Let’s say you really miss 2010 and you want to listen to some old-timey chillwave music. Try searching for “chillwave” on Spotify and get ready for a life-hack:
One of the playlist results is called “The Pulse of Chillwave”. It was created by Particle Detector, a very special Spotify user.
Particle Detector is special because it’s not a person, it’s an algorithm.
Particle detector automatically generates these playlists based on what seems like some pretty effective analysis of the genre. They tend to contain a good mix of familiar and new tracks from that genre.
Pulse Playlists are updated constantly
If you’re like me, then you hate hearing tired, rinsed tracks come up in your playlists. I’m only happy with a constant stream of music that I’ve never heard before.
New tracks are added to pulse playlists every 3–4 days or so, so the tracks are fresh as heck. Thanks, computers!
The number of genres will probably shock you
Check out Every Noise for map of all of Particle Detector’s genres. It’s mind-blowing. I’ve still never heard of a vast majority of the genres.
Particle Detector is based on a lot of the same technology from The Echo Nest that powers Discover Weekly, so in some ways it’s like Discover Weekly for power users. As far as I know, the Particle Detector system was created and maintained by Glenn McDonald, who’s a personal hero of mine.
Related: Reddit thread
