Tag: discovery

Coach Sydney Carter Breaks Down Her Biggest Style Inspirations, the Joys of Owning a Dog, and the Importance of Being Yourself

October 30, 2023

When it comes to the most-loved features on Spotify, personalization tops many users’ lists. Through Spotify playlists like Discover Weekly and Daylist, editorially curated standouts like Fresh Finds, and new playlist-enhancing features like Smart Shuffle and Jam, we love helping listeners discover something new. And our listeners’ thirst for auditory adventures continues to grow, with nearly 2 billion music discoveries happening on Spotify daily.

Creators around the world also love discovery and turn on their fans to favorite playlists, products, and people. In For the Record’s ongoing Discovery Monday series, we connect with content creators and pick their brains about recent finds, whether it’s new music, podcasts, TV, food, beauty, technology, or fashion.

This month, we’re talking to basketball coach extraordinaire Sydney Carter. After reaching the highest levels of the game as a player, Sydney is now making a name for herself as one of the best-dressed coaches in women’s basketball. But more than just helping her teams succeed on the court, Sydney has become a fierce advocate for gender equality and representation in sports and life.

What’s your favorite way to discover new music on Spotify?

I’m starting to get hip to a lot of things because these young kids, they’re listening to all this type of stuff and I’m still stuck on ’90s R&B like Aaliyah. But I typically like to search for an artist, find a playlist, and then go from there. And then you’ll have different artists in that same genre that are in the mix, so I get into new stuff by listening on shuffle. That’s the easiest way for people like me.

Are there any new podcasts that you’ve listened to or discovered lately?

I love Amanda Seales’ podcast Small Doses. And then I love the podcast Don’t Call Me White Girl. Mona, the host of DCMWG, just makes me laugh. She talks about things you hear in social media and just puts her own thing on it, which I love.

Are you an audiobooks fan? What’s your favorite way to listen?

During the early part of the pandemic, I got into listening to audiobooks. There was something about that experience of listening to a book that was working for me. So I would do it when I would work out. I was big on riding my bike during COVID. I was at home all day, and so instead of listening to music the whole time, I was also feeding myself with information.

As you’ve evolved from player to coach you’ve also grown into a prominent voice for women’s empowerment for your social media followers. Do you have a mantra or mentality for staying true to yourself and your passions as your journey continues?

I mean, I always like to say that representation matters. That’s my whole thing. I never intended for any of this to happen. I grew up in a time where we didn’t have social media, so it was never like, “Okay, let me do this so I can go viral.” People my age don’t immediately think about doing things to go viral.

There’s so many young women that I’ve seen over the years who are simply not comfortable being themselves. They’re worried about what people think. They’re worried about what social media comments will say. And so a lot of people have just told me, “You make me feel like I can do anything.”

And it doesn’t even have to do with basketball or fashion. They just think they can do anything by looking at me. So I’m very grateful for that.

What is most rewarding about your work helping women college athletes progress on and off the court?

Every day, I get to help a young woman get closer to living out her dreams, whether that’s pursuing a degree or playing basketball. And so the passion that I have for coaching stems from knowing that when I come across a young woman or a young individual, I know that I’m going to do whatever it takes to help them succeed. Or if we’re on the basketball court, I’m going to be able to help them and provide them with the tools they need. And so when you see a kid whose life you were able to touch, and then they go off and they go do things, there’s nothing better than that.

When you’re seeking something new, what tools or resources do you use?

Typically when I’m thinking about just new ways to be myself or just other ideas that I’m trying to come up with, I’ll find inspiration from Google, or social media, or somewhere else and think of how I can make it me. I’ve just gotten to a point where I don’t care if no one else likes what I’m into. I don’t care if someone else thinks this idea is completely insane. If I like something, it’s simply because I like it.

When it comes to fashion, you’re well-known for your sideline looks. How did you become interested in that world?

My passion for fashion started when I was a kid, and there’s a long history of me taking pride in how I look. I grew up in a family of seven kids. And so I grew up seeing my sisters be super dainty and everything, but I was a little rough around the edges. I love playing basketball, but I always wanted to be super prissy. If you ask me, my sisters and my mom were fashion queens. My mom was wearing the high-waist pants before we were, and she got me my first pair of boots when I was in the fourth grade, and I wore them every day. That’s why my family calls me “Boots” now.

