Not every playlist in your music library is going to be positive, but Spotify’s latest effort aims to make mindfulness front and centre with a dose of positive vibes.
Regardless of how you listen to music, there’s a strong chance that when you tune in, there’s probably no specific mood to what you listen to. Albums, tracks, and playlists are typically scatterbrained, focusing not so much on a specific mood, but just on sounds.
Fast, slow, frenetic, playful, dragging, edgy, angry, calming, focused, dancing, raving; we could prattle off a list of words that could scream how complex our music track lists can be, but the main focus of listening to one is simply because you want to. Listen to whatever you want, because it will make you happy.
But some playlists can be a little more focused. You’ll know that all too well if you have a playlist to go running to, because there’s a good chance the music you listen to will keep you running to a beat. Even if you don’t have one, there are plenty of playlists out there that you can tune in to, and that you can subscribe to, keeping a focus firmly in mind.
Focused playlists aren’t anything new, but Spotify’s latest playlist is one built to keep you focused on your mind, and to keep things positive and uplifting, and even to change things up regularly.
The year 2020 kind of needs something like that — thanks coronavirus — and so Spotify’s Daily Wellness hub might just be what the year needs.
Available for both free and premium customers, it’s a personalised playlist based on positive tracks mixed in with small health-focused podcasts to create a playlist focused on your mental health. It’s coming at a good time, too, with October being Mental Health Awareness Month, providing some positive tracks alongside positive podcasts, after launching in the US earlier in the year back in April.
The Daily Wellness playlists on Spotify look set to join its playlists for dogs and cats, which provide playlists for pets on the service, too.
One thing we haven’t found out is whether Spotify’s Daily Wellness hub — which can be found in a section of the app where playlists generated solely for you appear — is whether the upbeat tracks being picked truly reflect what you consider upbeat, or if it’s what the system does.
Everyone’s music tastes are quite different, and while there’s a general rhythm you can match to being upbeat, if you happen to dig heavy metal and call it a positive sound, or if you find bebop jazz upbeat and better at delivering daily wellness than say modern pop, it would be handy to know if Spotify’s data science algorithms are joining these dots and finding music relates to your wellness and state of mind, not just from Spotify’s own understanding.
We’re checking with Spotify to find out just how the system works, but you can find the Daily Wellness playlist in the Spotify app now, whether you’re on Android or iOS, and whether your paid or free.
