Worked example
Luma Audio: one catalog, three strategies.
A fictional audio discovery platform with a 54-item catalog, five audience segments and a synthetic behavioural log. Every figure on this page was computed by the same engine that runs inside the product, at seed 424242.
Everything here is fictional
Simulation
Discovery Balanced · Discovery Explorer
Taste constellation for the Discovery Balanced strategy, audience Discovery Explorer. Relevance proxy 71%, novelty 73%, diversity 91%, catalog coverage 72%, popularity concentration 0.49. Exposure reached 12 categories. Top recommendations: 1. Estuary Bells by Solveig Rand; 2. Small Hours Percussion by Batid Collective; 3. Interference Pattern by Ilya Bregman.
Recommendation stream
- 1Estuary BellsSolveig Rand · Field RecordingAffinity63
- 2Small Hours PercussionBatid Collective · PercussionAffinity70
- 3Interference PatternIlya Bregman · ModularAffinity75
- 4Uphill Both WaysThe Halcyon Unit · Jazz FusionAffinity78
- 5Cold OpenPriya Halloran · Spoken WordAffinity50
- 6Two RiversAdaeze Marchetti · OrchestralAffinity58
- 7Second Person PluralChoir of Small Hours · ChoralAffinity53
- 8Housing CooperativeNils Aberdeen · Lo-fiAffinity54
- 9Repeat CustomerKestrel Ono · Synth PopAffinity58
- 10Held Note for a Bright RoomVera Ostlund · AmbientAffinity49
Everything we measured
Good matches
71%+21
Variety
91%+12
Beyond the hits
73%+61
Catalog reached
72%+50
Crowding
0.49-36
Repeats
0%-60
Happy surprises
63%+58
Brand-new users
53%+21
Creators reached
100%+50
Categories reached
100%+50
These are real results from a made-up catalog that ships with TasteLab, so you can try everything without uploading anything. They show how a strategy behaves, not what your actual users will do.
The five audience segments
Five made-up types of listener, covering the cases recommendations usually get wrong: the explorer, the creature of habit, the trend follower, the person who digs deep, and someone who just signed up and you know nothing about.
Discovery Explorer
Actively seeks novelty, moves between genres in a single session and responds well to emerging creators. Punishes repetition faster than any other segment here.
- Likes the unfamiliar
- 88
- Follows the crowd
- 22
- Open to new things
- 85
Comfort Listener
Returns to familiar moods and expects consistency between sessions. Tolerates repetition well and reacts poorly to sharp genre changes.
- Likes the unfamiliar
- 20
- Follows the crowd
- 55
- Open to new things
- 18
Trend Follower
Strongly influenced by what is popular and recently released. The segment where a popularity baseline looks deceptively good.
- Likes the unfamiliar
- 35
- Follows the crowd
- 90
- Open to new things
- 32
Deep Catalog Fan
Prefers less obvious items and long exploratory sessions. The clearest signal of whether a strategy can surface anything below the popular head of the catalog.
- Likes the unfamiliar
- 78
- Follows the crowd
- 15
- Open to new things
- 62
New User
Cold startAlmost no behavioural history and a single stated preference. Included so every strategy is measured against the case it usually handles worst.
- Likes the unfamiliar
- 50
- Follows the crowd
- 60
- Open to new things
- 50
The three strategies, side by side
| Metric | Popularity First | Hybrid | Discovery Balanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good matches | 49% | 65% | 71%Best |
| Variety | 79% | 92%Best | 91% |
| Beyond the hits | 12% | 47% | 73%Best |
| Catalog reached | 22% | 74%Best | 72% |
| Crowding | 0.85 | 0.51 | 0.49Best |
| Repeats | 60% | 0%Best | 0%Best |
| Happy surprises | 4% | 35% | 63%Best |
| Brand-new users | 32% | 47% | 53%Best |
| Creators reached | 50% | 100%Best | 100%Best |
| Categories reached | 50% | 100%Best | 100%Best |
These are real results from a made-up catalog that ships with TasteLab, so you can try everything without uploading anything. They show how a strategy behaves, not what your actual users will do.