What you need to know
- Google has quietly added an enhanced playlist discoverability feature to YouTube Music.
- It'll now suggest a mix of curated and user-generated playlists at the bottom of your own personal playlists.
- This feature is available on the web, iOS, and Android.
YouTube Music has been steadily getting better over the years, even now being a robust competitor to Spotify. Google has added another feature to close the gap. It's nowhere close to Spotify's new personalized playlists feature, but it's one that'll help users discover new music that they'll like from people who share similar tastes.
Now, at the bottom of any playlist, the app will show a selection of "Related Playlists" similar to the "Recommended" section that appears at the bottom of your now playing queue. These will include both playlists that Google's algorithm generates for you, and those that other users who share similar tastes have made publicly available. It's leaning heavily into YouTube's strength as a platform known for user-curated and user-generated content, and is one thing that does set YouTube Music apart from Spotify.
Searching the web for early mentions, it appeared on the web app a month or two ago (via reddit), followed by an appearance in the iPhone app and now on Android phones(along with improved casting reliability), but Google has yet to announce it officially. The company did hint at it earlier in the year, saying that: "[W]e'll also make user-created playlists more discoverable to others on the platform."
It's nothing too big, like we said, it's just a nice little update that helps users expand their music libraries organically. The algorithm may not be always right, but perhaps NoobPro420's esoteric collection of tunes could just strike your fancy or expose you to artists you (or the algorithm) would never have thought to put together.
Have you gotten this update on your YouTube Music account? Let us know in the comments below.
