Spotify's Killing My Music Taste

Detoxifying my way out of audio rot.

One of my favorite Spotify playlists of all time, dating back to when I was traipsing around NYU a decade ago, is “Summer Sunshine” by the user @lizyeomans. It comes in at 9 hours and 9 minutes (a magnificent almost angel number) and has over 80k+ saves to this day. That indie-rock pop blend of goodness, featuring artists from Friendly Fires to Midi Matilda to Royal Teeth, felt like plucky California sunshine injected into my eardrums, oozing utter teenage hipster nonchalance.

I owe so much of the shift from high school mainstream music (Katy Perry, anyone?) to uncovering the crevices of up-and-coming artists to this playlist. It felt exciting that I somehow felt connected to this other impeccably tasted e-girl, spending her own time curating a long tracklist to the world for us to discover.

All I want in this life of sin, just like Zoe Kravitz’s “Rob” in High Fidelity

From 2012-2013 onwards, I’ve consistently selected a few tracks from “Summer Sunshine” as a starting off point and supplemented songs of my own into my personal round-ups. There’s “California Road Trip Vibez” that’s a heavy-hitter in my private rotation, and “Run <3” that officially accompanied me through all 26.2 sweaty miles of the New York marathon in 2018.

When my boyfriend and I started dating a few years ago and were long-distance (I in LA, him in NY), he made me a “Cami-fornia Vintage” playlist. When we moved in together finally in the city, our first collab playlist together was our housewarming one. All of these were cautiously chosen through idiosyncratic editorial picks and ballads that have fermented through time. These collections are ones I’ve associated with defining moments in my life, whether that was completing a race or relocating with a partner.

The early days of Spotify’s algorithm, forming a customized roundup called “Discover Weekly”, was an upgrade to what I was already listening to. Introducing me to tracks that were similar in taste to what I’ve been bumping but also grabbing ones that were contrasting enough to peak my interest, I waited for these weekly drops with heavy anticipation.

Beyond 2017, they’ve pivoted into “algotorial” tech, blending algorithm with human interest. Daylists launched in 2023, updating a few times a week to reflect the type of music you’re listening to on a specific time/day. Nowadays, all the varying catalogs based on one specific artist and DJ (an AI DJ) have overblown my Spotify interface. “Mood Machine”by Liz Pelly jumps into all of the distinct methods the company has to make sure you’re tuning in at all times, whether that’s active or passive listening. “As a former Spotify employee once observed, the platform’s only real competitor is silence,” Hua Hsu writes for the New Yorker (Dec 2024).

The infamous “Summer Sunshine” playlist that was part of my musical awakening

I was grateful for Daylists and all the tailored mixes when they rolled out - it seemed too good to be true to be able to mindlessly click on an Indie Mix and have it spew out homogenous artists and sounds. The issue I’ve ran into lately is that I’ve turned into a passive listener, when I once was an active one. My audio attention span has also felt fried - if a song doesn’t grab me in the first five to ten seconds, I skip it. Oftentimes, I find myself cycling through the same 500+ “liked” songs. I’ve listened to them so many times I’ve almost started resenting them, but it’s the only tracks I feel like I know I like. Even listening to ambient noise like faux Spotify jazz in the background has begun to bore me. When will my past desire to give new tracks a chance come back?