Spotify Is Reportedly Testing Genre-Specific Podcast Playlists

In a bid to help users to discover new podcasts more efficiently, Spotify has begun to test the feature creating curated podcast playlists that are classified into specific genres. The news was revealed by an unknown source.

At present, the music streaming company from Sweden doesn’t support its users to detect the latest shows. And therefore, these ongoing tests must enhance the podcast discoverability of the app significantly.

There are five genres of playlists under test this time, including true crime, comedy, walking (motivational), relaxing (mindfulness), and geek culture. These playlists will be shown with about 5 percent of Spotify users from the following countries: US, UK, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Sweden, Mexico, and Canada. The report was first given by The Verge on Jun 03.

The company hopes that the new genre-specific playlists will bring more changes while it is testing new styles. Spotify plans to update these playlists according to many different rates. The tested podcasts can include shows offered exclusively by the company itself and podcasts from third parties.

Until now, Spotify hasn’t yet revealed how it will choose the episodes for five genres of playlists as mentioned above. The platform may just pick any recommended content or create deals with many networks.

The lists often don’t provide individual episodes but to recommend full shows, but some of the current podcast applications now tend to hire human curators.

According to the report, playlists that are curated by humans may be a plus for the digital music service. However, many of us are curious about how these algorithmically-created playlists will look like in the future when Spotify understands more what users like hearing.

At the moment, Apple has generated curated lists containing shows recommended by its own team. In addition, it has established relationships with creators and networks to support their work.