YouTube Music replaces “Hotlist” with new “Explore” tab, which has a “New albums and singles” section and “Moods & genres” section for finding playlists
Abner Li / 9to5Google :
Context & Ripple Effects
A month after YouTube gave its main app an Explore tab to replace Trending, the same structure is landing inside YouTube Music: Hotlist is out, replaced by an Explore tab split into "New albums and singles" and "Moods & genres" sections. The move extends a discovery build-out that began with the New Release Mix, Your Mix, and Discover Mix playlists added in December 2019.
First-order effects
- YouTube Music users lose Hotlist's artist-centric view and instead browse new releases and mood- or genre-based playlists directly, aligning the music app's navigation with the main YouTube app's tab layout.
Second-order effects
- The Moods & genres section puts YouTube Music in more direct competition with Spotify's editorially curated mood and genre playlists, complementing its algorithmic mixes rather than replacing them.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, YouTube keeps consolidating discovery into curated browse surfaces that sit alongside algorithmic feeds — a direction later reinforced by the Samples short-form discovery feed — making playlist curation a persistent battleground between YouTube Music and Spotify.
The trend: Streaming apps are converging on a two-track discovery model that pairs algorithmic personalization with curated browse tabs, and YouTube is systematically porting that structure across its music properties.