topic Re: Why does Spotify's Search suck so much? in Desktop (Windows)

Why does Spotify's Search suck so much?

migueldecr — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 18:18:49 GMT

Plan

PREMIUM

Country

USA

Device

none

Operating System

Windows 7

My Question or Issue

When I try to search for artists, if I miss one letter or say AND instead of & or vice versa, Spotify doesn't even SHOW me the similar artists it MIGHT be... Why the heck not? That would be like if I mis-spelled something in google it would not show me the correct one. NO! IT SHOWS ME THE ONE IT THINKS IT IS OR MIGHT BE!

I mean this is a SEARCH basic behavior! Why can't Spotify get it right?

Example (this is from memory so it may not be 100% true but does illustrate what I'm talking about):
I search for Captain Beefheart, I get only partial albums of his.
I search for Captain Beefheart and HIS Magic Band I get SOME of his albums.
I search for Captain Beefheart and THE Magic Band I get some others.
I search for Captain Beefheart & His [ or The] Magic Band and I get OTHER choices.

First of all there is no reason not to put all these under the same name:
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART. Period.
Then have the others above come up under that name or AT THE VERY LEAST show all of them as the same option in the search results!

This is true for other groups. The other day I searched for the group Serfs. Nothing comes up. Then I tried THE Serfs and something comes up! wth?! One HAS to type "THE"??!! That is NOT correct music search behavior!

So my plea is:
PLEASE make your search engine WORK like a Search Engine SHOULD work!

Re: Why does Spotify's Search suck so much?

Peter — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 14:04:16 GMT

Hey @migueldecr.

Thanks for your feedback on this, we really appreciate it.

If you feel strongly about this, we suggest you create an idea in the Ideas Exchange here and get others to vote for it. If it gets enough votes, then Spotify might consider implementing it in the future.

Hope that helps! Let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Thanks again! Stay awesome 🙂

Re: Why does Spotify's Search suck so much?

Alshoabi — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 12:17:55 GMT

This shouldn't be treated as an idea, rather it is a very important function that it's unavailability makes me really think of cancelling the subscription.

With AI, the app should predict what am I interested in without me having to search for it. It also should support Arabic search phrases and should predict misspelled words!

This needs a fix now.

Re: Why does Spotify's Search suck so much?

sebdos — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 07:18:01 GMT

can't figure out why such simple things as "search a term/word in titles".... never ever gives you titles with the term.
I mean, that's just the basics of a database.

Re: Why does Spotify's Search suck so much?

vandeveldep — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 18:25:51 GMT

Instead of giving**bleep** answers you should do something about the Search function. It SUCKS.

Re: Why does Spotify's Search suck so much?

ETR1312 — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 20:26:03 GMT

Can confirm it still sucks. This is a perfect example of ensh**ification. They don't care about attracting users anymore, all efforts go toward attracting business consumers. This explains why we've all noticed the many ways the user experience has been degraded over the last few years while they chase ad rev. Canceling is the only message Daniel Ek will understand. Luckily there are many alternatives to choose from, all with better pay for artists, and less questionable business ethics.