Cold-start podcast recommendations

A method for providing podcast recommendations, the method comprising:

• receiving a request for a podcast recommendation;
• determining whether a profile of the user indicates consumption by the user of podcasts;
• responsive to determining that the profile does not indicate consumption by the user of podcasts:
• determining music preferences of the user based on data of the profile;
• generating a podcast seed based on the music preferences;
• selecting a podcast recommendation for the user based on the podcast by:
• identifying a podcast that has attributes corresponding to the podcast seed;
• identifying a plurality of similar podcasts to the identified podcast by:
• identifying a social media page corresponding to the identified podcast;
• identifying a plurality of users who subscribe to the social media page;
• searching a provider of the social media page for another social media page corresponding to another podcast to which a threshold percentage of the plurality of users also subscribe;
• and
• responsive to locating, from the searching, the another social media page, adding the another podcast to the plurality of similar podcasts;
• and
• generating a playlist including the plurality of similar podcasts;
• and
• providing the podcast recommendation to the user;
• receiving a selection of the podcast recommendation by the user;
• and
• responsive to receiving the selection, playing back a podcast corresponding to the podcast recommendation.

A non-transitory computer readable medium configured to store instructions, the instructions when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform operations, the instructions comprising instructions to:

• receive a request for a podcast recommendation;
• determine whether a profile of the user indicates consumption by the user of podcasts;
• responsive to determining that the profile does not indicate consumption by the user of podcasts:
• determine music preferences of the user based on data of the profile;
• generate a podcast seed based on the music preferences;
• select a podcast recommendation for the user based on the podcast seed by:
• identifying a series of podcasts;
• determining an episode of the series that, relative to other episodes of the series, most closely matches the podcast seed, wherein the episode is later in the series than a first episode of the series;
• and
• selecting the episode as the podcast recommendation by:
• determining whether the episodes are labeled for sequential playback;
• responsive to determining that the episodes are not labeled for sequential playback, selecting the episode as the podcast recommendation;
• and
• responsive to determining that the episodes are labeled for sequential playback, selecting the first episode as the podcast recommendation;
• and
• provide the podcast recommendation to the user;
• receive a selection of the podcast recommendation by the user;
• and
• responsive to receiving the selection, playing back a podcast corresponding to the podcast recommendation.