Spotify’s Discover Weekly now available in SA

Discover Weekly is a personalised playlist of new music that is sent out to individuals at the begining of each week. The playlist is automatically created based on listening habits and music that is liked by users.

“With over 35 million tracks and over 2 billion playlists available on Spotify, there is something for everyone,” Spotify said.

Discover Weekly is different from Daily Mix, which aggregates music from the artists users follow and the songs they have liked. The Swedish streaming platform said it could enhance the Discover Weekly listener experience if users created more playlists and urged listeners to curate their own compilations.

The new feature could benefit unknown artists by giving them a chance to be discovered by listeners. Last month, Billboard reported that Spotify was offering direct licensing to artists. It is likely that artists whose music is non-exclusively published by Spotify could also have their songs discovered through playlists that are tailored based on individuals' tastes.

Spotify seems to be rolling out new features for the South African market one step at a time. When it launched in South Africa earlier this year, Spotify said the Discover Weekly would be available immediately to users in the country, which clearly was not the case.

Users are now awaiting a music chart for South African artists. Spotify's charts website currently includes South and North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. This feature would benefit those who want to keep up with local trends.