Spotify Unveils Playlists For Pets
Soon there will be a Spotify playlist for every single aspect of your life. Today, the streaming giant unveiled their latest algorithmic concoction: playlists for your pets. The idea seems to be that owners play music for their pets quite a bit, and now Spotify thinks they’ve devised a way to more perfectly curate it to what your animal friend might actually enjoy.
You start by choosing your kind of pet: dog, cat, hamster, bird, or iguana. (I was kind of surprised that iguana was the fifth option. Spotify must have data informing that decision, but that many of you have pet iguanas?) Then you fill in a bit more about their personality — for example, is your cat more relaxed or energetic? Shy or friendly? Then it syncs with your own listening habits and, boom, apparently I’m supposed to play Katy Perry’s “Never Really Over” but also Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s “The Emancipation Procrastination” for my cat.
While this might seem … if not totally scientifically dubious, then maybe a bit frivolous, Spotify supposedly did put some real thought into this before just letting the algorithm do its thing. Billboard details how Spotify found 71 percent of owners play music for their pets, and collaborated with people like David Teie, a musicologist who’s composed two albums of music for cats. And apparently, there have been studies that aimed to determine what kind of music certain animals like.
Below, you can check out Spotify commercials advertising the new feature, and then you can head over to Spotify itself and see if you and your pet discover some new music together.