Spotify, I beg you, let me take a break from songwriting

One of the main reasons I continue to use Spotify is the music recommendations. “Created for you” playlists make it much easier for me to find something to play. However, if Spotify knows I like a song, it will play it over and over again. Sometimes I just need a break.

The problem

Spotify’s “Made For You” playlists are, as you might expect, heavily tailored to your preferences. In fact, Spotify’s personalization probably goes deeper than you think.

A hyper-specific Spotify genre I recently discovered is called “Coastal Grandmother.” I sent Spotify’s “Coastal Grandmother Mix” playlist to a friend and we quickly realized that the songs we saw were completely different. Upon closer inspection, the playlist description states: “Coastal Grandmother music selected only for you.“I didn’t expect a genre mix to be so personal.

This is exactly why songs can quickly become repetitive if you listen to a lot of Spotify’s personalized playlists. For example, as I write this, my daily playlist is called “Happy Indie Stomp and Holler Friday Afternoon.” Without looking, I knew “Happy Idiot” by TV On The Radio would be on the playlist, and it was. If I like a song, that shouldn’t mean I’m doomed to listen to it every day for the rest of my life.

The solution

Streaming services found the solution to this problem a long time ago. Remember Pandora? The platform pioneered music recommendation when it launched in 2005. From what I understand, one of the original features was an option in the song menu called “I’m sick of this song.”

The beauty of this feature is that you don’t have to commit to a song permanently. You can tap “I’m sick of this song” and stop listening to it for a while, and eventually it will go back into your rotation. Spotify only gives you the option to “Hide this song” – and even that is only available on mobile.

There are very few songs that I hate so much that I want to permanently erase them from my life. And let’s be honest, I will never think about going back a few months later and undoing that action. The “cooldown” approach is much more user-friendly and effective.

I don’t know if Pandora has a patent on this feature or what – I just know that Spotify is killing me with the repeating songs. Spotify is great at a lot of things, but when I’m angry, when Songs I really like Start playing. There is a problem. Please fix the algorithm or give us more controls.