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According to 2024 Deloitte Digital Media Trends,Gen Z (82%) and Millennials (70%) primarily find music through social media or UGC videos, making it the dominant method for younger users.

Luminate's Music Impact Report concludes that TikTok is a key driver of music discovery, monetization and chart success.

1. Market Trend and Target User

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🎧

Lack of Context

Platforms often recommend new music without offering music background, storytelling, emotional connection, or compelling reasons for users to care.

Lack of Social Connection

It is difficult to know what people we care about (friends, influencers, idols) are currently listening to on most streaming platforms, weakening social-driven music discovery.

Lack of Diversity: Echo Chamber

AI-generated playlists often repeat similar genres or artists based on users' past behavior, creating a repetitive and limited discovery experience.

2. Prioritized Pain Points in Streaming Recommendations

(Especially in Comparison to Social Media and UGC)

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Spotify itself has recognized that adding context to music recommendations can significantly improve user engagement, increase click-through rates, and reduce skip rates.

In my interview, one participant mentioned,

“Recommendation from AI playlists is very mechanical and cold…When I listen to music, beyond the melody itself, I also want to know the story behind the song or the things related to it.”

2.1 Lack of Context

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In January 2024, Edison Research conducted a national survey on music discovery habits. The study found that for respondents aged 12 to 34, word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family ranked as the top source of music discovery.

2.2 Lack of Social Connection

According to the DiMA Streaming Forward 2023: Fan Engagement Report, Customized playlists by friends account for 45% of listening habits, slightly more than platform-created ones — indicating peer recommendations are very powerful, but under-leveraged natively in apps.

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2.3 Lack of Diversity: Echo Chamber

A study by Spotify Research analyzed over 850 million playlists and found that algorithmic recommendations often lead to less diverse listening habits compared to user-driven exploration. Specifically, users who relied on algorithmically generated playlists exhibited narrower listening patterns, while those who curated their own playlists or explored music organically tended to have a broader range of musical diversity.

This highly upvoted Reddit post (2.2K+ upvotes, 420+ comments) reflects widespread frustration with Spotify's recommendation algorithm.

The user complains that features like AI DJX, Daily Mix constantly loop the same 100–200 songs, making it nearly impossible to discover new music.

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Step 1:⬇（from song‘s page)

Step 2:⬇（from user’s home page)

Wait a moment for the GIF to load:)

What could a better music recommendation on Spotify look like?👇

Product Vision：

Empower listeners to discover a wider diversity of music through UGC-driven context and social connections.

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Listeners and artists can create and share "notes" tied to specific tracks. Notes can include videos, text, images, remixes, or duets, allowing users to express their emotions and stories around a song. Others can engage with these notes through likes, comments, and shares.

The homepage features a note feed showcasing the latest notes from friends, followed users, and artists, helping listeners stay connected to the music updates of people they care about.

The algorithm expands music discovery beyond listening habits by analyzing users' visual UGC elements in their Notes, using natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision to detect broader interests beyond music.

3. Key Features of Note — 3 Solutions to 3 Core Pain Points

UGC-Powered Algorithm for Broader Discovery

Social Feed for Connection

UGC Creation for Contextualization

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4. Success Metrics

The North Star Metrics (NSMs) for Note:

New Genre Discovery Rate – measured as the number of tracks from new genres listened to per user per week, divided by the total tracks listened. This metric, tracked before and after the launch of Note, evaluates whether the feature increases diversity in music discovery.
Average Listening Time per User per Week – used as a counter metric to ensure that while users explore more diverse music, the overall listening experience remains engaging. An increase in discovery should not come at the cost of lower satisfaction or reduced time spent on Spotify.

⚠️ Countermetrics:

Opt-Out Rate: Percentage of users who hide the Note section (either on the soundtrack page or homepage)
Reported Notes per Day: Tracks potential misuse or poor-quality content
NPS (Net Promoter Score) for Note Feature: Gauges user satisfaction and sentiment toward the feature.

