Spotify hands you the wheel
Spotify launched a 'Taste Profile' beta that lets Premium users review and edit the data powering their recommendations through an AI chatbot — users can fine‑tune genre, artist and mood preferences directly. (musictech.com) The beta also ties to long‑requested playlist organization improvements, including a promised overhaul of playlist folders on mobile. (newsbytesapp.com) Independent research analysing more than 2 million Australian tracks warns algorithmic discoverability still biases against emerging regional artists — exactly why manual controls matter for music creators. (theconversation.com) (trustedreviews.com)
Spotify co‑CEO Gustav Söderström unveiled the Taste Profile beta at SXSW on March 13, 2026, saying the Premium rollout will start with users in New Zealand. (techcrunch.com) The feature surfaces inferred taste dimensions through a conversational AI interface and sits alongside recent Spotify AI products such as Prompted Playlist and expansions of the AI DJ. (musictech.com) A teardown of Spotify mobile build 9.1.34.12 uncovered code strings for creating, renaming and deleting playlist folders—tools that have existed on desktop since 2010 but have not been editable on phones until now. (androidauthority.com) A Victorian Music Development Office‑commissioned study by Swinburne and the University of Melbourne analysed 2.27 million tracks, 12,333 artists and 5,000 editorial/AI playlists via Chartmetric and found algorithmic curation perpetuates barriers for less‑established Australian artists. (theconversation.com) The Australia Institute’s "Reversing the Decline" report shows Australian artists’ share of streams in Australia fell from 12% in 2021 to 8% in 2024, even as Spotify reported AUD 330 million paid to Australian rightsholders in 2025 (a 7% year‑on‑year increase). (australiainstitute.org.au) Authors of the VMDO study argue that listener controls over recommendation inputs could alter exposure patterns for regional artists, and Spotify says Taste Profile edits will feed into personalized products such as Discover Weekly, Made For You mixes and Wrapped. (theconversation.com)
