Yandex Music introduced a new recommendation algorithm in the “Unfamiliar” setting in the “My Wave” section, the company’s press service reported. The algorithm specializes in finding artists that the listener is not familiar with.
As Yandex Music’s head of recommendations Alexander Safronov explains, the updated setting is specifically designed for active search for new tracks, shifting the flow of recommendations to unknown artists.
“Without additional settings, “My Wave” offers both new tracks and tracks the user has already listened to at an affordable rate. There is a place for both discoveries and favorite compositions,” noted Alexander Safronov.
The company emphasized that thanks to the update, users added 20% more new tracks to the collection from artists they did not know before, and this expanded their musical horizons.
The new version of the setting received a separate sorting algorithm. It is trained not only to look for tracks the listener is unfamiliar with, but also to suggest tracks he or she might like better.
Thanks to this, the “Unfamiliar” setting more often finds new tracks that the user will like from the first listen and add to the “Collection”.
The company believes that this will allow artists to quickly grow their audience on Yandex Music and find listeners who not only discover their tracks, but also add them to the collection.
Yandex Music also noted that “Unfamiliar” suggests new genres more often. The algorithm also takes into account listeners’ preferences and seamlessly suggests relevant directions, without sharply switching between incompatible genres.