Navigating Spotify’s new viral playlist trend
Daylists algorithmically reflect a user’s listening habits at certain times of day, utilising hyper-specific niche genres.
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Let’s dive into today’s topic:
Navigating Spotify’s new viral playlist trend
Daylists algorithmically reflect a user’s listening habits at certain times of day, utilising hyper-specific niche genres.
Why it matters
Spotify dominates the music subscriber market with a 31.7% market share, making it the go-to platform for music consumption. For artists, understanding how users engage with Spotify is paramount.
Spotify is great at igniting viral trends. Their annual Wrapped campaign is a prime example of leveraging social media to amplify reach, with users sharing their listening habits en masse. It’s valuable for artists to anticipate Spotify’s potential for virality.
How it works
Daylist emerges as an AI-generated playlist that evolves throughout the day, tailoring users' listening habits with hyper-specific niche genres. Each iteration boasts an AI-generated title, adding an element of quirkiness to the experience.
The new functionality gained momentum through users sharing their Daylists on Instagram Stories, answering to an "Add Yours" sticker. Like Wrapped, Daylist showcases users’ musical tastes, making it appealing for users to share their Daylists on social media. It helps that the AI-generated titles of the playlists are quirky, like ‘bedroom pop banger wednesday morning’ or ‘scream summer camp tuesday early morning’.
To anticipate this trend, artists should consider:
Inclusion in Daylists: Daylists are composed algorithmically based on genre, mood, and theme, all areas artists already focus on. No game changers here: Artists should adhere to standard music pitching protocols, have their metadata in order, and associate themselves in a certain niche with related artists.
Capitalising the viral trend: Leveraging witty-titled Daylists allows artists to showcase their personality. Additionally, artists can engage fans by soliciting creative Daylist titles featuring their music.
Yes, but..
Spotify Daylist is only available in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the US, limiting its accessibility. Even with a VPN, I couldn’t get it to work from the Netherlands.
Spotify recently laid off their data alchemist Glenn McDonald, who is responsible for categorising music into thousands of labels and is curator of the music database EveryNoise, which hasn’t been updated since.
Take action now
Spotify users in eligible countries can search for Daylist in the Spotify app or visit spotify.com/daylist
As a brand positioning exercise, artists can contemplate their contribution to fans’ moods throughout the day and envision the ideal title for a Daylist featuring their music.
Further reading
Get Fresh Music Sunup to Sundown With daylist, Your Ever-Changing Spotify Playlist (Spotify)
Spotify Wrapped — Off. Daylists — On. New Spotify Viral Feature Sees 20,000% Surge (Kill The DJ)
Searches for Spotify's daylist spiked 20,000% after trend took over Instagram (NBC News)
That Spotify Daylist That Really ‘Gets’ You? It Was Written by A.I. (New York Times)
Spotify launches 'daylist' because it knows your music taste varies throughout the day (Mashable)
How to find your Spotify Daylist to post on your Insta story like everyone else in your life (The Tab)
Why artists should stop mentioning their genre (The Fanbase Builder)