Youtube Music is taking another cue from Spotify with today's launch of a series of custom playlists that are essentially YouTube Music's version of Spotify's "Daily Mix". Each of these new "My Mix" playlists will present a different aspect of a user's tastes and interests, allowing users to immerse themselves in a particular mood or musical genre.
Up to seven of these new "My Mix" playlists will be featured on the Home tab, the company says, and will include a combination of favorites and potential new favorites for discovery purposes.
With the launch, YouTube is also rebranding its custom playlist previously called "Your Mix". To clarify its purpose and eliminate possible confusion with the new "My Mix" playlists, this playlist will now be called "My Supermix" and will combine all a user's musical tastes into a single playlist, such as Spotify's "Discover Weekly" .
YouTube is making other changes to the Home tab and custom selections as well, it says.
Now, the Home tab will feature an activity bar that offers easy access to four types of activities, including Workout, Focus, Relax and Commute. These will take the user to a dedicated personalized home page with a variety of playlists suited to the activity in question. The Workout tab, in particular, has been updated to include up to four new custom mixes that include the music you already like and new recommendations. These cards will also include a "Supermix" of the different playlists.
Personalization has become a key battleground for music streaming services, which aim to use technology to better satisfy users by creating unique mixes and providing more targeted recommendations. YouTube and Apple have both mimicked Spotify's capabilities on this front, offering their own variations on custom playlists like Spotify's flagship playlist, "Discover Weekly," and others.
Youtube Music, however, it wasn't quite as successful in gaining a following, possibly because of Google confusing and overlapping music strategy in recent years, in which it has offered two different music apps.
Google has finally begun to fix its and has initiated the transition that will move users from its old service, Google Play Music, and to YouTube Music. The latter, to date, has struggled to gain a sizable share in the competitive music market, where Spotify and Apple dominate.
According to a MIDiA report in June, Google is in fifth place with a 6% share, behind Spotify, Apple, Amazon and Tencent. However, the report suggested that YouTube Music's appeal to a younger demographic could help Google turn that around, as its share had grown from just 3% in Q1 2018 to Q1 2019.
YouTube says new changes to its playlists will arrive today.
