I have a complicated relationship with music streaming algorithms. On one hand, the convenience of having the world’s music catalog in my pocket is undeniable. It is the dream we were sold in the early 2010s, and for the most part, it has delivered. But the algorithmic magic that services like Spotify and Apple Music rely on feels less like a discovery tool and more like a feedback loop. I’ve complained enough about Spotify’s repetitive recommendations before. While Spotify keeps trying to surface new and innovative variations on generative playlists, the fact of the matter is my “Daily Mixes” are just the same 50 songs I listened to last week, reshuffled. The “Smart Shuffle” feature seems hellbent on pushing the same trending tracks that labels are paying to promote, regardless of whether they fit the vibe that I’m going for. Suffice it to say that it certainly doesn’t feel like the personal DJ that it calls itself on the label. And sure, YouTube Music’s recommendations might be ahead of Spotify, but even that isn’t entirely clued into what I’m looking for.
My Spotify Daily Mixes are just the same 50 songs I listened to last week, reshuffled.
That frustration has led me back to my roots – my local music library. I have spent years curating a massive collection of FLACs and MP3s, hosted on a Plex server that sits in my home office. It is a treasure trove of deep cuts, unreleased demos, and specific versions of tracks that streaming services simply don’t have. But Plex has always lacked one thing that sets streaming services apart – the ability to automagically generate playlists for me. It plays what I tell it to play, nothing more. It doesn’t know that when I want to create a playlist titled “Neon Pulse Riot,” I’m referring to a mood, not just a genre tag. Plex used to have an OpenAI integration, but since that does a whole lot of nothing today, it’s back to being just a really good dumb music player.
