In case you didn't know, Spotify categorizes music into genres behind the scenes. You can use this site to find out what genres your favorite artists are categorized as: http://everynoise.com/engenremap.html
You can use this information to then check out Spotify's auto-generated playlists for each genre. They have at least three types for each one: "The Sound of <genre>", containing definitive representation of the genre, "The Pulse of <genre>", containing songs that fans of the genre listen to now, and "The Edge of <genre>", with unpopular songs (not necessarily of the same genre) that fans of the genre listen to.
This has been a great way for me to find new music that I like, especially "The Pulse". I even created a small script that takes a spotify playlist as input, parses all the artists, converts to genres, and creates a new playlist with "recommendations" based on the Pulse playlists, with each genre represented based on its percentage in the initial playlist.
Basically, I never use Discover Weekly, because I know it will eventually converge just like all my Pandora stations that cycle through the same 20 songs after a few months.
> You can use this site to find out what genres your favorite artists are categorized as
That's my problem right there: my favorite song right now is a musician's piano cover of one of his own songs. His music is usually electronic, which I don't like, but I love this one song. So Spotify will recommend me electronic music from other artists, which of course does not fit my song.
Repeat for every author. I liked one song from a German musician, and now half the recommendations are German music. While I can see why network relations make sense, I wish I could say "give me a similar song, not a similar artist".
Usually on the "Sound of.." playlist there is a link to the Pulse and Edge in the description. Otherwise the genre might be too obscure and a playlist for it not generated. Also, the "Sound of" playlists are stored under the "Sounds of Spotify" account, while the pulse and edge under "Particle Detector", so you might try searching directly in that profile.
I've been using Discover Weekly for a few years now and haven't had that problem. The only annoyance that it sometimes adds a song I already have saved (and therefore have no need to 'discover').
I only use the Discover Weekly list once in a while. I prefer using the Daily Mixes, and my own playlists. It seems to make Spotify match my taste quite well.
You can use this information to then check out Spotify's auto-generated playlists for each genre. They have at least three types for each one: "The Sound of <genre>", containing definitive representation of the genre, "The Pulse of <genre>", containing songs that fans of the genre listen to now, and "The Edge of <genre>", with unpopular songs (not necessarily of the same genre) that fans of the genre listen to.
This has been a great way for me to find new music that I like, especially "The Pulse". I even created a small script that takes a spotify playlist as input, parses all the artists, converts to genres, and creates a new playlist with "recommendations" based on the Pulse playlists, with each genre represented based on its percentage in the initial playlist.
Basically, I never use Discover Weekly, because I know it will eventually converge just like all my Pandora stations that cycle through the same 20 songs after a few months.