Tag: Recommendations

Celebrate Latin Heritage Month With These Powerful Audiobooks

September 20, 2024

Latin culture has made an impact far beyond its geographical boundaries. The rich traditions and vibrant lifestyles have had a tremendous influence on the worlds of music, literature, art, and more.

Look no further than music to understand the mark Latin artists have made around the globe: In the last decade, the number of worldwide Latin music listeners on Spotify has skyrocketed by 986%.

September 15 through October 15 marks Latin Heritage Month, a time to highlight the diverse cultural landscape of these communities and to celebrate the widespread impact they’ve had on the U.S. On Spotify, we are recognizing Latin creators and their far-reaching contributions in the music, podcast, and audiobook spaces.

Our audiobooks spotlight is new this year, and we are excited to feature some of the many Latin authors who have captivated the world with their powerful words. We are highlighting the legacy of Latin storytelling and storytellers in our Audiobooks hub in a section called Celebrate Latin Heritage Month. Listeners can also browse through Spotify’s “This Is” playlists, which feature bestselling and beloved Latin authors including Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, and Paulo Coelho. They can also find their next pick in our curated themed playlists like Latine Magic and Legends Past and Present.

Don’t know where to start? From fantastical tales to community-driven storytelling, we rounded up five audiobooks from Latin authors that made it onto our must-listen-to list.

The Alchemist

Written by Paulo Coelho
Narrated by Jeremy Irons

Author Paulo Coelho combines magic, mysticism, wisdom, and wonder in his inspiring tale of self-discovery. The masterpiece tells the story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined.

How We Named the Stars

Written by Andrés N. Ordorica
Narrated by Christian Barillas

Andrés N. Ordorica’s How We Named the Stars is a debut novel of love, heartache, redemption, and learning to honor the dead. When Daniel de La Luna arrives as a scholarship student at an elite East Coast university, his roommate, Sam, changes everything. As their relationship evolves from brotherly banter to something more intimate, Daniel soon finds himself in love. But then Daniel experiences a brutal turn of events that changes his life forever.

Tías and Primas

Written and narrated by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez

Author Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez was born into a large, close-knit family in Nicaragua and grew up surrounded by strong, kind, funny, sensitive, resilient, judgmental, messy, beautiful women. Whether blood relatives or chosen family, these tías and primas fundamentally shaped her view of the world. In her new book, Prisca explores these archetypes.

Her Body and Other Parties

Written by Carmen Maria Machado
Narrated by Amy Landon

In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. From a wife refusing her husband’s entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck to a sales clerk making a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store’s prom dresses, this book features a collection of short stories that maps the realities of women’s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.

The Book of Jose: A Memoir

Written by Fat Joe and Shaheem Reid
Narrated by Fat Joe

Grammy-nominated, multiplatinum-selling artist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Fat Joe pulls back the curtain on his larger-than-life persona in this gritty, intimate memoir about growing up in the South Bronx and finding his voice through music. The memoir reveals how he navigated that traumatizing landscape until he found—through art, friendship, luck, and will—a rocky path to a different life.

Looking for more? Check out our Latin Heritage Month audiobooks selection, and be sure and tune in to top music picks from the Our Voice playlist found on the Latin hub, all on Spotify.

‘Exclude From Your Taste Profile’ Will Make Your Personalized Recommendations Even Better

February 8, 2023

Personalization is one of the most beloved Spotify features, with millions of fans using playlists like Discover Weekly and Blend to find artists and songs that they love. But for people who have specific playlists for specific activities—such as sleeping, working out, or parenting—their recommendations can sometimes over-index on songs and artists that don’t fit with their general listening habits.

We understand why you might not want kids’ music popping up in your Blend playlists, or white noise dominating your Discover Weekly. That’s why we’re introducing a new feature that will make personalization better than ever: the ability to exclude select playlists from your Taste Profile.

What is a Taste Profile?

Your Taste Profile is Spotify’s interpretation of your taste based on what you listen to and how you listen to it. It helps us personalize your Spotify experience by informing your recommendations and experiences with your taste summaries and personalized playlists, including your top songs and Daily Mixes.

How does Exclude from your Taste Profile work?

With the touch of a button, Exclude from your Taste Profile lets you keep selected playlists from being included in your Taste Profile and reduces the impact they have on your recommendations. It allows you to tell Spotify which playlist you’d like to impact your recommendations less, tailoring Spotify’s personalization experience to your needs.

When you exclude a playlist from your Taste Profile, you can still easily find it in your Home tab, and “liked” songs within the playlist will also be unaffected. In that sense, you’ll still have easy access to your Pop 4 Kids playlist, but it won’t be heavily featured in your personalized playlists.

Once Exclude from your Taste Profile is enabled, it will exclude past and future listening of the playlist from your Taste Profile.

How do I set up my Exclude from your Taste Profile?

Our latest feature is rolling out to users on web, desktop, iOS, and Android starting today. Ready to give it a try? It just takes three simple steps:

Select the playlist of your choice.
Tap the three dots near the top of the playlist.
Select “Exclude from your Taste Profile.”

Note that if you have a change of heart later on, the feature can easily be turned off at any time using the same process.

We’re continuously working to find new ways to further improve the personalization experience by introducing ways to connect listeners, artists, and creators in a unique and enriching way. And now that you have the scoop on how Exclude from your Taste Profile works, there’s only one thing left to do: Stream your favorite audio on Spotify.

Looking for more ways to make the most of our Personalization features? Check out Friends Mix, which is inspired by the songs your BFFs love.

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.

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.

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.

Get Perfect Song Recommendations in the Playlists You Create with Enhance

September 9, 2021

Avid playlist creators know: Some playlists come together without a hitch. With others, though, it may prove more difficult to find tracks that fit the tone or mood—or you might be looking to broaden your horizons and add new songs and artists. For those listeners who need some assistance while adding tracks to a new or existing playlist, we’re introducing Enhance.

Starting today, Spotify is rolling out Enhance, a new feature for Spotify Premium users to easily add personalized recommendations to their playlists.

Enhance brings together the best of you and Spotify, providing you with personalized recommendations to create playlists with ease while keeping you in control through an easy-to-navigate design. Simply turn these recommendations on or off with the tap of a button. And once Enhance is on, you’ll see your playlist populated with suggested songs that match the others in your playlist.

Throughout it all, you stay in control of what gets added. Here’s how it works:

Simply toggle the feature on and off by tapping the new “Enhance” button at the top of each playlist.
Recommendations woven into the track list will then appear. You’ll get one recommendation after every two tracks, for a max of 30 recommendations.
If you like what you see, press the “+” icon next to each new track to permanently add them to the playlist.
It’s an addition, not a substitution: The songs you add will never be replaced, and you can turn Enhance off with a simple tap.

Over the next month, Enhance will be rolling out to all Premium users in select markets* across Android and iOS. Additional markets are expected to follow in the coming months.

With Enhance, we’re helping our listeners do more of what they love: curate their playlists with great recommendations. Enhance will continue to evolve as we learn more, so stay tuned for those updates down the road.

*Markets include: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, U.K., and the U.S.

*Update as of October 20, 2021: Enhance is now rolling out in more than 130 additional markets.