My YouTube Music recommendations are really hitting the sweet spot

YouTube Music has unexpectedly surprised me and in a good way. It’s become my go-to music streaming service, supplanting Spotify and Tidal on my phone. I find YouTube Music has an uncanny ability to consistently deliver the perfect song at the perfect time. This realization hit me last week when I was out for a walk and opened YouTube Music without a thought. I skipped past the other apps because I just knew it would deliver exactly what I wanted to hear.

This is all the more surprising when you consider I’ve been a vocal critic of YouTube Music, particularly with its clunky integration of podcasts. I was a die-hard fan of Google Play Music, but YTM’s curated mood playlists, the music tuner, the Shorts-like “Sample” function, and that uncanny algorithm have finally won me over.

The turning point

My newfound love of YouTube Music didn’t happen overnight

Over time, Google added a number of features and refinements that gradually convinced me of YouTube Music’s benefits. I think the turning point was when I started using the “Your Music Tuner” feature. This appeared in the middle of the app sometime over the past few months and allows me to fine-tune my recommendations by selecting my favorite artists and genres from a seemingly endless list. It’s my own personal DJ.

The difference between YouTube Music’s and Spotify’s implementation is that the former allows me to continuously update and tweak my preferences. Google knows tastes change.

Those tastes are often fueled by moods, and the curated mood playlists along the top of the app are pure fire. I listen to YTM a lot while I’m working, and tapping on “Focus” takes me right to the music I need. Google has knocked this one out of the park.

The algorithm is magic

This is one Google algorithm that actually works

YouTube Music’s algorithm has a sixth sense for music. Lately, I’ve found it superior to Spotify’s, and that’s saying something. All I need to do is tap one of the suggested playlists or the Discover Mix and let the app work its magic. I find it generates a great blend of old favorites and new discoveries.

Sure, Spotify does this, too, but somehow, over the past month or two, YouTube Music is doing it better. We reported on what Google was doing to improve the service back in April. Well, it seems that work is not only ongoing, but paying off.

Spotify fans are going to dump on me for this, and someone is bound to point out the obvious. I’ve been using YouTube Music for a while and Google Play Music before that. The algorithm had a long time to learn what I like. But this doesn’t explain why the app couldn’t figure out my preferences until recently. I’ve fed Google years of data, and yet it was always a subpar music experience. Spotify’s algorithm was superior, until now.

Music is more than algorithms

YouTube Music is full of fun little surprises

Google packed YouTube Music full of features over the past year or so and turned it into a music HQ. I’m fond of Samples. It’s like a YouTube Shorts feed but for music. It features short clips of songs I might like that I can swipe through, and when I hear something cool, I can just hit play for the full song.

The monthly recaps are great, too. This gives me a way to look back at my listening habits for the past couple of months and I can see what I listened to on repeat. The opposite of that is the “Forgotten Favorites” playlist that lets me rediscover songs I haven’t listened to in a long time.

Considering I uploaded my entire MP3 collection (thousands of songs) to Google Play Music ten years ago, this allows me to go back and relive my mid-2010s life. I listened to “Summer” by Calvin Harris a lot, if you’re curious.

Another of my favorite things is the suggested playlists that appear as I scroll. The algorithm somehow guesses what I want based on the time of day. They’re eerily accurate.

The podcast problem

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows

One thing that’s not accurate or pleasant about YouTube Music is the podcast experience. Maybe I’m getting old, but I prefer a dedicated podcast app. I don’t like how Spotify integrates podcasts (amongst other things), and I don’t like YouTube Music doing it, either.

It seems like both apps are trying to jam everything in there. I get it. One app for all your audio needs. But to me, it feels cluttered and unintuitive. I particularly don’t like how YouTube Music continues to push podcast videos instead of audio.

YouTube Music versus the rest

Am I losing my Spotify religion?

Seeing as neither Spotify nor YouTube Music will get off my lawn any time soon, I’m still stuck between the two. I also use Tidal because I love its high-quality lossless music. But I don’t use a DAC with my phone and I don’t own a DAP, so Tidal is useless on anything but my PC. My only other music subscriptions are Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music, but right now, I love YouTube Music the most.

It’s not just its algorithm, although that’s a big part of it. I find its visual interface more appealing. Spotify feels a little stagnant as of late. I’m not getting great recommendations, and the app continues to surface the same songs over and over. There’s no spark anymore.

What’s next for YouTube Music?

So, am I breaking up with Spotify? I don’t know. Truth be told, I pay too much for all this streaming. At the end of the day, I just want a musical companion that meets my needs. I want a combination of personalized playlists, great discovery, an intuitive algorithm, and neat features, all in an easy-to-navigate package.

And right now, that’s YouTube Music.