YouTube Music

YouTube Music begins surfacing ‘From the community’ playlists on homepage

Damien Wilde | Oct 11 2021 - 2:42 am PT

When browsing the YouTube Music homepage on mobile and desktop, you may soon see a “From the community” section that surfaces user-generated playlists rather than the personally or automatically generated collections.

The option appears to be rolling out now and has previously been spotted in the “Explore” tab, but this greater prominence for community-curated playlists is an interesting addition to the music streaming service. It was first spotted by /u/PGodwine over on the /r/YouTubeMusic subreddit with more subscribers also confirming that they are now seeing the section when loading up the mobile app.

We’re not yet seeing the “From the community” tab when viewing YouTube Music on mobile, but with more users reporting the option it could be available to all in the coming days. Earlier this year, YouTube tweaked search to better distinguish between “Featured” and “Community” playlists, so this is quite a substantial way to give public playlists from other subscribers and users greater prominence.

It seems as though the “From the community” section pulls from your YouTube Music listening history to find playlists that share a similarity or core theme. You can already find “Community playlists” by heading to “Explore” and then selecting a mood. However, this greater prominence puts community-generated content alongside new releases and your existing recommendations.

Google confirmed there would be a focus upon making “users-created playlists more discoverable to others on the platform” just over a month ago. This move goes far beyond simply tagging or separating community content in the default YouTube Music search. If you’re seeing the option on your devices, be sure to let us know down in the comments section below.