You can finally tell Spotify's algorithm to drop music you don't like and add in stuff you do in detail — the new change is the ‘next evolution’ of personalization

• Spotify has announced a new Taste Profile feature
• It allows you to enter feedback and tell Spotify what recommendations you want
• Taste Profile could be the key to eliminating AI slop, but I hope it's not short-lived

According to Spotify, ‘more than 80% of listeners’ say personalization features are the best thing about the music streaming service — so naturally, Spotify is upping the ante even more on the personal listening front.

Today (March 13), Spotify unveiled a new tool that allows you to view your Taste Profile front and center, and directly steer your algorithm by feeding it notes. The feature was announced by Co-CEO Gustav Söderström at SXSW, and will be rolling out over the next few weeks in beta to Premium subscribers in New Zealand first.

Until now, your Taste Profile has remained hidden within the walls of the Spotify app. Now, it sits right in the sidebar of the homepage, allowing you to see exactly how it understands your listening habits across music, podcasts, and audiobooks, updating as your listening behavior evolves. However, that’s not the most interesting part; it gives you the option to edit and shape how your recommendations on the homepage evolve as much as you want.

Does your Taste Profile reveal your growing obsession with electronic music? Or that you’re slowly exploring ‘90s rock and its niche subgenres? You can ask it to give you more recommendations based on what you’re currently enjoying, or explore an entirely different genre. If you run into recommendations that don’t quite fit what you’re looking for, you can ask Taste Profile for a more specific vibe, or ask it to not recommend certain music altogether, which I imagine will be the case for many keen listeners.

For many users out there, Spotify’s algorithm can be hit-or-miss and its recommendations can fall flat, but for the first time, Taste Profile puts you in direct control over what you want to see more of in your feed — and what you want to see less. This is a feature we’ve been anticipating since it was first spotted in code strings a few weeks back, and though I’m intrigued to test it out myself, I fear it could go in one of two different directions.

A revolutionary tool, but could add to the clutter

There’s no doubt that Taste Profile adds a whole new layer to Spotify, and is a first-of-its-kind feature that not even its rivals have tackled. Spotify has come under fire for flooding the platform with AI slop, and although I’ve managed to largely avoid such content, Taste Profile would be perfect for ensuring it stops for users who run into it more than they wish.

But it’s the precision factor that makes Taste Profile a contender for being one of the most valuable features to come from Spotify. Prior to its announcement, you could tailor your algorithm using a multitude of tips and tricks; for example, excluding certain playlists from your Taste Profile, or blocking individual artists from appearing in Spotify-generated playlists.

This works in the long run, but evolution takes time, whereas this new function is designed to prioritize what you want to hear right here, right now. However, my main concern is that Taste Profile will live a short life, just like other personalization features, and only take up more space in Spotify’s already cluttered interface.

As mentioned, I’ve found that, in addition to crafting and listening to my own playlists as well as using the ‘Fans Also Like’ section to find new artists, manually removing artists and playlists from my Taste Profile has worked wonders for tailoring an algorithm that perfectly fits my listening preferences.

I’m confident that I’ve trained my algorithm to the point where I’m satisfied with the music it recommends, so I’m unsure how the new Taste Profile tab will benefit me further. It also raises the question of how well it listens to your feedback because, as I’ve found with tools such as Prompted Playlists, you need to spend a lot of time editing prompts to get Spotify to give you exactly what you want. So, my main concern is that I will get bored quite fast, resulting in me never using it again — I do think that Spotify should prioritize features such as Song DNA.

Despite my reservations, am I still intrigued to see how Taste Profile changes the game? Absolutely. On paper, it sounds like a handy feature for those who struggle to tailor their algorithm — I just hope it doesn’t fade into Spotify’s cluttered background.

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