Spotify Launches A Browse Feature

Spotify has long been criticized about its minimal way of searching for music. In an effort to music discovery easier, the service has introduced a new feature it calls "Browse," which is specifically designed to point users to music they might like.

Browse is a list of suggested playlists grouped by context and mood that are curated by real humans, not algorithms. This is a big change in that most music services try to build suggestions based around an algorithm that measures what you listen to. That has left big gaps in the useful suggestions, leading to a great deal of criticism by industry leaders and how ineffective these features really are.

It appears that Spotify's purchase of the music discovery startup Tunigo earlier this year brought in the necessary elements for it to be able to launch Browse.

What's interesting here is that Beats Jimmy Iovine has been a major critic of current streaming services, and claimed his upcoming Daisy music service would be the first to feature real people curating the songs on a service. Now it looks like Spotify has beaten them to the punch, although it's too early to tell just how well they will perform the task.

That being said, every streaming music service is now aware that human curation is a necessary element, if for no other reason than the competition will have it. It will be up to each to prove they can execute the feature well, but it can only mean an useful improvement for the listener in the end.

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