The difference
Streaming measures how long you listened, not what you thought.
Every recommender you have ever used is counting minutes. Minutes measure convenience - the album you left on while you worked, the track that happened to be third in a playlist, the song your commute is exactly long enough for. None of that is an opinion, and no amount of it adds up to one.
notch.fm asks for the opinion directly. A number out of ten, in the two seconds it takes to press one key while the song is still playing. That single act carries more signal than a year of passive plays, because it is the only thing in the system you actually meant.
What a recommender sees
Plays this month
- Fits your commute exactly142 plays
- Track 3 of an album you left on119 plays
- The one from the advert94 plays
- The song you would defend in an argument30 plays
Your favourite song is at the bottom of this chart. It always is, because you save it for when it counts.
What notch sees
Your score, out of 10
- The song you would defend in an argument10
- Track 3 of an album you left on6
- The one from the advert4
- Fits your commute exactly5
Same four songs. Completely different order - and this one is the order you would actually pick.
When a tag is wrong, your correction is the one that sticks.
The tags say the song is indie pop. You know it is post-punk. Change it - and it stays changed, in your library, in every queue built afterwards, in every search you run for the rest of the year. Notch is honest about which values it guessed for you and which ones you set, and one keystroke turns a guess into a decision. Your library becomes a record of your judgement instead of a report on your habits.