[______-_-______]

The post is about marketing and ad targeting. For Spotify to satisfy their question of a "brand built through personalization", Spotify would have had to do something like sign up for google/facebook ads, target the demographic of "music listeners" and convert enough users to end up with a successful business. That's not how spotify built their business.

You're talking about their recommendation engine for users they already have, which is completely different.

[libertine]

Exactly this.

We also have to take into account that there's a lot of "misses" in those recommendation engines - which is normal. But when they nail it, people have positive emotions towards it, so it's a good feedback loop.

Personalization would be to have Spotify recommend you only songs about expensive watches after you've searched for a Rolex on Google, with ads in the middle about Rolex ahaha.

[blueblob]

Personalization would be to have Spotify give you ads for a Rolex right after you purchased a Rolex. At least the way that kind of thing usually works for me is that I always get the recommendations after the purchase (definitely not a Rolex for me).

[splatcollision]

Spotify is exactly adtech, they have extremely targeted advertising for their free tier that even takes into account playlist names.