I’ve been a dues-paying Spotify subscriber for as long as I can remember, and I don’t regret it. As soon as I became eligible for a dirt-cheap student discount in college, I bid iTunes farewell and dove headfirst into a commercial-free world of paying to listen to whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.
And, for a long time, I was happy to keep it that way. I trained my Spotify algorithm so perfectly to my tastes that I forgot what it feels like not to know what song is coming next. Perhaps more surprisingly, I forgot about the occasional fluffy charm that morning drivetime radio had to offer. Then, Google launched Daily Listen, and it scratched an itch I didn’t know I had. Here’s why.