How to Get Music Recommendations Based on Artists and Albums You Already Love
Start with one artist or album you already love, then expand along three concrete threads: similar artists, genre tags, and release timing. Tools like Unchartify are built for exactly this — you enter a favorite artist or album and explore similar music through interactive flowcharts, with instant playback that works on both Spotify Premium and Free subscriptions. The method below works whether or not you use a dedicated tool; the tool mainly saves you the guesswork of where to click next.
Why starting from a favorite beats starting from a blank feed
A generic "recommended for you" feed has no anchor. You can't tell why a track appeared, so you can't steer. Starting from a known artist or album gives you a reference point you can compare against: is this new track similar in sound, in era, in mood, or just in popularity?
That reference point also makes it easier to reject things quickly. If a recommendation shares nothing with your anchor, you can move on without second-guessing.
The three expansion threads
1. Similar artists
This is the most direct path. Take your anchor artist and look for acts that share listeners, collaborators, or production style.
- Check "fans also like" or "related artists" sections on streaming platforms.
- Look at who your anchor artist has toured with, remixed, or been remixed by.
- Follow producer and label connections — the same producer often shapes a recognizable sound across multiple artists.
2. Genre tags
Genres are labels, and labels are searchable. Unchartify's site description notes it covers 5,000+ Spotify-invented genres, which matters because Spotify's genre taxonomy is far more granular than broad categories like "rock" or "electronic."
Use genre tags like this:
- Find the specific subgenre tags attached to your anchor album.
- Browse other releases carrying the same tag.
- Move one step sideways — a neighboring subgenre — rather than jumping to a totally different family.
3. Release timing
New releases and classic releases surface different kinds of recommendations. If you love an album from a specific era, browsing that era's releases often turns up music the algorithm won't push because it's not new.
- For new releases: filter by recent months within your anchor's genre.
- For classics: look at what else came out in the same year or on the same label.
Using an interactive flowchart instead of random clicking
The problem with most discovery sessions is that you lose track of how you got somewhere. An interactive flowchart — the format Unchartify uses — keeps the path visible: you start at your artist or album and branch outward, so you can see which branch led to a good find and retrace it later.
A practical loop:
- Enter your favorite artist or album as the starting node.
- Follow one branch at a time (similar artist, then genre, then era).
- When something catches your ear, play it immediately rather than adding it to a maybe-list.
- Note which branch produced the hit, then explore that branch further.
Listening immediately, on Free or Premium
Unchartify states it works with both Spotify Premium and Free subscriptions, and that you can "instant play everything." That matters because the value of a recommendation collapses if you have to leave the page, search manually, and lose your place.
If you're on a Free Spotify account, expect the usual Free-tier playback behavior from Spotify itself — the discovery tool doesn't change your Spotify plan. The point is that you don't need Premium to use the discovery flow.
Recording and filtering what you find
Recommendations are cheap; keeping the good ones is the actual work. A simple filter:
| Signal | Keep it? |
|---|---|
| You played it twice without skipping | Yes — add to a playlist |
| You liked one track but not the album | Save the track, skip the album |
| It's "interesting" but you never return | No — let it go |
| It shares a genre tag but not the mood | No — the tag was too broad |
Keep a running playlist per branch (one for "similar artists," one for "genre deep dive") so you can tell later which method actually works for your taste.
Common sticking points
- The page needs JavaScript. Unchartify's page evidence shows the app requires JavaScript enabled to run. If you see a blank page, that's the cause, not a broken link.
- Genre tags get too broad. If a tag returns hundreds of unrelated artists, step down to a more specific subgenre.
- You drift from your anchor. If you've branched five times and nothing sounds related anymore, restart from the original artist.
- You collect instead of listen. Adding tracks to a list without playing them defeats the purpose — play first, save second.
The whole method reduces to one habit: always know what you started from, and always be able to say why the next recommendation connects to it.