And then even when I went on to college, people always knew I was going to come out with something that ain’t nobody seen before. And I might not have had all the money or anything like that, but I was going to find a way to at least find a couple of pieces that worked for me.

Did that change at all once you started coaching?

When I started working under the coach that I played for in college, he was always like, “You wear what you want to wear. You don’t let anybody tell you that this is too much or this is extra.” He was like, “Just be yourself.” I felt empowered by that and we actually started dressing up during COVID when all the other coaches were wearing quarter-zip sweatshirts and khaki pants. He was like, “We ain’t doing that. I don’t care if it’s just me and you on the sidelines, we’re going to look nice.” And so it was me and him dressing up to the nines, and it’s what I’m comfortable in. I feel like I’m putting my best foot forward for our kids if I’m looking my best.

What’s something new that you’ve discovered lately and fallen in love with?

I’ve always loved animals and I just got a dog. She’s about to be eight months old. So I am opening my eyes to the fact that my dog is not just a dog to me. She’s like a human being. And so I think I’m always searching for clothes and all types of toys for her.

And this is not necessarily just about her, but I’m at a point where I’m truly growing up and thinking about what’s next in life, and about having kids in the picture. My family, my sisters are having kids left and right and everybody’s looking at me like, “What you doing?” So I’m really starting to think about solidifying the life that I want and doing all the things that I’m doing with fashion, with my job, with a new animal. So yeah, I think that I’m just discovering all of the blessings of life in itself.

Stay up on Sydney’s courtside couture by following her on Instagram.

Spotify Reports Third Quarter 2023 Earnings

October 24, 2023

Today, we announced our third quarter 2023 performance. The business delivered strong results in Q3 as all of our key indicators exceeded guidance and we returned to profitability.

  • Monthly Active Users were up 26% to 574 million and 2 million ahead of guidance. This represents our second largest Q3 net addition performance in history. 
  • Subscribers grew 16% Y/Y to 226 million. Net additions of 6 million were 2 million ahead of guidance. 
  • Total Revenue grew 11% Y/Y to €3.4 billion, exceeding guidance.
  • Gross Margin finished above guidance at 26.4%.
  • Spotify returned to profitability, reporting Operating Income of €32 million for the quarter. 

In addition, we unveiled new personalized experiences for users and tools for creators:




Interested in hearing more? Click here to review the full earnings release and listen to the webcast Q&A on our Investor Relations site here. 

Click below to check out a sizzle reel of audio trailers from a few of our recent original and exclusive podcasts and audiobook offerings.

Tech Creator iJustine Shares Her Favorite Ways To Dig Deeper Into Her Latest Obsessions

August 21, 2023

You may have noticed that we’re into helping our listeners find something new. A combination of beloved personalized Spotify playlists like Discover Weekly, editorially-curated standouts like Fresh Finds, new playlist-enhancing features like Smart Shuffle, and our listeners’ thirst for auditory adventures means that nearly two billion music discoveries happen on Spotify every day.

But we’re not the only ones who love discovery. Every day, creators around the world share their favorite playlists, products, and people with their followers, helping their fans, in turn, fall in love with the next best thing. In For the Record’s new Discovery Monday series, we talk to content creators about recent discoveries, covering everything from music to podcasts, as well as food, fashion, TV, beauty, and more. 

We’re kicking off with iJustine, a tech creator, podcast host, and dog mom. The lifestyle vlogger dives into new trends, tech, and hobbies—her latest is literally diving—speaking to entrepreneurs and attending product launches. 

Your videos help build understanding of the tech world. How did you make this your niche?

Finding tech, for me, and creating content around it was sort of just an extension of something that I naturally did growing up and in my everyday life. A curiosity and wonderment of how things work is what brought me to tech. When I was younger, I used to take things apart and then my parents would be like, “Oh no, now we have to figure out how to fix this.” Till now, that approach has been amazing because there’s never a shortage of things to make videos about. There’s always new tech, and especially recently with AI. And I like to create; making videos is fun for me, and I really genuinely love all the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes into the videos. There’s just so much to talk about, and it really is a never-ending source of content.

