There's a playlist on Spotify I love called Discover Weekly. It's updated every Monday with a mix of songs, some I know and some I've never heard, crossing into almost every genre saves spotify with no discernible pattern. Like magic, it just knows what I want to hear.The nine-year-old streaming service has doubled its paid subscribers to 20 million in the past year, and has an additional 55 million free users who sit through occasional ads and forgo the ability to play any song in an album or playlist without shuffle enabled.
What's most remarkable is that Spotify is seeing this kind of growth and buzz during what was supposed to be the summer of Apple Music. While Apple claims its new service can sort through millions of streamable songs better than anyone else, thanks to the help of human tastemakers, Spotify has kept pace and more with a series of innovations ranging from Discover Weekly - launched in July - to its own human-powered playlists. We visited Spotify's New York office to see how the Swedish company is trying to make the most personalized music listening experience ever.