Music streaming is supposed to be easy. Tap a button, press the play button, and your choice of music starts playing anywhere and everywhere you want. Be it at your work desk, while driving, or when traveling, you catch my drift.
Music streaming is supposed to make music accessible. But if you’ve used YouTube Music as your streaming service of choice, you’ll know that there are sufficient hurdles in the way of that simplicity.
Playlists that should reflect your choice in music can quickly take a turn towards chaos. You don’t want any of that to happen when you just want to sit back, relax, and enjoy your carefully chosen tracks.
That’s basically been my biggest frustration with YouTube Music. I’ve spent years curating playlists that felt just right with the right balance of fresh discoveries and old favorites.
I’ve put in the effort of arranging them in an order that matched my personal vibe. And then, YouTube Music comes barging in and changes things up, completely switching the vibe.
Something had to change. That’s when I discovered this secret setting that brought me back full control over my playlists. It’s so simple that it’ll probably surprise you.
The problem with automatic playlists
When the algorithm gets it wrong, it gets it really wrong
Okay, here’s the deal. As great as YouTube Music is with its vast library of audio tracks and videos, it has some inherent issues.
By default, it automatically appends fresh tracks to the end of your playlist. And while these tracks might follow the general theme or trend, they rarely, if ever, truly fit the mood.
Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden are both metal, but I wouldn’t necessarily place them in the same wheelhouse as far as the mood and vibe of the music goes.
Even though the system uses your listening history, tracks that you like or skip, and even your activity on YouTube to inform its choices, for me, it’s mostly been pretty off.
Similarly, all too often, a heavy metal workout playlist veers into acoustic ballads that completely break my flow. I get it, 80s hair metal bands were big on ballads, but there’s a reason my playlist only has the high-velocity stuff.
Since YouTube Music doesn’t understand that specific context, or let you get granular with BPM-based music curation, what you get are more skips than hits.
I simply cannot trust the system to work as well as I need it to. It’s too much of a gamble.
The hidden setting that fixes everything
One toggle to fix your playlists
Thankfully, the fix is easy and hidden right under YouTube Music’s playlist queue.
When you start a playlist, tap the queue button. In YouTube Music, this button is labeled as Up Next.
Now, scroll down this list till you land on the Autoplay option. By default, this setting is turned on and automatically adds music based on a similar genre to your current playlist. This allows YouTube Music to freely append its algorithm-driven choices to whatever you are listening to.
All you do is tap it off, and that’s it. Now, your playlist will only play the music that you add to it. The order of content will be exactly what you set on it. And when the last track has finished playing, the playlist stops instead of pulling in music from sources other than your personal additions.
That’s all it takes to wrestle back control from YouTube’s overzealous recommendation algorithms and build playlists that are perfectly suited to how you actually listen to music.
Why it’s so important
Consistency beats the algorithms
This might sound like an incredibly simple tweak. And, to be fair, it is. But that’s the beauty of a simple trick that can completely transform your listening experiences.
I come from the mixtape generation, and to me, playlists are deeply personal. I’m not a fan of algorithms and AI taking over my music listening experience. And it’s not just YouTube. Practically every music streaming service employs its own version of AI-driven playlist enhancement.
This list of tracks isn’t just music, but carefully curated experiences revolving around my interest in music, vibe at the gym, travel, and even mood. By switching off recommendations, YouTube Music respects the boundaries of what I’ve created.
Moreover, there is consistency to consider. With AI-based recommendations taking over my personal playlists, there is simply no way for me to replicate the exact same music listening experience every single time. I could get a new set of music the very next day.
A self-curated playlist also solves the problem of recommendation fatigue. If you’re deep into the music streaming world, you’ll have experienced it already.
Music recommendation tends to revolve around the same predictable list of chart toppers. Invariably, there’s a lot of fatigue that comes from being presented with the same loop of songs again and again instead of tracks that I’ve intentionally chosen.
Auto recommendations can make a lot of sense
Recommendations still have a place
All that said, there are instances where automatic recommendations still make sense. For example, if you are in the mood to discover new artists or deep cuts, tapping the autoplay option is a solid choice.
Similarly, if you are hosting a party and want to play some Top 40s, or just modern pop, you can’t really go wrong with the AI recommendations, since these invariably pull out popular tracks.
Basically, any time you want music to play in the background without any critical listening or curation needed, autoplay can be a handy way to add something fresh to your everyday mix.
Finally, if your playlist is looking a bit empty, I’ve found autoplay to be a pretty good way to get some similar-sounding recommendations.
Basically, using the toggle should be a choice, allowing you to pick the music listening journey you want — curated or discovery-focused.
How switching off autoplay transformed my music listening experience
Flipping the switch on autoplay has completely changed my music listening habits as far as YouTube Music is concerned.
To begin with, my playlists are back in my control. That’s important because some of these playlists have been curated over years of manual rating in iTunes and other offline music listening apps. I don’t want these things to change.
With autoplay turned off, I no longer worry about whether the vibe of the music will be disrupted in the middle of a listening session. That’s especially important to me when I’m running a marathon with a carefully curated, BPM-matched playlist.
Broadly speaking, I just trust the app a lot more, and consequently have started using it more often as my default music listening app.
It’s also allowed me to rediscover gems from my own library. Deep cuts that I’d forgotten about, as I’m no longer always listening to a popular new recommendation.
But, most importantly, as an audiophile, it reminds me of the value of intentional, critical listening. I’m no longer beholden to algorithmic background playback. When I’m at my desk, I put on a curated playlist of masterfully mixed tracks with no fears of it being overridden by a jarring remix.
Much as I appreciate how algorithms can help you discover new music or step out of your comfort zone, there’s beauty in sticking to the known and appreciating manual curation. Switching off autoplay lets you do that.
