YouTube My Mix: New Personalized Playlists Like Spotify's Daily Mixes

YouTube Music is implementing a new feature inspired by Spotify, introducing a series of customized playlists that function similarly to Spotify’s “Daily Mixes.” These new “My Mix” playlists are designed to reflect different facets of a user’s musical preferences and interests, enabling them to explore specific moods or genres.

The platform will showcase up to seven of these “My Mix” playlists on the Home screen, according to the company, blending familiar songs with potential new discoveries.

Alongside this launch, YouTube is also renaming its existing personalized playlist, previously known as “Your Mix.” To avoid ambiguity with the newly introduced “My Mix” playlists and to more clearly define its function, this playlist will now be called “My Supermix.” It will consolidate a user’s complete musical taste into a single playlist, mirroring the functionality of Spotify’s “Discover Weekly.”

YouTube is also introducing further modifications to its Home tab and personalized content selections.

The Home tab will now include an activity bar providing quick access to four categories: Workout, Focus, Relax, and Commute. Selecting one of these will direct the user to a dedicated, personalized homepage featuring playlists tailored to that specific activity. The Workout section, in particular, has been enhanced with up to four new customized mixes, incorporating both songs the user already enjoys and new suggestions. These activity tabs will also feature a “Supermix” combining various playlists.

Customization is a crucial area of competition among music streaming services, as they strive to utilize technology to better serve users through unique mixes and more precise recommendations. Both YouTube and Apple have adopted features similar to Spotify’s, offering their own versions of personalized playlists like Spotify’s popular “Discover Weekly.”

However, YouTube Music has encountered challenges in attracting a substantial user base, potentially due to Google’s past, somewhat convoluted music strategy, which involved offering two separate music applications.

Google has begun to address this issue and is currently transitioning users from its older service, Google Play Music, to YouTube Music. Despite these efforts, YouTube Music has yet to secure a significant market share in the highly competitive music industry, where Spotify and Apple are the leading players.

A MIDiA report from June indicated that Google holds the fifth-largest market share with 6%, trailing behind Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and Tencent. The report also noted that YouTube Music’s appeal to a younger audience could potentially improve Google’s position, as its share has increased from 3% in the first quarter of 2018 to the first quarter of 2019.

YouTube states that these playlist updates will be available starting today.