Why do you love introducing your followers to new tools, products, and people?

I love having the opportunity to interview a CEO or an entrepreneur—people I look up to. It’s been so fun to hear their journeys and then bring them into my world. 

I have a very interesting audience. A lot of them are younger women and girls who are kind of trying to figure out their way. I want them to see somebody in a space that makes them feel safe. Because when I was younger, playing video games and doing things that I am into now—it wasn’t cool. And I was being made fun of for it. But now I’m like, “Man, you guys got it made!” Because being into tech is cool now. So, I just want people to be able to explore that. Even if it’s not cool now, you never know. Might be later.

What tools or resources do you use in your research? 

I always ask my audience for suggestions. Even recently, I was asking for good diving spots in Oahu, and I would much rather hear from a person directly. I find almost all of my things from my viewers or audience or friends who are following me. It’s kind of awesome because it’s like, yeah, I could have Googled it, but I would rather hear from someone who actually has been there and experienced it and knows if it’s something that I would like. 

What have you been listening to lately? Old favorites? Something new? Or somewhere in between?

I’m definitely open to discovery, but recently, I do feel like when I open up Spotify, I go to my favorites. Recently, my sister and I went on a trip and we went back to our 2018 Hawaii playlist, and we were basically reliving the trip through our music from 2018. So, it’s kind of fun to kind of go back, and the fact that, like, we’ve both been on Spotify for so long meant we were able to go back to all these playlists and kind of relive that piece of history and memories through music, and that’s always so fun for me.

What’s your favorite way to discover on Spotify? Do you use playlists like Discover Weekly, features like AI DJ, or tools like Smart Shuffle?

I’m a huge fan of Smart Shuffle because I love being able to go back into my old playlists and use Smart Shuffle to reinvigorate them. You do spend so much time curating those, and it does bring you back to a specific moment. So, being able to just add some new songs in, and, I mean, some of my playlists are super short, so being able to add in stuff that I’ve already done is really cool.

I also almost always go to the top new songs playlist, Today’s Top Hits. I love being able to just scroll through it because it’s all genres. And, I mean, I definitely love pop, rock, and I used to be really into heavy metal, but that was, you know, a little bit of a phase during high school and college. But it is fun to kind of go back to that playlist because I love so many genres of music and that playlist does have a little bit of everything. I’m also always going back to the 90s playlists because I love nostalgic music. 

What Niche Mixes playlist would you search for?

Classical heavy metal mix. That would be pretty awesome to hear. We’re gonna be head-banging out! 

A rapid-fire round of your favorite recent discoveries: Let’s start with artists or genres.

I am obsessed with OneRepublic, so I’ve been really enjoying remixes of some of my favorite songs of theirs. It’s a good way to break out of my normal listening habits. 

Any new podcasts you’ve gotten especially into lately? How did you discover them?

I just started listening to Heal Squad x Maria Menonous. She always has so many helpful tips about healing your body, and she has so many incredible guests on. She actually invited me onto it and that’s how I found out about it, and now I’m obsessed. 

Are you an audiobooks fan? What’s your favorite way to listen?

I am addicted. I will cycle through audiobooks so fast because I need to stay distracted to keep my brain focused on things. When I’m doing laundry, cleaning, I’ll have an audiobook on. I recently got into nonfiction audiobooks, and I love listening to history and self-help. I also watched the Daisy Jones and the Six series and then have listened to every single Taylor Jenkins Reid audiobook over the past few months.

What’s your latest obsession?

That’s usually every single random new hobby that I get. And recently, I got into diving. So now I’m buying all the diving gear; I’m looking for diving creators, places to go. I’m definitely one of those people who’s like, when I start doing something, I go 100%. There’s no backing down. 

Catch iJustine and her sister Jenna in their video podcast, Same Brain, including her interview with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.

Nearly 2 Billion Music Discoveries Happen on Spotify Every Day—Here’s What Listeners Are Finding

July 20, 2023

From personalized Niche Mixes to our AI-powered DJ, Spotify is constantly helping listeners discover new music to add to their queues. In fact, what fans love most about Spotify is our array of features that are specifically curated for each person’s audio taste.

