When we talk about big data, it’s usually with a grimace. There’s a certain inevitability to how much of our lives has been vacuumed up by tech companies: every click, swipe and stream feeding into machines we don’t fully understand. But sometimes, buried in the noise, something useful slips through like Spotify’s “Concerts Near You” playlist.

It doesn’t appear to be especially well advertised. I didn’t see it on my homepage or get a push notification, instead I happened upon the “Live Events” section of Spotify and spotted it.

The selections in the playlist are mostly relevant (although “near” seems to include Newcastle) with some interesting artists appearing for me, such as Little Birdy… Apparently playing at Manning Bar in August, that’s some deep nostalgia type stuff.

That kind of serendipity is something digital platforms talk about constantly but rarely deliver well. In this case, Spotify has used the data it already holds: your listening habits, your location, your repeat plays and probably some serious music taste matching to offer something tangible. Not another random recommendation or feature nobody asked for but a direct line to real-life events that you might actually want to go to. This is the kind of feature that should be setting the bar.

We’ve long passed the point of debating whether or not our data is being collected. It is. The more urgent question is: what are platforms doing with it and who benefits? Too often, the answer is lopsided. We hand over our information in exchange for convenience but the value doesn’t come back to us in any meaningful way. Instead, it fuels ads, algorithmic loops or abstracted “personalisation” that serves corporate goals more than human ones.

Spotify’s concert playlist isn’t perfect, it’s still embedded in a platform that underpays artists and nudges users toward homogenised listening habits, like playing Espresso when I didn’t ask it to.

But data for users is one thing Spotify does well and this is yet another example of how data can be used to reconnect people with culture and experiences that don’t just live in the feed but exist out in the world.

Other platforms should take note of what ethical and genuinely useful data design can look like. Not surveillance wrapped in convenience but instead features that respect attention, enhance discovery and create opportunities to step away from the screen. If data is the cost of digital life then useful tools like this should be the minimum return.

My one complaint is that these types of developments shouldn’t be hidden behind search bars and random user journeys (A/B testing is to blame, I suspect), it should be front and centre.

How to find it

1. Search “Live Events” in the Spotify app
2. Click the tile that appears (mine has a purple and pink thumbnail with a female singer)
3. Somewhere in the first row you’ll see a personalised playlist called “Concerts Near You”