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Secondary Metrics:

🎧 Listener-Side Metrics:

Daily Active Note Users: Users who view or create at least one note per day.
Note Engagement: Average number of notes viewed or interacted with per user
Increase in Artists/Users Followed per User per Week: Measures how Note drives deeper social engagement and discovery by encouraging users to follow more artists and peers—especially as a result of interacting with meaningful UGC.
Conversion Rate (from Note View to Song Listen) → Shows effectiveness of Notes in driving actual music engagement

🎤 Musician-Side Metrics:

Follower Growth Rate per Artist: Focus on niche or underrepresented artists to evaluate whether Note improves their visibility and fan acquisition.

📈 Platform-Side Metrics:

Subscriber Growth: Measures whether Note contributes to increased Premium conversion.
Ad Revenue from Freemium Users: Assesses if greater engagement through Note leads to more monetization via ads.
Streams per User per Day: Ensures that Note increases overall listening activity without negatively impacting core platform usage.

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5. Competitive Analysis

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6. Risks and Mitigation

⚠️ 1. Low-Quality or Inappropriate Content (UGC Risk)

Risk: Users may create spammy, irrelevant, or offensive Notes, hurting user trust and brand safety.� Solution:

Implement content moderation (AI + human review for high-traffic Notes)
Add reporting + rating systems to surface high-quality Notes

⚠️ 2. Some Users May Not Be Comfortable with UGC on a Streaming Platform

Risk: Certain users, especially those used to traditional streaming platforms like Spotify, may not expect or feel comfortable encountering user-generated content (UGC) in what they perceive as a professional, music-first environment.

Solution:

Design Note as an optional and lightweight layer (e.g., users can opt out of the Note section)
Provide personalization controls, such as “Hide fan Notes” or “Show only artist Notes”

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7. Commercial Impact

More Subscribers, Longer Retention, Lower Churn Rate

Building a social feature for Spotify music can boost organic music discovery through UGC and social networks, allowing users to find a greater diversity of new songs.

According to a research conducted by Spotify, among relatively active users, people with more diverse listening habits were 25 percentage points more likely to convert from Free to Premium and 10-20 percentage points less likely to churn than those with less diversity in their music consumption.

More monetization chances:

Richer UGC encourages longer user engagement, enabling new ad formats and diversifying Spotify’s monetization beyond subscriptions and standard freemium ads.

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8. Alternative Solutions

Below are some short-term, lightweight solutions to the three key pain points. While lower in cost compared to Note, they offer less uniqueness and commercial impact, and can be considered as alternative options. These features could also serve as a way to test user response before fully launching Note.

To solve the lack of context,

1. Enable a Comment Area under Songs� Allow users to leave comments on specific tracks, creating a word-of-mouth recommendation environment. Emotional and positive comments can serve as authentic social proof, making song discovery feel more personal and relatable.

2. Repost Viral Music Videos from TikTok� Integrate a lightweight feature to surface viral TikTok videos tied to songs. This leverages the emotional energy and storytelling already embedded in viral short-form videos to make recommendations feel more alive and socially validated.

To solve the lack of social connections,

1. Incorporate Instagram Social Graph and Activity Data� Leverage users' existing Instagram social networks and music-related activities (e.g., IG Stories with music stickers, Reels featuring songs) to recommend music based on friends’ and influencers' engagement. This enhances social music discovery through familiar connections without requiring users to rebuild their network.

To solve the lack of diversity,

1. Expand Interest Profiling Beyond Music� Encourage users to select interests outside of music—such as comedy, sports, travel, or ballet—during onboarding or through in-app prompts. Understanding users’ broader passions allows the platform to recommend songs aligned with these interests (e.g., energetic tracks for sports fans, classical pieces for ballet lovers). This strategy makes cross-genre discovery more natural and personalized.

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