At the SXSW conference on Friday, Spotify Co-CEO Gustav Söderström announced a new beta feature enabling listeners to review and edit their Taste Profile, an algorithmic model of music preferences.
The Taste Profile is central to Spotify’s recommendations, such as Discover Weekly, Made For You suggestions, and Spotify Wrapped.
Initially for Premium users in New Zealand, Spotify will centralize all listening data within the app, including music, podcasts, and audiobooks. Users can modify their profile and adjust future recommendations with more or less of a vibe, and the Home page will reflect updated suggestions.
To reach the Taste Profile, tap your profile picture and scroll down. Changes can be made via natural language prompts.
Previously, Spotify allowed limited removal of music from the Taste Profile, only excluding specific tracks or playlists. This limited approach led to user complaints about mismatched recommendations.
Currently, users often share their Spotify accounts with others, impacting recommendations when others access the account through shared devices or drive with CarPlay.
Additionally, music selections that don’t define personal “taste,” such as sleep sounds or kids’ music, may also clutter the Taste Profile.
This also greatly affected and sometimes ruined users’ annual Wrapped experience due to children’s usage of their parents’ accounts. Users have long requested a solution.
Spotify states the Taste Profile feature will launch in New Zealand in the coming weeks before expanding to other regions.