(Please see the reply I left to Krasnol). So, if you just gave me a search-bar and have me play music, it would be post-rock or metal. And what I get on spotify is a bunch of post rock and black/death metal. Which is fine, but predictable and kinda boring.
But youtube manages to recommend to me things that aren't in my alley, but I somehow end up loving.
And the latest weird recommendation a San Jose band called Sunami.
Oh And This! - https://youtu.be/cIMKJ43TFLs?t=76
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I wouldn't be searching for any of that on my own. But I love all of it (ended buying merch from quite a few "youtube recommended" artists). To me that is as successful a recommendation system as it can be. It shows me things I didn't even know I 'd love! From Jazz, to Funk, to Ambient, to SovietWave goth, to psychedelic rock, the list is always expanding.... I was never that open minded, but now I am. Maybe this is more on me and how my personality evolved through the years than on youtube's recommendations...
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But you can see that many people had the same happen to them by how popular comments like this are -> "You didnt find this video. It found you." Or "I would love to know what I did to make this come up in my suggested videos. Holy shit this is awesome!"
I reckon part of why it works well in this case is, because they are relatively popular (tens of thousands to millions of views) songs in somewhat niche genre. So maybe more similarity between users? In more mainstream genres, say Hip Hop, Rock, Metal, EDM i feel it is much harder to break out of the loop of sameishness although the genres have much more to offer.
Also in either case, I'm pretty sure, the vast majority of songs out there have sub 10k views and basically never get recommended. Just top of mind a few songs, that based on the list above you might like, but I think I would never have discovered via algorithms, unless I already happend to start quite close.
Ok, the last one is fairly large, but it came to mind :) I do discover quite a bit of new music on YouTube, but only when I deliberately select a starting song and go from there, on the main page there is rarely something interesting. If there is music at all. I'm sure it would get a lot better if I'd listen music primarily via YouTube.
But youtube manages to recommend to me things that aren't in my alley, but I somehow end up loving.
(just a random sample from music) "Heilung - Lifa" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BsKIP4uYM
"The caretaker at the end of time" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJWksPWDKOc&t=10573s
"Babe Rainbow - Secret Enchanted Broccoli Forest" - https://youtu.be/lh2qHxUDt6o?t=26
A whole new genre called DungeonSynth - https://youtu.be/E9R-vzIe8x0
And one called Witchhouse - https://youtu.be/6XIlNP-c4Ds
And Sovietwave goth - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZZSyO28RUg
Uhh, drum n bass n sax?? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G55GspnNkBo
And the latest weird recommendation a San Jose band called Sunami.
Oh And This! - https://youtu.be/cIMKJ43TFLs?t=76 ---- I wouldn't be searching for any of that on my own. But I love all of it (ended buying merch from quite a few "youtube recommended" artists). To me that is as successful a recommendation system as it can be. It shows me things I didn't even know I 'd love! From Jazz, to Funk, to Ambient, to SovietWave goth, to psychedelic rock, the list is always expanding.... I was never that open minded, but now I am. Maybe this is more on me and how my personality evolved through the years than on youtube's recommendations...
---
But you can see that many people had the same happen to them by how popular comments like this are -> "You didnt find this video. It found you." Or "I would love to know what I did to make this come up in my suggested videos. Holy shit this is awesome!"
Curious, ain't it?