Spotify playlists are a surprisingly massive a part of my life. I make a handful of new, curated, choreographed ones for the spin lessons I educate each week and in any other case meticulously keep quarterly playlists designed to symbolize the general vibe of particular, three-month durations in my life. I solely edit these in the course of the 12 weeks of the quarter, then go away them alone so I can revisit them and relive the period. This implies I’m continually twiddling with the current playlist to make it good, trying to find songs that really feel exactly aligned with nonetheless I am feeling. It is really a time-consuming pastime—however I stumbled throughout a function the opposite day that has made creating spin playlists and soundtracking Q1 of 2026 simpler than ever.

The brand new Spotify function

One of the simplest ways I can describe the function I stumbled upon is that it is like Tinder for songs. If you happen to’re listening to a track inside the app, scroll down. Go previous the buttons for Play and Subsequent, previous the Concerning the artist part, previous the lyrics, and cease while you see Discover [artist name]. Then, you may have three choices like Just like [artist name] and Just like [song name], however these can differ barely.

Tapping a kind of opens up the brand new function. Say you select Just like [song name]. You will be given 30 seconds of a track that Spotify’s algorithm considers “comparable” to the one you had been simply listening to, plus the artist’s title, what number of Spotify followers they’ve, and a three-dot menu that may allow you to add the track to your likes, add it to a playlist, go to the artist’s web page, and extra. If you happen to just like the 30-second clip, you’ll be able to add the track to your playlists. If not, you’ll be able to preserve swiping downward to listen to a brand new one.

See the way it’s like Tinder? You make pretty snap selections primarily based on the short preview and few particulars you get, then swipe away should you do not prefer it. I discovered a group discussion board publish on Spotify’s web site about it, however in any other case, not a lot chatter. All I can inform is that it has been out since about Could.

Why I just like the function

I choose this to the opposite music-discovery choices on Spotify as a result of it offers you a fast preview of the track and makes the discovering course of easy. I’m, in fact, a giant fan of the pre-generated Uncover Weekly playlist or New Releases playlist Spotify makes for me each week, nevertheless it’s time-consuming to hearken to all of the songs in them and it is not intuitive to seek out different new songs primarily based on the finite playlists themselves. The 30-second fast hits and straightforward, swipeable dismissal of the brand new function assist me work out if a track is value my time, both for spin class or private use, add it to the suitable playlist in that case, and preserve transferring.

What I particularly like is the three hashtags beneath the artist’s title. They’re style descriptions that match up with no matter track you are previewing and I’ve discovered them useful as a result of I’ve a tough time describing what sort of music I even like. Apparently, per the brand new function, I like one thing known as “pace storage.” Tapping the #speedgarage hashtag that seems within the track previews brings me to one other scrollable preview pane stuffed with, solely, extra pace storage—no matter that truly is. I nonetheless cannot outline it, however I discovered I prefer it, and that alone is extra helpful than a yr’s value of Uncover Weekly playlists.

I used this function throughout my Uber experience to the airport the opposite day and, by the point I used to be by TSA, I had 29 new songs in my Q1 playlist. I listened to them on the aircraft, weeded out ones that did not match the quarterly vibe properly sufficient, then despatched it to my associates, who all gave the gathering rave critiques like, and I quote, “this slaps.”