We took a journey of our own to understand how Spotify listeners explore new music. What we found spanned listeners across generations, and music across decades. 

“As humans, we are wired to explore, to seek the new and the unexpected, and to learn and expand and deepen our understanding of the world,” said Dr. Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Greater Good Science Center. “This quest for discovery is one of our greatest species-defining strengths.”

When we looked into new discoveries across generations, our data found that Gen Z and Gen Alpha are discovering music at different rates than baby boomers. While baby boomers actually discover music more often than Gen Z in the U.S., globally, Gen Z and Gen Alpha take the lead. 

“It doesn’t surprise me that Gen Z leads music discovery in the rest of the world since younger people are actively seeking new musical forms to change society and the status quo,” explained Dr. Keltner. 

We were curious what Dr. Keltner thought of discoveries among Gen Z listeners. “Today young people face many challenges,” he said. “The science of music speaks to how deeply listening and discovering music can counter this for young people. There’s the awe of finding something new; how music can lead young people to feel calmer, both in mind and body; and how music surfaces what we most care about in life.”

Baby boomers are still interested in discovering new songs. Dr. Keltner thinks this could be a product of their feeling more lonely, stressed, connected, and curious. “But discovering new music can bring us a sense of connection and contentment rather than stress, a sense of identity within a community, and awe and curiosity.”

And some generations are offering the music of their youth to younger listeners. Well, the music of Gen X’s youth, specifically. Gen Z is dipping their toes into more nostalgic songs.

Music fans looking to discover more nostalgic tracks or feel connected to past generations can check out some of our Niche Mixes like Old School Rap Mix, Throwback R&B Mix, and 70s Disco Mix.

“In many parts of the world we lack intergenerational contact. It is increasingly hard to understand and share in the emotions and thoughts of people in different groups than our own,” reasoned Dr. Keltner. “The kinds of music discoveries you found—of boomers discovering new music and Gen Z and Gen Alpha exploring music more from the past—suggests that music can be a powerful way to enhance intergenerational understanding and, more generally, foster empathy across differences.” 

We also know that other factors drive music discovery on Spotify, including, of course, cultural moments like television shows, movies, video game competitions, and much more. 

But discovery is also driven by less-obvious moments. In our research, we found that people tend to stream happier music (measured by the average valence of music streamed, which describes the musical “positiveness” conveyed by a track) more on Mondays than on the rest of the week. Dr. Keltner had an explanation for this, too.

“We listen to music for many reasons: to find peace and contentment, insights into the struggles of life, inspiration, and a sense of identity. Mondays often present challenges as we move from the weekend to the work week: stress, questions about what will inspire us that week, and why we are doing the work we are doing. Music on Mondays provides windows into answers to these aspects of shifting to Monday. 

Mondays are also when Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist, a weekly dose of recommended songs from Spotify, is refreshed. Though the playlist is personalized to each listener, songs most frequently discovered on Discover Weekly include “Glass Jaw” by chokecherry and “Heart of Gold (with Bon Iver)” by Ilsey.

Many podcasts have also become favorites to start the week. The meditation-focused The Sleep Zone Podcast is one of the most popular podcasts streamed first thing Monday mornings, giving Spotify fans some zen as they face the week ahead.

Artists like KAROL G, Shakira, and Miley Cyrus are distinctive to Mondays, when we may need an energy boost, but we found different artists and playlists trending on Sundays. Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish, and SZA help us get into our feels, while “Sad Country Mix” is the most streamed Niche Mix on Sunday nights. And it’s all about that good night’s sleep before the rush of a new week kicks off: “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” by Adelmar Borrego is the most distinctive track streamed on Sunday evenings globally. 

From activating Smart Shuffle in your playlists to going on a ride with your personalized AI DJ, there are countless ways for Spotify to lead you to new music. Give them a try on your next listen.

Spotify’s New Home Feeds Make Discovering Your New Favorites Easy

August 9, 2022

Two phones displaying on a green and black graphic background

Spotify’s Home is a go-to spot to find new recommendations and revisit recent favorites. And with an upcoming update to Home, users will get a gateway to great content they will love—from tried-and-true playlists to new artists and thought-provoking podcasts. 

