I don’t like country, but last night I did a friend a favor and went to a country concert with her. Today Spotify is suddenly playing songs from the artist in my playlist. I’ve never listened to country songs before and certainly didn’t do anything to indicate to Spotify that I wanted to listen to this kind of music. How did Spotify do this and how do I get them to stop? This is so creepy.
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Almost assuredly you used some internet connected product while at the concert. Some sort of social media. Chrome web browser. Who knows. Almost all social media apps will tag your location when use them, and that location info is then bundled off to advertisers. Since our phones and devices have unique IDs there is a good chance that your advertising ID is now tagged with “attended Cowboy Charlie’s Country Cattle Call”.
Since Spotify makes money by getting you to listen to stuff you like, they are highly incentivized to buy that data if it helps create streaming experiences you are interested in. They likely have a highly automated system that ingests your suspected interests and nudges your playlist towards certain artists and genres.
It sounds like Spotify might be using your location data to suggest songs based on concerts or events you attend. You can turn off location services for the app in your phone’s settings to prevent this from happening in the future. It’s definitwly a bit creepy, but it’s also an example of how companies use data to personalize our experiences. Hope that helps!
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