Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Like Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlists? So do 40 million other listeners

Spotify
Helping people find new music isn’t easy, as is proven by the number of standalone services aimed at helping people do exactly that. Last year, Spotify introduced Discovery Weekly, a custom playlist created for each user and tailored to their specific tastes, and as the company revealed today, plenty of listeners are using it.

In a post on the company’s blog published today, Spotify revealed that more than 40 million listeners have used Discovery Weekly since its launch in July 2015. Rather than simply bragging, though, the company also took some time to share some interesting statistics related to the playlist.

Recommended Videos

First, it seems that Discovery Weekly keeps users listening longer: more than half of those listening to the playlist listen to at least 10 songs, and the same number of listeners saved at least one song to a playlist of their own. Half of all Discovery Weekly listeners also came back the following week to check the newly updated playlist.

Discovery Weekly playlists are updated on Monday mornings, and at least in the U.S. and U.K., listeners are checking for new music right away, with peak listening occurring between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. local time on Monday. In Sweden and Germany on the other hand, peak listening occurs after 5:00 p.m. local time. This is important, as the blog post points out that Sweden, Switzerland and Germany are the countries that use Discover Weekly the most.

It’s not just listeners who are benefiting from Discovery Weekly either, with bands like Transviolet, TastyTreat, and Safakash having half their monthly listens coming from the playlist. Artists BØRNS and Halsey both saw their music discovered by more than a million new users thanks to the playlists. Your death metal band might not do as well though, as the top genres streamed via Discovery Weekly are pop, indietronica, and indie pop.

Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
What is spatial audio? Apple’s 3D sound feature fully explained
Person listening to spatial audio using Apple AirPods Max headphones.

At WWDC 2021 (Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference), Apple officially added support for spatial audio with Dolby Atmos Music for Apple Music. It quickly became a popular format among consumers, too: Apple estimates that by February 2022, playback of spatial audio tracks had quadrupled from just a few months prior as people experimented with the format. But what exactly is spatial audio? How is it different from (or the same as) Dolby Atmos? And what kind of audio equipment do you need to listen to it?

There's a lot of ground to cover, and some of it is a bit technical, but we're going to break it all down in easy-to-understand terms. You'll be a spatial audio expert in minutes, and you'll know exactly how to access this growing trend in movie and music streaming.
What exactly is spatial audio?

Read more
The best podcasts of 2022
best podcasts

Whether you've already stored all your favorite podcasts in your app of choice, ready for listening, or are new to the world of podcasts, there's no denying their popularity. Podcasts are everywhere these days and have become some of the most beloved entertainment and education mediums worldwide. Whatever you're into, from tech and video game chat to world news and politics or true crime, there are plenty of specialized interest shows to choose from.

With so many podcasts available, there’s no way that you can listen to all of them. To help you out, no matter your interests, we've gathered a variety of shows to turn you on to your next great listen.

Read more
How to convert your vinyl to a digital format
Rebirth of cool: Is vinyl ready for a second wind, or just a fad?

It doesn't matter one bit if your vinyl collection consists of just a single milk crate or if it fills several Ikea Kallax shelves and is slowly taking over your home — we can all agree that there's just something about vinyl.

Maybe it's the warm, uncompressed sound spinning off a solid turntable, or the feel of holding a physical piece of art in your hands while the record spins — it's a special experience that has regained much of its glory in a world dominated by digital streaming. The problem is, records are fragile, and crates full of them don't fit in your back pocket.

Read more