Spotify activity recommendations

I don’t know anything about Hozier, but I have heard there song Take Me to Church hundreds of times. Coffee shops, airports, Walgreens, this song is omnipresent. On one hand, I have to tip my hat to them because it must be nice getting a royalty check every time 7/11 plays your banger over some broken speakers at 2 am, but I also wish there was a bit more diversity in the corporate playlists that dominate most stores these days.

I’ll stop here, because you don’t read this to hear me yap about music. You’re hear for the ideas.

As I was thinking of concepts for tomorrow, I wanted to make a concept for Spotify, as it’s been a while. I scrolled through the home page and saw a Cheesecake Factory menu of options including rock, metal, rap, audiobooks, podcasts, and upsells for concert tickets. This product has gotten complex.

The idea of upsells is fascinating to me. Not every artist plays live shows, so I wonder how Spotify could push “activities” based on the music they produce. If you take this literally, I wonder what it would look like for Spotify to recommend churches if you listened to Take Me to Church.

I assume this would not be received well by Hozier or their fans. There’s also a million questions about what churches, religions, denominations, etc would get recommended. It’s one of those ideas that start from a bit I create in my head and can’t help but mock up.

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