SPOTIFY HAS YOU
ON ITS RADAR

Lots of playlist activity on Spotify of late. Along with the Stranger Things soundtrack and a real head-scratcher—Top “Sex” Songs, the top 10 tracks that appear on users’ sex playlists (Coldplay, seriously?)—the service has just launched Release Radar, an algorithmically personalized playlist updated each Friday that features two hours worth of newly released songs from artists each user already listens to.

The new playlist is patterned after Spotify’s immensely popular Discover Weekly (which drew 40 million listeners in its first year) and New Music Friday, both of which are personalized by the use of data, as opposed to Apple Music’s human-curation approach.

According to TechCrunch, Release Radar will appear at the top of users’ collection of playlists instead of being buried in the graphically organized Browse tab like Spotify’s existing home for finding new releases. The playlist format is more familiar, and users can easily turn it on and continue with their day instead of having to pick something different to play when each track ends.