I tried a dating app that matches you based on your Spotify playlists

Have you ever thought you yourself, "Man, I wish Spotify could just match me with people who love the exact same music I do. That would be AMAZING!"?

I've thought about this way too many times, and judging by the internet, so have a lot of other people. People are begging Spotify to do this. The closest they've come is that "Blend" feature, where you and someone else compare playlists to see how much you overlap. But here's the problem: you already have to know the person and have access to their Spotify account, which completely misses the point. I don't want to compare music tastes with people I already know, because I already know what they like, and it isn't the same stuff I like. I want to find my music soulmate! Someone I can bond with over the obscure indie bands I pretend are my entire personality!

So, why hasn't Spotify done this when so many people are begging for it? From what I've gathered, the reason probably boils down to liability. Imagine the nightmare headlines if a kid got groomed or someone met up with their "music match" and it turned into a true crime podcast. It's just easier for Spotify to stick to being a music platform than risk becoming a matchmaking service with potential safety concerns.

Since Spotify clearly isn't ever going to do this, I scoured the internet for third party apps. The results are honestly depressing. It turns out several apps have tried to create a Spotify based dating or matching platform, but almost all of them flopped. Why? Not enough people were using them.

As of now, the most popular app I've found is Makromusic. It's the most active of its kind, and it's still being updated regularly. It's free to use, even though it does advertise "premium" features, I have yet to find a single person that uses it. That said, it's far from perfect. Even though it has the largest user base compared to similar apps, it still doesn't feel big enough, especially if your music tastes are on the niche side.

Makromusic groups users based on up to 6 genres of music you listen to the most. Sounds cool in theory, but it means your potential matches are limited to people within those specific groups. If you're into mainstream genres like pop or EDM, you might have better luck. But if your tastes are more niche, like mine, the options can dry up fast. For example, my friend, who listens to more mainstream music, had way more potential matches than I did. Meanwhile, I managed to go through my entire list of possible matches in less than 45 minutes, and that was searching for matches within 500 miles of me.

It does have a cool option of finding matches based on people that have played the same song or artist as you. But again, this feature never really worked for me because there aren't enough people using the app. Too many times I've tried this feature and a lot of times I get "No one else have ever played that song". Obviously this will work better if you listen to more mainstream music.

Another thing that sucks about this app is it doesn't list the person's age or where they are from on their profile. So if you end up finding someone you like, you'll end up being disappointed when you find out they're too young, too old, and/or too far away from you. Their chat feature also sucks and messes up a lot. Most people get past this by giving out their Groomercord/Snapchat/Instagram etc account.

Lastly, I want to talk about music stereotypes. Some people will deny these exist but it's very real and this app proves it. For example, most of the guys in my music niche look like a budget mall goth who exclusively shops at Hot Topic clearance sales. Oh, and a lot of them are built like they'd lose a fight with a treadmill Meanwhile, my friend noticed that her genre (mainstream pop and EDM) was full of frat and gym bros.

Should you bother with this app? At this point, I've kind of given up on Makromusic. There just aren't enough people on it, especially in my music genres. I'll probably keep my account active but only check it every once in a while. But hey, if you're into more popular genres, you might have better luck and should give it a shot.