An Exploration of The Spotify Daylist
The Spotify Daylist. One of the newer features of the music streaming giant, the Daylist seeks to answer the age old question: “What do I normally listen to from day to day?”. Coming to fruition in September of 2023 for six Spotify markets (U.S.A, Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) and expanded to 65+ starting in March 2024, the feature focuses on some key factors, such as titles, and musical discovery. I aim to delve briefly through these, and see just what makes the Daylist the it-girl in the world of playlist-building.
The best and most important way to really set the curated vibe for a playlist is by its title, something that the Daylist has zeroed in on. Spotify has a strong marketing team, and knew that this whimsical variety of titles will get screenshotted and shared around online. What this means for our subject at hand is that when you open the app and check your Daylist at any given time, you can tell right away about the next hour or so of a listening journey you’re going to have. No two users have the same titles, so part of the fun has become asking my friends what their hourly playlists are, and vice versa. Some personal favorites I have had in the past include energy slay late night, brat summer hot girl walk sunday evening, cold poetry evening, and the absolute best read into my inner psyche with dirty rock pub friday evening. These titles will typically follow a formula of a noun + adjective, followed by the day and time of day, but can veer off slightly at times. If you pay close attention, there is a good chance you can predict what your genre for the hour will be, but it is usually a pleasant surprise for me when I check for myself.
With the aforementioned cycling, the app allows for discovery, something it prides itself on with many of its incoming and ongoing features. On any given day, my Daylist will be roughly 10% of songs that I have heard of but not listened to, 30-40% of songs I already know, and the other 60% are new to me. In the description of the playlist, Spotify will also explain some of the subgenres attached, and what genres they were suggesting for that time block. Occasionally there are some standouts that don’t quite match the subgenres, but they will still be in the general vibe, so it is not that noticeable as you listen and go about your day.
Let’s take a look now at a snippet of a Daylist, to see everything in action.
bubblegrunge sad girl indie sunday night
Cover Image from Spotify
Subgenres: bubblegrunge, power ballad, wistful, pretty voice
“Lovers Always Lose”, Boys Go To Jupiter - Power ballad, a song I already know and love
“Angel! Wild! Superstar!”, Ha Vay - Wistful, an artist I am familiar with, but a new song
“Say It Back”, Luna Day - An artist and song both brand new for me
Some Daylists have a higher percentage of familiar songs than others, this being one of them. With recurring tunes such as “Night Shift” (Lucy Dacus), “Feeling Like a Woman Lately” (NoSo), and “Naked In Manhattan” (Chappell Roan), this is a group of songs that see their own rotation on my phone more often than not.
The Daylist has become one of my personal favorite spotlights of the entire app, something that I will check multiple times daily, and have saved full playlists from. If ever I need inspiration, or feel stuck in the same loop of 15 songs over and over, I can always rely on this feature to refresh for me. Whether you’re just looking for a smile at the silly titles, or need some new songs to explore in genres you already know and love, the Spotify Daylist is a great way to go.
