YouTube Music gets another music discovery tool that Spotify doesn’t have

Although its supremacy is contentious, YouTube Music is easily among the top five music and podcast streaming services globally. Its popularity naturally stems from the fact that it automatically sorts music (or other audio-based media) uploaded to YouTube. While the automatic sourcing already allows you to discover more tracks, including renditions, covers, audiobooks, etc., YouTube Music is adding a new Daily Discover feed to make the process much easier.

We recently learned that Google is testing a new Daily Discover option to recommend new tracks every day based on your preferences. The feature, as spotted by Reddit user One_Flow_8127, is positioned somewhere on the homepage. It appears on top of the “Trending songs for you” section, which appears after several scrolls on YouTube Music’s homepage on the Android app.

Based on the screenshots shared, we can see these recommendations show up in a carousel format, and people can scroll left or right to explore multiple recommendations. The feature shows recommendations for particular soundtracks instead of entire playlists, and also tells you the reason why it is being suggested. However, if you prefer, the suggestions also come with a “Play All” button that should combine all tracks into a new playlist.

The primary motive behind this feature is to learn about new artists and their music, which may be loosely based on your interests and listening habits. While its biggest competitor, Spotify, also offers discovery features, it primarily focuses on familiar artists and dispenses these recommendations in playlists instead of regular tracks.

The daily discover option itself isn’t new and was previously spotted by another Reddit user, BarisberatWNR, about a month ago. However, for them, the recommendations appeared in a different location on the homepage, suggesting YouTube may be testing varied placements to see what is likely to get the most attention. Last month, another user posted in Google’s Community forums about the feature appearing and then being removed from their account.

From what we expect, the daily discover feature could complement or substitute YouTube’s Discover mix, a playlist refreshed weekly instead of daily. To be able to access this weekly discover playlist, you must scroll down on YouTube Music’s homepage and spot it under the “Mixed for you” tab.

This appears to be a limited test for certain users, as many others on the original Reddit post have commented about not receiving it. We can’t access the feature either, and it isn’t easy to ascertain whether this is meant to be an A/B test or a rollout. Further, it appears to have turned it on from the server-side, so updating the app to a newer version will not achieve positive results, though there is no harm in doing so.