Development blog - Gazwilde/Weather-Playlist GitHub Wiki

After discussion with course lecturers and peers, as well as some initial research, it was decided that there was potential to develop a mood/weather Playlist based on parameters such as temperature, wind speed and humidity.

It was interesting to note how moods and habits change depending on the weather. According to Grohol, weather changes mood. Wet weather and very high temperatures were reported to cause anger, additionally, researcher Marie Connolly (2013) found that 'women who were interviewed on days “with more rain and higher temperatures [reported] statistically and substantively decreasing life satisfaction, consistent with the affect results.” On days with lower temperatures and no rain, the same subjects reported higher life satisfaction' (Connolly 2013).

SAD [Seasonal Affective Disorder] is a depressive disorder with seasonal pattern. This means that when the weather is cold and wet, and the nights are dark during the winter months, those who are affected by SAD suffer affects of depression based on the weather (Grohol 2017).

In addition to these negative mood reactions to weather, it must be noted that warm sunny weather has been shown to heighten mood and encourages people to spend money (Grohol 2017).

Research undertaken by Spotify suggests the correlation between the weather and what people like to listen to, 'There is a clear connection between what’s in the skies and what’s on users’ play queues...for almost all of the major cities around the world that we studied, sunny days translate to higher streams of happier-sounding music...sunny weather has an even bigger impact in Europe'(accuweather 2017).

It seems apparent based on this research that utilising the current weather to choose music playlists could amplify a persons mood.

The concept of the Weather-Playlist is based on these findings and other research looking at wether this already exists. In 2008 there was a company called Songza who was eventually sold to Google and now no longer exists as a weather/mood related service (Business Insider 2014), and then currently, there is Climatune by Spotify (accuweather 2017). Both of these use the weather to create mood relevant playlists. Climatune creates playlists based on what others listen to based on any given weather.

Weather-Playlist is designed to take elements of Climatune and Songza but create a more bespoke experience.