Spotify's Discover Weekly Playlist Has the Hickups

Just when it made its way into the hearts and minds of millions, Spotify's much-talked-about Discover Weekly playlist, that big-data-curated weekly personal playlist tayloring to all your music discovery needs, has got the hick ups. As of 12pm today (local time in the Netherlands), Spotify users have yet to receive their weekly fix, causing dismay in (home) offices and, by extension, on twitter as well.

Spotify have commented via their Customer Service twitter account (@SpotifyCares):

Still seeing last week’s Discover Weekly? We’re just fine-tuning it for you. Check out Fresh Finds while you wait: http://t.co/UOHKY6KtDH

— SpotifyCares (@SpotifyCares) 21 september 2015

Fine-tuning obviously equals some kind of technical defect. So either the server has decided to give up on loading 70 million playlists more or less simultaneously, or the algorithm is showing signs of fatigue. After all, despite the copious amounts of new music being uploaded to Spotify every week, it's hard to keep surprising your clientele with fresh music week after week.

Perhaps the playlists are too long for Spotify to keep check on. While I think 30 songs (or about 2,5 hours) is a good size for a playlist, it might be too much to ask from the Spotify vaults. Alternatively, the algorithm might be too specific or too complex (what with labels covertly buying priority placement on the Discover Weekly playlists and such).

Then again, with programming of this magnitude, one is bound to run into some defect sooner or later. If anything, today's events have shown how much people have grown to rely on Discover Weekly for their new music intake. If it wasn't apparent yet from Spotify's internal user statistics, then they've got their evidence now. Less than two months since the grand reveal, Discover Weekly has become an institution that's sorely missed when suddenly absent from its users' Monday morning.

In some office somewhere in  Spotify HQ, I imagine Spotify's Head of Content, Steve Savoca, smiling mischievously at all the ruckus today. Technical issues are temporary, but Discover Weekly might just last forever.