Spotify’s speech tech to recommend music based on your mood

If you’re feeling melancholic on a lone walk in the park, theoretically, you can expect some Daughter or Foals to crop up in suggested artists, and if you’re at a party with friends looking to grab the aux, presumably chart topping bangers from the likes of Justin Bieber and Labrinth.

In any case, this new update arrives as part of Spotify’s attempt to better target its existing audience and those it’s hoping to bring on-board. Already known for algorithms that constantly suggest new content, Spotify believes giving people more of what they want to hear is the key to growing its subscriber base.

Not to mention, it also allows for targeted ads to reach those using the app’s free version.

Of course the topic of privacy vs personalisation comes into question here, and in a pretty big way. In recent years we’ve seen the impact that the unsolicited recording of public data can have, what with Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, and the miss-use of data from fitness tracking companies and adult streaming sites.

However, in the same breath, we have become accustomed to comprehensive voice assistant technologies capable of running our entire households. With the pandemic keeping people locked up for months at a time, you could argue that Alexa is likely in the 10 most frequently spoken names of 2020.

By and large, we are accepting that a certain level of intrusion is part and parcel of having the most convenient technologies available – but the chief factor is that our consent must be given.

Spotify listeners may very well perk up at the prospect of having a super personalised experience on the app soon, but the methods for collecting our data will have to be outlined in full, and not disguised in the small print of the terms and conditions.