formats such as CDs and vinyl records, or you've fully embraced the digital music revolution and get all your tunes from music streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, or Tidal, there's a wide range of music setups out there that can sometimes make getting all that music to your ears a little complicated.