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Wait, Spotify is not already using skips and how much of a song was played to rank songs and build a preference profile? What is it doing exactly, then?
by gukov 7y ago
Wait, Spotify is not already using skips and how much of a song was played to rank songs and build a preference profile? What is it doing exactly, then?
- jacobobryant 7y agoI don't know since it's closed source, but I too would think that Spotify is already using skips, but in practice I think their methods are muddied up by other factors, like I mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20585757 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20585757 In addition, Spotify's algorithms have the significant constraint of needing to optimize profit, and not all tracks they have are worth the same amount (that's what someone told me, anyway). Also, sometimes algorithms rely too much on explicit feedback like thumbs up/down rather than implicit feedback (like skips). Deezer's "Flow" feature is an example. The way you use it is basically the same as for Lagukan, but from reading reddit posts about it, it apparently just doesn't work very well. There was even a comment from a Deezer employee saying that it won't respond to skips; you have to use thumbs up/down to make it adapt. Implicit feedback can be more messy to work with, but it's much more plentiful (and useful, if you use it correctly).
- jacobobryant 7y agoAlso--for the profit optimizing thing, that's why a significant part of my plan is to structure the business in a way that lets me optimize the algorithm for user satisfaction. e.g. I'm thinking about helping artists to sell concert tickets and taking a cut of that.