topic How do I get the algorithm to stop playing artists/songs I don't like? in Content Questions

How do I get the algorithm to stop playing artists/songs I don't like?

gamergate — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 17:51:23 GMT

Hello, I am wondering how I can get artists to stop being promoted.

I have repeatedly skipped, hidden, reported multiple artists for "I just don't like it", but they keep popping up in my daily mixes and radio and being pushed on me repeatedly. There is absolutely no way that the algorithm can think I enjoy listening to these aritsts, but every time I hide one of their songs, another gets recommended.

On PC, it's worse, because you cannot hide artists. There is literally nothing you can do to get rid of songs you don't like, that for some reason, the algorithm is convinced is your favourite artist.

Re: How do I get the algorithm to stop playing artists/songs I don't like?

Eni — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 18:21:02 GMT

Hey there @gamergate,

Thanks for getting in touch about this here in the Community.

We're sorry to hear that you've been receiving recommendations you didn't enjoy in your Daily mixes and Radio playlists. We can confirm the Hide this song feature blocks a certain track from the specific playlist on the current device. The way that Daily mixes are set up is that they get renewed every day and count as new playlists. Because of this, the songs that you had hidden before might still appear in the new ones.

Additionally, it seems that other users feel the way you do and posted this idea about this. You can add your support there by up-voting the idea. We'll inform on any developments there, as soon as there are any. So make sure to subscribe, if you haven't already.

On another note, you can mute an artist so it won't be played again. From the mobile app, head to the artist's page, tap on the 3 dot menu and select "Don't play this". This will affect all your devices.

We also suggest taking a look at this article for tips on how to improve your Made for You playlists. Take into account that the Don't play this feature only prevents the songs by the blocked artist from being played. They might still show up on playlists and even in your recommendations, but the songs should be skipped. Currently, there's no way to visually "hide" the songs by the artist.

If you have any questions or need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.

Re: How do I get the algorithm to stop playing artists/songs I don't like?

celoteck — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 19:34:49 GMT

True! I have some good automated playlists but they always put 2-3 people in there the I would never ever support with even a single view on their songs. Already blocked them on my mobile app (no idea why this feature is missing on PC?!?!?!) but they still get put in there.
Since those poeple are very popular and everyone kinda knows they boost their songs I wouldn't be surprised if they paid to get put in extra playlists.
Just sad they responded with "go support this" but on the page they linked it says that the idea is already dismissed. That's like saying "great idea, throw it in the trashcan over there!".

Re: How do I get the algorithm to stop playing artists/songs I don't like?

Fredrikzzon — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 12:04:30 GMT

There can be another problem to this, that I've found out and it's kinda frustrating.

I have no idea why, but there is a lot of duplicate tracks of the same song. It can be 3 different versions of the same single/album. Some of them have the same track ID, but there's a lot of them have different track IDs. I think every song needs to have the same ID no matter if it's on a Single, EP or an Artist/Various Artist/Compilation Album.

This is also a big problem for playlists since they don't have the same ID. You don't get the pop-up that says "The Track is Already in the Playlist" because of this. It's annoying and frustrating to find out that you have added another duplicate of a song in your big playlist, which will cause the song to be played more often than you want.

Anyway, I'm not an expert, but I think these duplicates causes problems for both the automations and the user playlists.