Spotify’s Taste Profile continues to shape personalised music discovery
Spotify is expanding Taste Profile to the US, giving more listeners control over the recommendations that shape their music discovery.
Spotify is expanding its Taste Profile feature to Premium listeners in the US, giving more people a direct say in how their listening habits shape the recommendations they receive.
First launched as a beta in New Zealand earlier this year, Taste Profile lets listeners see how Spotify understands their tastes and add their own input. With the latest expansion, the feature is reaching a much larger audience and offering another glimpse at how personalised discovery is evolving on the platform.
How Spotify Taste Profile works
Eligible Premium users in the US can find Taste Profile in the Spotify mobile app by tapping their profile picture and selecting Taste Profile. The feature gives users a summary of their listening preferences across music, podcasts and audiobooks, with the option to select Tell us more and add instructions about what they want to hear.
Users might ask for more music from a particular era or genre, explore a different sound or tell Spotify that their tastes have changed. Spotify says these updates typically appear within a few hours and can be edited or deleted at any time.
How Taste Profile helps shape music discovery
Taste Profile is designed to give listeners more control over Spotify’s personalised recommendations, rather than simply leaving the algorithm to interpret their listening history.
That’s part of a wider trend towards more personalised music discovery. Spotify already uses individual listening habits to power features such as Discover Weekly and Daily Mix, helping listeners encounter music beyond the artists they already know.
Spotify previously revealed that more than 80% of listeners identify personalisation as something they love about the platform.
For independent artists and labels, that makes personalised discovery worth paying attention to. A listener doesn’t necessarily need to search for an unfamiliar artist to find them. A recommendation can introduce their music based on what that listener already enjoys.
Taste Profile doesn’t give artists a way to influence individual recommendations, but it shows how much importance Spotify continues to place on understanding each listener’s individual interests.
Spotify is giving listeners more control
The expansion also builds on several previous changes to Taste Profile.
Spotify first allowed listeners to exclude playlists, before letting them exclude individual tracks that don’t accurately reflect their usual tastes, and prevent them from influencing their recommendations.
Taste Profile takes that control in the other direction. Rather than simply telling Spotify what not to consider, users can now tell it more about what they do want to hear.
It remains a beta feature, so its availability and functionality could change as Spotify continues testing it.
What does this mean for independent artists?
There’s no new promotional tool for artists here, but the expansion highlights the importance of personalised discovery within streaming.
For independent musicians, producers and labels, the key is making sure your music is available wherever those discovery moments happen. A listener might find a new artist through a playlist, search result or personalised recommendation, and having your release on Spotify gives it a chance to be part of that journey.
Distributing your music across the major streaming platforms is a simple starting point. With RouteNote, you can release music to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, TikTok and more for free.
As Spotify gives listeners more influence over what they hear, genuine audience engagement remains just as important. The goal isn’t to try to game a recommendation system, but to make music that listeners want to discover, save and come back to.
Personalised discovery continues to evolve
Spotify’s US expansion of Taste Profile is another step towards a more listener-controlled recommendation experience.
The feature is still in beta, but its direction is clear: Spotify is giving users more ways to shape the music they discover. For independent artists and labels, that’s another reason to keep an eye on how personalised discovery develops, and to make sure your music is ready to be discovered when the right listener comes across it.
Distribute your music to Spotify and other major platforms worldwide for free with RouteNote today.