Spotify’s Friends Mix playlists are auto-generated mixtapes from your pals

Spotify has announced another new way to mix and match music on its service with your friends. Its new Friends Mix playlist type aims to get you out of your comfort zone with tracks that your friends have been listening to. Unlike Blend, one of its other personalized playlist types that merges a few of your recent faves with some from a pal, Friends Mix is meant to be like getting a big mixtape full of recommendations that all of your friends would give you.

This new playlist type is available globally to premium Spotify subscribers and to those who use its free offering, though it’s currently limited to the iOS and desktop apps (I guess Spotify decided that Android users are friend-less). In order to actually see a Friends Mix within your Made For You hub on the Spotify dashboard, you’ll first need to have created three two-person Blend playlists.

Even as services like Spotify continue to tweak algorithms to enhance discoverability based on your past listening habits, there’s sometimes no better way to find music that you’ll like than relying on the recommendations of a friend. Then again, I’m not so sure that my friends would be particularly jazzed to find a playlist filled with my most listened-to songs of late.