My Vibe is Yandex Music’s main discovery feature: Yandex says 94% of subscribers use it each month. You can’t buy a place or apply directly, but you can prepare a release that gives its recommendation system useful listener signals. This guide explains the 2026 approach using official Yandex Music and BandLink sources. For artists outside Russia, Yandex Music offers another streaming audience to reach alongside international services.
What is My Vibe in 2026?
My Vibe is an endless personalized stream that chooses music for each listener’s taste. In May 2026, Yandex moved it to the ARGUS generative model. It analyzes a longer history of user activity and adjusts recommendations in real time for moods and situations such as working, feeling sad or running.
For artists, this means your track is offered to people it suits at that moment, rather than everyone indiscriminately. The clearer the reactions from early listeners, the better the system can identify who might enjoy it next.
Which signals does the system consider?
Yandex doesn’t publish its recommendation formula, but its help pages and team interviews repeat one principle: real listeners’ reactions matter. Completion, likes and saves to Collection help a track build momentum in My Vibe. Skips and dislikes work in the other direction.
Bars are illustrative. Yandex Music does not disclose exact signal weights.
A practical lesson: the first 10–15 seconds matter more than you might like. A long, quiet intro often leads to skips. If the intro matters to the song, consider a streaming version that brings the voice or hook in earlier.
Nitro: finding your first listeners
An emerging artist has no reaction history for recommendations to use. Nitro addresses this cold-start problem for artists with up to 5,000 monthly listeners. The team says around 55,000 new releases arrive each week, and 80% are from artists in this group.
Genre isn’t a barrier. In an interview with The Flow, the Nitro team says the initial audience is broadly similar across genres, and even folk, jazz and classical music can take off. There’s no limit on attempts: every new release can be pitched again.
Pitching: your release calendar
Pitching submits a release to Yandex Music’s editors and recommendation tools. Only a verified artist or manager can submit through BandLink, its artist management service. Our artist profile guide explains verification. Timing matters: the release must have a future date.
Be specific about your focus track: what the song is about, its mood, comparable sounds and any featured artists. Our Yandex Music pitching guide works through the application with examples.
Why a track may miss recommendations
Most of these reasons concern preparation rather than the music. You can address them before your next release:
If your track landed on someone else’s profile, correct that first: recommendations will otherwise build around another artist. See how to fix the wrong artist assignment.
How to build momentum after release
Once recommendations pick up a track, your job is to keep new listeners interested. The updated My Vibe includes AI commentary: short artist facts generated from public news, interviews and press releases. These can suggest donating to an artist or attending a show.
Interviews and newsMore public coverage gives AI commentary more material to work with
DonationsA Donate button on your profile lets commentary remind listeners to support you
ImpulseRelease ads in the Yandex Advertising Network and on Yandex Music’s home page, from ₽10,000
Your next releaseAfter a breakthrough, recommendations already know you and can pick up a new track more readilyThe Nitro team also recommends updating your photo and social media after a breakthrough. New listeners look there to learn who you are; an empty profile gives them little reason to stay.