Spotify Turns Its Recommendation Engine To Concerts

Spotify’s ability to personalize its music recommendations is getting another big boost today, with the launch of a new feature that will now point its users to area concerts they may like to attend. Similar to how Spotify suggests songs in its popular weekly playlists, the “Concerts” feature leverages data about users’ listening behavior, and will update its concert picks as that behavior evolves, the company explains.

In addition, if you’re traveling to a new city, you’re able to change your location within the app to see concerts outside of your hometown. You can also do this at any time, which can help with trip planning.

Spotify says the feature was built in partnership with Songkick, which is helping to power the artist tour dates. Songkick and Spotify already had a relationship of sorts – the service was one of the apps that used to run on Spotify’s long-shuttered app platform.

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The move could impact rival services music fans currently use to track upcoming events, like Songkick competitor Bandsintown, for example, which touts some 19 million registered users.

Once these concert details are fed directly into Spotify’s main app where you’re enjoying your music on a daily basis – and the app’s recommendations are targeted to your interests – you may be less likely to turn to a standalone service in the future for similar information.

Spotify already has a well-tuned recommendation engine, as its algorithmically generated “Discover Weekly” playlist is one the app’s most-loved features. The playlist, which is delivered every Monday to web and mobile, offers two hours of music based on what those users with similar tastes are adding to their own mixes. Spotify’s user base is so addicted to this feature, that when their playlist was delayed due a glitch this fall, they were furious and lashed out on social media. That’s devotion.

It also bodes well for Spotify’s ability to also find concerts you’ll like going forward.

The Concerts feature will not only alert you to nearby shows, but also allows artists to reach out to Spotify’s user base – something that puts the feature up against Apple Music, and its own “social” platform for artist-to-fan communication, Connect.

Concerts is rolling out now to all iPhone and Android users, the company says. To see if you have the feature in your own app, open the “Browse” tab on your phone and look for the “Concerts” option.