When it comes to playlists, it's all about organization, and each streaming platform has its own system. To make our playlist data more useful for users, we figured it was time for an update to how we categorize playlists for each DSP on Chartmetric!

Here's how it works

To view our new playlist categorizations, click on the Playlists list, or head to an artist page and select the Playlists tab on the left-hand side. From here, you are presented with the option to choose from five different streaming platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Deezer, and Amazon Music. Each Playlist Type dropdown menu is designed to match the playlist ecosystem of each platform, with Spotify being the most robust.

Spotify

As usual, you can filter Spotify playlists by country, genre, curator, follower count, and frontline/catalog, but we've expanded the Playlist Type dropdown to include more informative sub-categories within the Platform-Owned, Non-Platform-Owned, and User Generated categories.

Platform-Owned Playlists are created and managed by Spotify.

• Editorial: Playlists curated by Spotify's editorial team.
• Editorial Personalized: Playlists that feature a fixed set of songs picked by Spotify's editorial team but also have a number of adaptive tracks based on individual listeners' habits.
• Charts: Playlists that are chart-based.
• This is...: If you've earned one of these playlists, congrats! "This is..." playlists are a compilation of an artist's greatest hits.
• New Music Friday: Playlists that refresh every week with new music that drops on Friday.
• Radio/Station: Algorithmically-driven playlists based on any song, album, playlist, or artist a user selects.
• Algorithmic: Playlists that are customized for each user.

Non-Platform-Owned Playlists are curated by major labels, commercial brands, or popular independent curators.

• Major Label: Playlists curated by major labels (Sony, Warner, and Universal) and their associated brands (Filtr, Topsify, and Digster).
• Commercial Brand: Playlists curated by the commercial brands on the Chartmetric Brands page.
• Popular Independent Curator: Playlists curated by users with 100K+ followers in playlist reach.

User-Generated Playlists include any other playlist not found in the above categories.

• Independent Curator: Playlists curated by everyday users.
• Audiobook/Spoken Word: Playlists featuring users reading books or speaking.

Apple Music

Our Apple Music section has a very similar layout to our Spotify section; however, because Apple has a less diverse set of playlist categories, there are fewer Playlist Types here.

Platform-Owned Playlists are created and managed by Apple Music.

• Editorial: Playlists curated by the Apple Music's editorial team.
• Apple-Owned: Playlists curated by an Apple brand, e.g. Shazam.
• Charts: Playlists that are chart-based.

Non-Platform-Owned Playlists are curated by brands not associated with Apple.

• Music Brand: Brands that are strongly related to music, e.g., record labels.
• Non-Music Brand: Commercial brands that aren't directly related to music.

User-Generated Playlists include any other playlist not found in the above categories.

• Independent Curator: Playlists curated by everyday users.
• Personality/Artist: Playlists that are created by artists or public figures.

YouTube, Deezer, and Amazon

For the rest of the streaming platforms on our Playlists list, the Playlist Types remain a bit more broad — in part because these playlist ecosystems can be more complicated. Deezer and Amazon's editorial playlists, for instance, tend to be more focused on a market- and region-specific strategy.

But fret not! As we continue to improve the platform, we'll continue to bring new updates to these platforms as well, bringing you the most advanced, customizable playlist database in the world.