Terrestrial and satellite radio, be warned: Spotify sees your morning zoo shows and wants a piece of that action. The streaming music service has just launched a new playlist, expressly for U.S. listeners, calledYour Daily Drive— a mix of music and news aimed at giving car-bound commuters another option for their long stints behind the wheel. The playlist will take short-form podcast news updates fromThe Wall Street Journal,NPR, andPRIand mix them with curated music that’s chosen from your existing musical interests, effectively creating a personalized radio station that will be different for every listener.
Spotify saysYour Daily Drivewill be updated throughout the day, and “combines music you love with relevant, timely world updates from reputable sources – all put together in a seamless and unified listening experience.” The company claims that “Americans log 70 billion hours behind the wheel each year, with a big chunk of that time spent commuting to and from work or school,” which not only explains the motivation behind the creation ofYour Daily Drive, but also sheds some light on why the company is experimenting with itsCar Thing— a voice-enabled in-car device that will give Spotify greater insights into its listeners’ habits while commuting.
Your Daily Driveis much more than a new playlist. It’s Spotify’s first real test to see if it can get a key audience — car-based commuters — to abandon their favorite radio stations in favor of a personalized listening experience. On the one hand, it’s going to be the musical equivalent of social media’s filter bubble, but then again, as Spotify points out, it’s also “an escape from toggling between multiple stations to avoid music that isn’t quite your speed.”
