Spotify’s latest feature shines a light on undiscovered artists.

Spotify has launched a new music discovery service called Fresh Finds, which aims to shine a light on artists before they make it big.

Updated every Wednesday, Fresh Finds takes the form of automatically curated playlists that find new artists based on listener behaviour, “digging deeper to understand how undiscovered artists can attract a huge fan base,” according to Spotify’s Dr. Brian Whitman.

The feature works by combining what’s trending on blogs and news sites with Spotify listening data, and allows the streaming service to identify listening patterns among its more ahead-of-the-curve listeners.

“By analyzing the listening behavior of our top tastemaker users, we’re able to predict new breakout artists and filter their hits-to-be into playlists with the most promising new music out there,” Whitman explains.

The features launches today (March 2) with six playlists to choose from: Fire Emoji (hip-hop), Basement (electronic), Hiptronix (vocal pop), Six Strings (guitar driven), Cyclone (experimental) and the more general Fresh Finds, focusing on “breakout tracks” across the other five playlists.

Fresh Finds is the latest music discovery technology to be unveiled by Spotify, which last year launched Discover Weekly, a regular playlist based on listening habits that generally offers up suggestions from more established artists.

First impressions of the playlists suggest the music on offer should be just as good as Discover Weekly, but there’s still some kinks to iron out. This week’s electronic playlist includes tracks from Kate Simko and IDM veteran Jega, neither of whom could be classified as an emerging artist.

Similarly, the experimental playlist includes tracks from Tri Angle artist Brood Ma and Diagonal’s Not Waving, both of whom are likely to be familiar names to regular FACT readers. For the average user though, the selections on offer will probably be enough to make Fresh Finds a regular listen.

If you don’t need Spotify’s music discover tool, the company last year launched beat-matched party playlists.

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