What Spotify Announced at SXSW
Spotify has announced a new feature that will let listeners review and adjust their “Taste Profile” — the internal algorithmic model Spotify uses to understand what you like and to recommend what you should listen to next. The update was revealed at the SXSW conference by Spotify co‑CEO Gustav Söderström and is launching in beta.
Taste Profile influences many of Spotify’s most-used personalization features, including Discover Weekly, Made For You playlists, and the yearly Spotify Wrapped summary. Because it sits behind so many recommendations, any “bad data” in your listening history can quietly shape what shows up on your Home page for weeks or months.
With this update, Spotify is effectively saying: instead of keeping that recommendation engine hidden, it will surface it and let users directly steer it. That is a notable shift, because most streaming services expect users to accept algorithmic choices rather than edit the model behind them.
How the Feature Works and Where It’s Launching First
Spotify says Premium users will be able to access all of their listening data in one place inside the app. This includes music, podcasts, and audiobooks. The beta rollout is starting with Premium users in New Zealand.
Once it is available, users can access their Taste Profile by tapping their profile picture and scrolling down. From there, they can edit the profile and adjust recommendations using natural language prompts. For example, a user could ask Spotify for more of a certain style or vibe, or less of a genre that keeps appearing in recommendations.
After changes are made, Spotify says the Home page will refresh with a new set of personalized suggestions. In other words, it is not only a “settings” screen — it is a direct control panel that is designed to change what you see across the app.
Spotify plans to expand the feature to more markets after the initial rollout in New Zealand in the coming weeks.
Why People Want This: Shared Accounts, Sleep Sounds, and Kids Music
Spotify has offered limited tools in the past to remove certain tracks or playlists from a user’s Taste Profile, but those options were not easy to find and did not offer full control. As a result, many users complain that recommendations can drift away from their real taste.
This problem often happens when multiple people use the same account. In many homes, family members play music through shared smart speakers or TVs, or teenagers use a parent’s Spotify account through CarPlay. Over time, the account’s listening history becomes a mixed pool of different preferences.
Another common cause is “utility listening” — audio that you use for a purpose, not enjoyment. Examples include sleep sounds, background focus tracks, ambient noise, or children’s songs. Because users do not always remember to clean up those plays later, the Taste Profile can become cluttered with content they do not actually want recommended.
When that happens, the platform starts pushing more of what it thinks you like, even if those plays were just accidental or situational. This can feel frustrating because the app’s main promise is personalization.
What This Could Change for Recommendations and Spotify Wrapped
Spotify says the new Taste Profile feature is designed to give listeners more control over recommendations and their listening data. If it works well, it could reduce the cycle where one week of unusual listening reshapes your Home page for the next month.
It could also address a long-running complaint about Spotify Wrapped. Because Wrapped is built on listening history, shared usage or background audio can distort a user’s year-end summary. People often notice the distortion only when Wrapped appears — and by then it is too late to correct it.
If Taste Profile becomes editable, Spotify is giving users a way to correct the model before it affects Wrapped and weekly recommendations. The natural language control approach is also important: instead of forcing users to dig through settings or block hundreds of tracks manually, Spotify is letting them express intent in simple terms like “less sleep sounds” or “more Pakistani pop.”
For users, the practical advice is straightforward once the feature arrives in your market: review your Taste Profile after periods when other people used your account, or when you used Spotify for non‑music purposes. Cleaning the profile occasionally could keep Discover Weekly and Made For You playlists closer to what you actually enjoy.