A gif sharing the benefits of the new spotify home feed

This week, we are launching a new Home experience that includes feeds for both Music and Podcasts & Shows. The feature is currently rolling out to Android users and will soon be available on iOS. By creating these feeds, Spotify will help listeners to easily scroll through the type of content they’re looking for at that moment. The updated interface will make the experience more personalized while allowing users to dig even deeper into their recommendations.

In the Music feed, listeners will have quick access to suggestions based on their music taste, making discovering new favorites easier than ever. There will also be album and playlist recommendations as well as buttons that make it easy to share, like, and instantly play music.

In the Podcast & Shows feed, listeners will be able to head straight to new episodes of their favorite shows. They’ll also find personalized podcast recommendations. What’s more, listeners will be able to read episode descriptions, save to Your Episodes or start playing podcasts without leaving the page, so the experience all starts from one place.

A gif showing information about how the home feed works on spotify app

The Home refresh is currently rolling out to users on Android mobile devices. iOS users can stay tuned for updates coming in the near future. 

Three Things To Know About Spotify’s Featured Curators Pilot

April 4, 2022

Spotify’s community is unlike any other. We know that none of our 406 million global listeners stream quite the same way, and we’re always inspired by the creativity, passion, and originality our users bring to the platform each and every day. 

One of the biggest ways that listeners bring their individuality to life is through playlist creation. So this month, Spotify is testing a new way to amplify the playlists our listeners create. With the rollout of the Featured Curators pilot, Spotify is testing a new way for listeners to discover music they love with a collection of playlists curated by select Spotify users and influencers. 

Here’s what you need to know:

1. It’s inspired by—and made for—fans

The Featured Curators pilot is a limited-time test that promotes popular user and influencer playlists alongside our Spotify playlists. The curators we selected are music lovers with established followings and popular playlists on Spotify, or they’re users telling unique stories through playlists and creating authentic connections with other users.

2. It’s a first

Spotify transformed music discovery through flagship playlists like RapCaviar and personalized playlists like Discover Weekly. Now, we’re experimenting with taking playlist creation and discovery even further. We’re always testing unique and different listening experiences and programs for our fans, and we’re excited to watch this one unfold. 

3. It’s a limited pilot 

Users in select markets may soon begin to see Featured Curator playlists recommended in-app and on their homepages. As we continue to workshop the program throughout the testing period, we’ll be thoughtful in how we evolve and innovate the experience.

 

Our goal is always to make Spotify the number one destination for the best listening experience, and with this pilot, we’re giving listeners a new way to discover music from fellow fans who are as engaged as they are.

Amplifying Artist Input in Your Personalized Recommendations

November 2, 2020

Listeners enjoy Spotify because we introduce them to music to fall in love with—including music they might not have found otherwise. In fact, Spotify drives 16 billion artist discoveries every month, meaning 16 billion times a month, fans listen to an artist they have never heard before on Spotify. We’re proud of that and are actively refining our algorithms to enable even more fan discoveries of new artists each month.

We’re able to make great personalized recommendations because of complex, dynamic systems that consider a wide variety of inputs about what you like—which we refer to as signals—and balance those signals in many possible different pathways to produce an output: the perfect song for the moment, just for you. 

This might sound complicated—and it is! Our personalized recommendations take into account thousands of types of signals: what you’re listening to and when, which songs you’re adding to your playlists, the listening habits of people who have similar tastes, and much more. In order to create algorithms that truly deliver the right song for the right time, we’re also taking into account less obvious factors: things like time of day, or the order in which you’re listening to songs or podcasts, or the release date of a song. 

Artists tell us they want more opportunities to connect with new listeners, and we believe our recommendations should also be informed by artists—their priorities and what they have to say about their music. And soon, we will roll out a test of a service that gives artists a say in how their music is discovered. 

In this new experiment, artists and labels can identify music that’s a priority for them, and our system will add that signal to the algorithm that determines personalized listening sessions. This allows our algorithms to account for what’s important to the artist—perhaps a song they’re particularly excited about, an album anniversary they’re celebrating, a viral cultural moment they’re experiencing, or other factors they care about. 

