[AmericanChopper]

I think spotify's playlists are quite decent. I think they used to be a lot better than they are now, but I suspect that most recommendation systems decay over time. I suspect they don't handle the recommendation feedback very well, so they can start off introducing people to new things, but then become a bit more static and just reinforce the same habits over and over.

I think YouTube's recommendations used to be excellent, especially for music, but I've personally found it to be terrible recently. It no longer recommends anything new to me, and I suspect that it's way over-tuned. If I see a video that looks mildly interesting I'm a bit hesitant to watch it, because I don't want YT to decide that it should become 50% of my feed for the next week. Which from the recommendation system's perspective is just weakening the signal I'm feeding to it even further.

[techaudible83]

This is an interesting point and I wonder if part of the issue is that a mature, extremely popular algorithm trends towards the lowest common denominator. I don't mean this as a judgement of taste, it just seems to me that people engage with art in different ways. Maybe the spotify algorithm is perfectly tuned to the majority of people who just want to be able to find more songs that fit the kind of sound they like or find something to throw on in the background. But for a significant minority of others like myself and OP, it's just not tuned to what we actually want from new music.

I also feel the same as you regarding the youtube algorithm. I actually get better recommendations sometimes by just logging out since it will try showing me new stuff.

One thing I'm not sure about is whether it's actually the algorithm's fault or if my expectations have become unrealistic and made me lazy. I used to read magazines and blogs to find new music. There are still tons of people writing about their favorite music, labels that act as curators, etc. I just don't seek them out and instead expect to be spoonfed by the algorithms. Even if this is true though, I suspect many of these algorithms could do a better job.

Also RIP Netflix's old recommendation system. I guess it wouldn't make sense when they can't license every movie like they used to, but I remember it being great. Although maybe it was just pretty good and I was younger and less familiar with the back catalog of good films.

That's the other thing I wonder - am I just getting older and less excited about new things? There used to be a real vitality to finding something new and exciting. Now it kind of feels hard for anything to feel that fresh anymore, it all seems like variations on the same core ideas. I do still find new stuff that I like, but it doesn't have the same thrill. Maybe I'll always be chasing that dragon of youth haha.