Descriptor-based contextualization and streaming of media content items

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• determining audiobook information including at least one of author, title, or description of an audiobook;
• providing, to a natural language model, a query instructing the natural language model to determine a set of descriptors based on the audiobook information and a taxonomy of descriptor types;
• receiving, from the natural language model, the set of descriptors;
• associating the set of descriptors with the audiobook;
• determining that the audiobook has been recommended for a user;
• selecting the audiobook to be populated on a virtual shelf that is associated with a descriptor from the set of descriptors;
• and
• providing, for display on a user device associated with the user, the virtual shelf populated with the audiobook.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium, storing program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations comprising:

• obtaining a ranking of media content items recommended for a user, wherein the media content items are respectively associated with sets of descriptors, and wherein the sets of descriptors were generated by a natural language model based on metadata associated with the media content items;
• based on relevance of the descriptors to the user and appearances of the descriptors in the ranking of the media content items, determining a ranking of at least a portion of the descriptors;
• selecting groups of the media content items respectively associated with the descriptors in the ranking of the descriptors;
• and
• providing, for display on a user device associated with the user, the groups of the media content items populated on virtual shelves representing the respectively associated descriptors.