To ensure the tool is accessible to artists at any stage of their careers, it won’t require any upfront budget. Instead, labels or rights holders agree to be paid a promotional recording royalty rate for streams in personalized listening sessions where we provided this service. If the songs resonate with listeners, we’ll keep trying them in similar sessions. If the songs don’t perform well, they’ll quickly be pulled back. Listener satisfaction is our priority—we won’t guarantee placement to labels or artists, and we only ever recommend music we think listeners will want to hear. 

We’re testing this to make sure it’s a great experience for both listeners and artists. To start, we’ll focus on applying this service to our Radio and Autoplay formats, where we know listeners are looking to discover new music. As we learn from this experiment, we’ll carefully test expanding to other personalized areas of Spotify. 

We believe this new service will unlock more discoveries than ever before. Our recommendations rely on signals from you, so keep on listening to what you love!

Spotify’s Biggest Playlist, Today’s Top Hits, Celebrates 25 Million Followers

December 16, 2019

It’s been streamed more than 20 billion times. Over 70 featured artists have received 100+ million plays. And now, Spotify’s biggest playlist, Today’s Top Hits, can add “over 25 million followers” to its name. To put this in perspective: If Today’s Top Hits was an artist, it would be the third most streamed of all time (after Drake and Ed Sheeran).

Since 2014, Spotify’s team of curators have analyzed our streaming data, as well as music culture and trends, to populate the playlist. Each week, it features updated songs from artists around the world. Today’s Top Hits spans a variety of genres — from pop and Latin, to hip-hop and indie — giving listeners an opportunity to enjoy the music they already know and love, while also discovering new tracks.

Today’s Top Hits not only reflects the music culture of the zeitgeist, but also shapes it.  The playlist has helped kickstart the careers of many artists, including: Arizona Zervas, Tones and I, and Ant Saunders, whose respective singles “Roxanne,” “Dance Monkey,” and “Yellow Hearts,” have been some of the most recent staples. More than just serving as a platform of discovery for emerging talent, Today’s Top Hits has also amplified songs by established artists such as Post Malone, Selena Gomez, Khalid, Halsey, The Chainsmokers, and Camila Cabello.

We couldn’t be more excited about this incredible milestone—thanks to the 25 million fans and followers for listening. A few other people wanted to say thank you . . . (shout-out to Niall Horan, Julia Michaels, Lewis Capaldi, Marshmello, and Lauv).

See for yourself what Today’s Top Hits is all about.

The Viral Mexican Artist Making Music Worth Crying Over

May 23, 2019

What does viral success look like for the internet generation? In Mexico, singer-songwriter Ed Maverick offers a prime example. In less than one year, the 18-year-old guitarist, whose real name is Eduardo Saucedo, has gone from having 1,000 daily streams on Spotify to over 98,000, thanks to his nine-track album of acoustic bedroom-pop titled “mix pa llorar en tu cuarto” (a mixtape to cry to in your bedroom) and a fateful spotting by one of our editors of his track “Fuentes de Ortiz” on the Mexico Viral 50 playlist. One listen to that track, and it’s easy to see why it was included on Spotify’s Distrito Indie playlist before eventually making its way to the flagship  La + Chingona and Éxitos México playlists.

Typically armed with little more than a guitar, each song on “mix pa llorar en tu cuarto” is a raw portrayal of the uncertainty and insecurity of young love. The audio equivalent of reading someone’s diary, the tracks are vulnerable and heartbreakingly relatable. In a rich baritone, Saucedo expresses his feelings through simple, approachable lyrics that mix in everyday Mexican slang, reflecting how people actually communicate.

“Karpe Diem,” one of the first songs he wrote, describes his experience in getting over someone. In discussing the song with For the Record Saucedo said it’s probably the song closest to his heart, as it represents the start of his transition to “adult problems, not kid problems anymore.” Indeed, many of his songs come from his own experiences, particularly with ex-girlfriends, although he evades linking them to a specific moment.

Saucedo, who comes from the northern state of Chihuahua, Mexico, didn’t grow up in a musical family, but learned to play guitar by watching videos and playing in norteño—a genre of music popular in the region he comes from—groups throughout middle school. His style evolved through playing covers of songs by his favorite bands, such as those by Mexican indie rockers Little Jesus. But neither style of music suited what he wanted to do, so he decided to strike out on his own and eventually started composing his own songs. “I felt the need to release what was going on in my mind,” he said.

