Spotify's newest feature actually has me excited for Mondays

The first thing I did when I got off the subway on my way to work Monday morning was open up Spotify on my iPhone.

I was eager to start listening to the roughly two dozen songs that the streaming music service's army of robots and human "editors" had chosen for me this week.

I didn't recognize most of the artists and bands on the playlist, but it didn't matter, because I knew that I'd be into most if not all of the songs.

It's my third week using Discover Weekly, a new feature from the Stockholm-based streaming music company. And I can't recommend it enough. 

Discover Weekly, which Spotify introduced last month, is a personalized playlist that Spotify builds for you each week. The roughly two-hour mix is based on your musical tastes and preferences - if you use Spotify regularly, the service is likely an expert in what you love, like, and don't like - as well as what the millions of others people on the service are listening to.

With Discover Weekly, the streaming service has somehow gotten to know exactly the type of music I like, even if I don't know I like it yet.

And as you can probably infer from the name, the playlist lasts one week, so come Monday morning, you have an entirely new playlist. (You can save songs from Discover Weekly to playlists.)

Each week since I started using Discover, Spotify has given me dozens of songs, both from artists and bands I've heard of as well as from those I haven't, and I've been into nearly all of them.

I'd also never have found these tracks on my own. 

I'd only heard of about half a dozen artists and bands on this week's playlist, which included tracks from Curtis Harding, Night Beds, Daughter, and even Fleetwood Mac. 

So-called "discovery" is the holy grail for music streaming services. It's a challenge for many, including me, to find what to listen to when you have nearly every song ever recorded available to you whenever and wherever you like. That's one of the reasons why the internet radio service Pandora remains so popular: People don't have to work hard to hear music they'll probably like.

Discovery is especially important for me. I love music, but I'm terrible at finding new music, and I never know the hot bands of the moment. I used to rely on DJs, record store clerks, and music magazines like CMJ New Music Monthly, which came with a CD full of new music each month, for new music. But I never got into music blogs. 

Spotify is working especially hard on music discovery to differentiate itself from the bevy of other streaming music services available, like Apple Music, Google Play Music, Rdio, and Rhapsody. 

At a splashy, star-studded event in May, just before Apple Music launched, Spotify unveiled a completely redesigned app with a new feature called "Now." Now, which is the first thing you see each time you open the app, attempts to give you the right song for that exact moment, based on the time of day, your age and gender, as well as location. 

But I much prefer Discover Weekly to Now.

When listening to Now playlists, I find that I often skip to the next song, hoping for something better, which often doesn't happen. I've pretty much given up on it for Discover Weekly.

As I recently wrote, all on-demand streaming music services offer pretty much the same catalogue of millions of songs, so each one needs to create an experience or do something different, a gimmick, to attract and keep subscribers. 

Apple has a 24-hour live radio station. Tidal professes to offer "access to exclusive music, videos, tickets, merchandise and experiences that you can't find anywhere else." And Google Play Music has millions of music videos. 

But Spotify wants to give you new and old music that it thinks you'll love, and I think it's done a pretty good job.

With Discover Weekly, Spotify is succeeding in keeping me from switching to Apple Music.

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