What seems like a feature a major music streaming platform would have at launch, is apparently only now being introduced to South African Spotify users. Discover Weekly, as it is called, is a weekly updated playlist that offers new music that the streaming service thinks you might enjoy.

Discover Weekly has been a fan favourite Spotify feature since its implementation in 2015. All Spotify users with Spotify Premium are offered 30 tracks weekly that the service’s algorithm suspects they might like. Discover Weekly is updated every Monday and is delivered to all users automatically.

Discover Weekly’s algorithm relies solely on the type of music Spotify users are listening to. It tracks your likes, skips, song repeat frequency, searches, and more in order to deliver better music, tailored specifically for you, every week. The algorithm will only get better the more you use Spotify.

Another feature that Spotify touts about Discover Weekly, is that it is also affected by what the people you follow on the service listen to. This means that it also includes tracks based on what people “with similar tastes to yours” are enjoying. This makes Discover Weekly both a service tailored to individual users and their following list. Spotify says that this method increases listener chances to find something new.

Features still outstanding for South African listeners are a local music chart for local trends and Release Radar. Music charts would allow listeners to catch up with local trends as well as find out what the best songs in and around South Africa are. Release Radar, on the other hand, works exactly like Discover Weekly, except that it only takes recent releases into consideration.

While it seems that Spotify South Africa’s features are, well, spotty, the service is being enjoyed by hundreds and thousands of locals nationwide. Spotify can be listened to for free with limited skips and listening functionality with added advertisements. Spotify Premium, on the other hand, features Discover Weekly, ad-free and offline listening, unlimited skips, artist searching and more. Spotify Premium costs R60 a month, which falls in line with other music streaming services in South Africa.

[Sources: Music In Africa, MyBroadband, Stuff]

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Junior Editor at Vamers. From Superman to Ironman; Bill Rizer to Sam Fisher and everything in-between, Edward loves it all. He is a Bachelor of Arts student and English Major specialising in Language and Literature. He is an avid writer and casual social networker with a flare for all things tech related.