And perhaps this is the secret to the easy intimacy of his lyrics: He works by following his intuition and going with the flow, as opposed to forcing things. Even when Saucedo starts to write a song, he likes to see how he’s feeling—whether it’s good or bad—and to see “what arrives.” Ultimately, what he’s hoping for is that people listening to his songs can at least “feel something”—and perhaps realize they’re not the only ones going through the difficulty of being a teenager. “That’s why I make music, really,” he said.

Saucedo recently moved to Mexico City, where his sister acts as his manager. He’s navigating his sudden rise to fame by making sure he stays in touch with his friends from back home, as well as his fans, many of whom are his age or younger. In April, he held an autograph signing session in the city’s south, where a lot of university students live. When he arrived, over 1,000 people were waiting for him, and some of them had been there since 8am that morning. Luckily, their spirits were kept high as he performed for the crowd, and they sang along with him. Afterwards, he signed everything from copies of his album to sneakers and a ukulele.  

Right now, his influences include another Mexican indie rock singer, Dromedarios Mágicos, who also comes from Chihuahua. He enjoys listening to bands like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, The Walters and Señor Kino. And already, as a follow-up to his album, he’s released “Ropa de Bazaar” featuring Jenny Juárez of the Sonora-based lo-fi pop act Bratty, a folk-tinged acoustic song about a young couple escaping together. “Let’s go far away from here,” the two sing as Saucedo strums his guitar. “Accompany me and I’ll take care of you, through the drunken crazy times and all the rest.”

While at one point he harbored thoughts of being a graphic designer, right now Saucedo is happy with continuing his music career. He doesn’t have a specific milestone in mind, but for the near future he’d like to head “somewhere very far” and compose for a few months, and produce something different to his first album, both lyrically and musically—he just doesn’t know exactly what yet.

Listen to the whole album by Ed Maverick, mix pa llorar en tu cuarto, or for extra acoustic intimacy, hear the live version of his latest single, “Ropa de Bazaar.”

Five Ways to Make Your Discover Weekly Playlists Even More Personalized

May 2, 2019

Every Monday morning, Spotify listeners are greeted—some might say gifted—with a new Discover Weekly playlist to help set their soundtrack for the next seven days. The weekly dose of recommended songs started as a project from one of Spotify’s Hack Weeks, and quickly caught on. Now, every Monday, listeners get a new, curated playlist of 30 songs from a variety of artists to explore.

Ever logged in to find a seemingly perfect Discover Weekly? While it might seem like wizardry, Discover Weekly becomes more personalized the more you use and engage with it. Here are five ways to keep the curation “magic” going:

1. Heart This

Love a new track you just heard? Click the “heart” icon next to the song on mobile or desktop, and there will be more where that came from down the road.

2. Follow Along

Make sure to “follow” your favorite artists—the curation magic will pull in songs from similar artists that we have a hunch you’ll like. As for your “followed” artists, head over to your Release Radar playlist, which updates every Friday, to hear all their new music right after it drops.

3. You Really Really Like It

If you’re totally obsessed with a new-to-you track, add it to your own personally curated playlists. This lets us know the song is more than just a momentary obsession, and we’ll be sure to serve up songs in the same vein.

4. Don’t Overthink It

We all have that friend who shares a ton of tracks from their favorite new artist. But what if they’re not really your taste? Not to worry: Listening to a song once without replaying or “hearting” won’t affect your Discover Weekly selections.

5. Keep It Private

If you’re listening to music you may not want to show up in your Discover Weekly (for example, if your friend with questionable music taste is DJing a party from your phone), put your Spotify on Private Mode. If you’re streaming from desktop, simply click the down arrow shaped like a “V” in the top right corner of the app and select “Private Session.” For mobile and tablet, navigate to Settings, then Social, and turn on “Private Session.”

There you have it! All the information you need for future playlists. Now that you’re more in control of your Discover Weekly destiny, prepare for a whole new world of soon-to-be-favorite songs and artists at your fingertips every Monday.

Open your Discover Weekly and get listening!