Spotify mimics the radio with a news and music playlist for drivers - The Verge

Spotify’s launching a new playlist called Your Daily Drive that will incorporate news podcasts. Starting today, US users will be able to listen to music they already enjoy, alongside new music recommendations, with some news podcast content sprinkled in. Anyone can access the playlist, regardless of whether they’re driving.

The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Public Radio International will provide the news audio clips. News and music will update throughout the day, unlike the platform’s other popular playlists. For instance, Discover Weekly only updates once a week, and other personalized playlists like Your Daily Mix only update once a day.

This new playlist joins other Spotify lists in promoting podcasts. The Verge reported earlier this month that Spotify is testing five different podcast-only playlists that are human-curated. While those playlists are only in the testing phase for five percent of users in various countries, Your Daily Drive is available to all US users.

Today’s playlist also comes a month after Spotify announced its first hardware project — Car Thing — that’s designed to gather data about how people consume audio in the car. Spotify’s auto audio ambitions mean the company can’t just be good at music. This playlist is closer to the radio formula, where news enters the mix of songs every so often — though the new format doesn’t yet include weather and traffic, the two things most relevant to drivers.

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