Search API Returning Obscure Tracks Only for Broad Genres

perrym137 — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 23:33:24 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

My Question or Issue

Until recently, searching for tracks via year and or genre would return generally popular tracks. Now genres such as "rap" with or without a year tag return tracks with mostly 0 popularity. Was this changed intentionally?

Search Query:
GET https://api.spotify.com/v1/search?offset=0&limit=5&query=genre%3A%22rap%22&type=track&market=US

Issue:
This query for the genre "rap" consistently returns extremely low-popularity tracks, none above a popularity score of 6 (out of 100).

Example Results (all from this call):

"Wanna Know - Radio Edit" by Obie Trice – Popularity: 4
https://open.spotify.com/track/53sQEERwLbA2ypbTpGhJHZ
"Right Back" by Freeway – Popularity: 3
https://open.spotify.com/track/1rBzl3PPk0MfTbGBZ81sCT
"Super Balller" by Lil Blacky – Popularity: 4
https://open.spotify.com/track/1aSy5A4AKR62hUSBpshSLJ
"Drag Nutz" by KP SKYWALKA – Popularity: 6
https://open.spotify.com/track/2JFy4Aq3VHnbFf41YBQ9qF
"Que Rebuscas" by Gyanma – Popularity: 5
https://open.spotify.com/track/3vNRWAxiGMC8DNrCu8FCZN

topic Search API Returning Obscure Tracks Only for Broad Genres in Spotify for Developers

Search API Returning Obscure Tracks Only for Broad Genres