Spotify's daylist keeps bullying us – and we like it
Spotify's daylist keeps bullying us – and we like it
The morning/afternoon/night playlists curate some niche aesthetics
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I missed writing about the initial launch of Spotify’s daylists in September due to, ehem, personal reasons. But eight months later, the curated, three-times-a-day playlists have stood the test of time, functioning as a daily personality quiz.
If you haven’t heard of these, they launched after Spotify’s AI DJ as a way to cater to listeners’ tastes, allowing users to both discover new music and revel in previous favorites.
It’ll give you a playlist title, like “yearning poetry tuesday afternoon,” then subtags like “crunchy” or “cottagecore.” You can click on those hyperlinks for a whole new algorithm-generated playlist. The playlists will tell you when they update next (4:17 p.m., for example) and do so for a morning, afternoon, and night playlist. Each playlist has 50 songs.
Though I don’t listen to mine as frequently as I did when they first came around – same with the DJ – I do find myself checking it every so often in an attempt to a) understand my listening habits b) discover new music and c) find out what Spotify thinks of me. And boy is Spotify not afraid to say it.
Impressed or attacked?
My friend and I have taken to sending each other screenshots whenever are our daylists are particularly…interesting. (Spotify has planned for this. When you take a screenshot, it automatically generates a “Share” page. I’m too lazy to use it, however).
Some particular favorites we’ve received are “healing situationship1 night,” “hot girl walk2 strut thursday afternoon,” “scemo3 mollgoth afternoon,” “preppy slay4 tuesday morning,” “sleepy weepy depress sesh tuesday evening,” and “dark fanficore5 friday morning.”
Sometimes the playlist themes are plain gibberish, but other times they’re bangers6 – like “sleepover 2010s wednesday evening.” Sometimes it’s a bit exposing, (take “dissociation lo-fight night”), and other times just plain amusing (“divorced masterpiece sunday afternoon,” anyone?)
I’ve had some pretty wacky recommendations from Spotify just by typing in daylist, including one day where I received “anti-anxiety mix,” “goblincore mix,” and “egg punk mix,” all in one query. I’m not sure whether to be offended or impressed by its specificity.
What I was recommended
For those unfamiliar with daylists, I wanted to give a look a sampling of suggestions I received in a day to demonstrate what it would look like if you tuned in for all three of your playlists. Keep in mind these suggestions are based on my listening taste.
beach summer camp wednesday morning
You listened to heatwave and hipster on Wednesday mornings. Here’s some: beach, summer camp, vacation, heatwave, and intense. Next update at 2:29 PM.
Thoughts: This playlist was airy and dramatic, featuring a decent amount of Latin music, with artists I’ve been enjoying lately like Bad Bunny and Latin Mafia. For English artists, I was recommended songs by Tame Impala, The Strokes, and M83. I think it lived up to the subtags it promised, though it felt more like a night playlist than a morning playlist, but I wasn’t complaining.
coastal cowgirl april fools wednesday afternoon
You listened to cat and hippie on Wednesday afternoons. Here’s some: coastal cowgirl, power ballad, fresh, sunshine, granola vibes, and mountain. Next update at 6:02 PM.
Thoughts: I have no idea how this playlist fit into “april fools” or “cat,” but I appreciated it nonetheless. It was upbeat and sultry, featuring artists like Rainbow Kitten Surprise (I wrote about their new album here), Hippo Campus, and Dominic Fike (who I also wrote about). This felt more “beach” to me than its predecessor. I liked how these two playlists were completely different vibes.
sleepy weepy romanticized wednesday night
You listened to cozy and cinnamon on Wednesday nights. Here’s some: romanticized, downtown vibes, sleepy weepy, desiderium, and crying. Next update at 2:45 AM.
Thoughts: Featuring Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish, Lorde, and The Neighbourhood, this playlist was an interesting mix. It had movie-esque vibes and definitely worked at lulling me to sleep.
Like with Spotify Wrapped and the AI DJ, Spotify knows just the way to go viral: stroke your users’ ego. With fresh content every day and share-worthy suggestions, the daylist is another creative – and addicting – feature.
Apparently Spotify is working on a new update called “AI playlists,” where you can give the system a prompt like you would ChatGPT. It’s only available in Australia and the UK at the moment.
In the meantime, I’d love to hear some daylist recommendations you’ve gotten in the comments below.
Your Spotify daylist at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday:
Read my last music review: Dominic Fike's '14 minutes' is refreshingly simple
My weekly roundup:
✈️ What I’m Doing: I’m on vacation, so this part of the newsletter will be sleeping for the next couple weeks! In the meantime, feel free to get caught up on past editions of Gen Z Translator here.
Read the full Gen Z Dictionary here.
Situationship: An undefined relationship that drags on without clarity. You can read more about them here
Hot girl walk: A trend that encourages people to go on walks
Scemo: Scene/emo music, which I discovered was a music genre upon being recommended it
Slay: Something that pops off
Fanficore: Reminiscent of a fanfiction aesthetic
Bangers: something catchy and exciting