How to fix your Spotify algorithm in under 5 minutes

How to fix your Spotify algorithm in under 5 minutes Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police | Davidovici / Shutterstock By  Rahul Naskar Published Feb 4, 2026, 9:30 AM EST Rahul Naskar has years of experience writing news and features related to Android, phones, and apps. Outside the tech world, he follows global events and developments shaping the world of geopolitics. Sign in to your Android Police account Add Us On Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

It's hard to develop a music streaming platform that works for everyone, and the same applies to Spotify. Some people love it, while others prefer YouTube Music, or others listen to music and podcasts.

Users have different reasons to prefer a specific platform over the other, but one of the most common causes is the effectiveness of the algorithm.

However, the algorithm is often held responsible for everything wrong, when it's actually something to do with how it plays songs.

The algorithm wouldn't magically play an unfamiliar song that would become your favorite one. You'll need to train it in such a way, and a few missteps can break things, turning your music listening experience into a nightmare.

This is true for any music streaming platform, including Spotify. However, what makes Spotify stand out is its unique ability to allow users to fix the algorithm quickly.

You can fix your Spotify algorithm in under five minutes. Here is how.

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Signal Spotify that you want specific songs to have less impact on recommendations

The algorithm learns from your interaction with the app and shows you more of what you engaged with the most. It happens behind the scenes and takes a lot of cues from the users' interactions.

However, you don't have to worry about all of that on Spotify, as you can explicitly show your disapproval of certain songs that you don't like or want to have less impact on your recommendations.

The first step would be to find what music you have listened to in recent times, and then identify the tracks that no longer match your taste. Tap the profile icon and select Recents to do this.

It'll show your listening history from the past three months, so a couple of minutes is usually enough to skim through the list and identify what no longer works for you.

However, don't make the mistake of going through the list twice.

If you spot a track that you don't want to influence your recommendations, exclude it from the taste profile before going any deeper into the history. Exclude tracks one by one as you scroll through the list.

To do this, tap the three-dot view option and select the Exclude tracks from your taste profile option.

The next step will be to play or search for artists and genres of playlists you want to listen to more of.

The ability to exclude tracks from the taste profile lets the bad stuff go away, while deliberately playing and searching for things you like makes way for better recommendations.

This can all be done in well under five minutes. You'll likely still have a couple of minutes left, which you can use to reinforce your habits, which can lead to sound recommendations.

Don't let your music identity slip

Spotify can still make errors in correctly judging your taste, even after you exclude something from the taste profile. If you don't like something, skip the song quickly, preferably under 30 seconds.

It sends a strong signal to Spotify that you don't like the song, and it's quicker than telling Spotify to exclude tracks from your taste profile.

After skipping the song in a recommendation feed, you can always go back and exclude it from your taste profile. It'll be even more effective than skipping alone.

You also need to add your favorite tracks to Liked Songs, replay songs, artists, and play songs fully. If you have your own playlists on Spotify, add your favorite songs to the one where they would fit in perfectly.

These are all positive signals, and Spotify learns from them to recommend better songs.

You can also use the remaining time to follow your favorite artists. This action tells Spotify to recommend more songs from that artist.

Similarly, try to recall the name of the artist that you no longer enjoy listening to. Unfollow those that you don't enjoy anymore.

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Take control of your Spotify feed - subscribe to the newsletter for practical, actionable tips on training the algorithm, curating playlists, and using privacy features so your recommendations match your taste. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

All these won't take more than five minutes, but you might need to perform these steps once in a while, depending on how fast your taste changes.

My taste in music hasn't changed much in the last five years, so I don't need to set aside five minutes for this every month or year.

Instead, I do a clean-up every time I come from a family gathering or a meetup with friends, or places where I'm the music host. This is when my listening history fills up with songs that I won't listen to on my own.

Stop bad signals before they reach your Spotify algorithm

I have managed to keep my Spotify recommendations clean while still listening to all my guilty pleasure songs.

I also let my trusted gym partner use my phone and play their favorite songs while my Spotify is connected to the gym's Bluetooth speaker.

I wouldn't have dared to do anything like this had Spotify not offered Private Session, a feature that allows users to listen to music and podcasts anonymously.

Whatever you listen to in a Private Session, it won't affect your algorithm. This way, I prevent bad signals from reaching the algorithm. It doesn't fix your Spotify algorithm, but it prevents it from getting worse.

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Subscribe to the newsletter for smarter Spotify control

Take control of your Spotify feed - subscribe to the newsletter for practical, actionable tips on training the algorithm, curating playlists, and using privacy features so your recommendations match your taste. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. Trending Now YouTube Music finally fixes one of its biggest friction points I used a clever free tool and Gemini's smarts to unlock the Oura Ring's full potential The latest Pixel software issues raise old concerns