August 14, 2013 archive

Amused By Spotify’s Clever Suggestions of Popular Music "When You Were In School"

Working in a home office, I've found that I enjoy having Spotify on in the background playing a much larger range of music than what I have in my own collection. I have found the "Discover" tab to be quite a useful way to learn of newer bands that I have never heard of before. I did have to laugh yesterday, though, when I encountered this box in the Discover tab:

Spotify suggestions

Yes, indeed, as any child of the '80s can attest, both of those were quite popular... I remember a summer around 1985 when it seemed like every radio station (remember them?) had "Money For Nothing" on near-constant repeat.

Similarly, Spotify noted that songs were "huge when you were a teenager", such as:

Spotify huge

And I do remember, and still play, that Billy Joel song, although I'll admit that I don't really remember that Eddie Murphy song at all.

Regardless, it's definitely a clever and fun way that Spotify is using my age data to help highlight songs that I might want to listen to again.

If you have been using Spotify's Discover tab, have you rediscovered some old songs this way?


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TDYR #027 – 10 Years Ago Today, The Massive Power Blackout In US And Canada

10 years ago today, on August 14, 2003, there was a massive power outage that affected Ontario, Canada, and much of the northeastern United States. In this episode I reflect on where I was that day and some of my thoughts around that event, as well as what it means for complex systems. More information about the event can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003