MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Have you ever tried listening to music with your pet? How about dancing with them? If you have, you’re not alone. According to a survey conducted by Spotify, 71% of pet owners have played music for their pets.
And they don’t do it just because. 8 in 10 pet owners believe that their pets like music and even prefer specific genres: classical and soft rock. They think that listening to music helps their pets relieve stress, boost their happiness, and keep them company.
There are currently several Spotify playlists for pets – to help them sleep, stay calm or simply entertained. I especially find these useful during New Year’s Eve once the firecrackers start popping left and right.
But now Spotify wants to make the experience even more customized to you and your pets’ personality through pet playlists. This is not just any kind of playlist. Spotify consulted with musicologist David Teie of the National Symphony Orchestra on how the algorithms should work based on your pet. Teie is known for his species-specific music and two albums on Music for Cats.
To make a pet playlist, all of you have to do is go to spotify.com/pets, pick the type of pet that you own (dog, cat, iguana, hamster, or bird), let Spotify know more about your pet – whether they’re relaxed or energetic, shy or friendly, apathetic or curious. You’ll also be asked to label the playlist with your pet’s name and adorable photo.
Spotify will then generate a playlist based on those traits and sync them to your musical taste, too. And you’ll have your very own friendship playlist.
This animated video made with Le Cube Studio shows just how easy and quite a fun experience it is to make one:
You’ll also get a personalized card that you can share on social media to let everyone know that your dog is apparently a K-Popper AND a Swiftie all at the same time.
Apart from personalized playlists, Spotify, with the help of Stink Studios, also launched “My Dog’s Favourite Podcast”, a podcast created for dogs who are usually left alone at home. This aims to replace the TV or radio that pet owners sometimes leave on to help make their dog feel like someone is with them somehow.
The first episode is called Pup Fiction which is a five-hour-long mix of soothing sounds and friendly chat voiced by Ralph Ineson (He was Dagmer Cleftjaw in the Game of Thrones).
With all these new treats from Spotify, you’ll definitely feel less guilty about saying goodbye to your pets whenever you go to work every morning (and hope our pets will feel a little less lonely, too).
