topic Re: Only Podcasts in Start in Your Library

Only Podcasts in Start

SubwayCarnival — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 09:11:28 GMT

Hi all,

There are weeks where I use Spotify mostly for Podcasts. I now have the problem that "Start" on my iOS Spotify app only shows Podcast recommendations and no music anymore. I cannot even find My Mixes and other Spotify customized music playlists.

How can I reset this view as this is really annoying? I do not need to see 20 rows of podcast suggestions....

Thanks.

Re: Only Podcasts in Start

FSpotif_y555 — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 21:36:45 GMT

Having the same issue. Even when i go music heavy I'll still see 99% podcasts on my hoe screen. Most of which aren't even related to what ive been listening to

Re: Only Podcasts in Start

Jeremy — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 14:14:12 GMT

Hey there @SubwayCarnival and @FSpotif_y555,

Thank you for your posts here in the Community. We're happy to help.

Can you perform a clean reinstall of the app? This will make sure there's no old cache files causing this.

It would also be great if you can provide us screenshots and let us know which version of the app you have.

We'll keep an eye out for your replies.

Cheers!

Re: Only Podcasts in Start

SubwayCarnival — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 10:44:37 GMT

Hi @Jeremy,

I did a clean install of the app but the picture is still the same.

My Start has the following sections:
- Trailers for you (podcasts)
- Continue (mostly podcasts)
- Your Top-Shows (podcasts)
- New Episodes (podcasts)
- Shows you might like (podcasts)
- New Music (music)
- Other listener's enjoy 1 (podcasts)
- Shows of max 15 minutes (podcasts)
- Other listener's enjoy 2 (podcasts)
- Other listener's enjoy 3 (podcasts)
- Other listener's enjoy 4 (podcasts)
- Other listener's enjoy 5 (podcasts)
- Other listener's enjoy 6 (podcasts)
- Other listener's enjoy 7 (podcasts)
- Favorite podcasts of your friend (podcasts)
- Find new podcasts (podcasts)
- News (podcasts)

As you can see out of 17 lists, 16 recommend or show podcast. I cannot see My Mixes anymore, nor New Music Friday, nor my time capsule or rewind playlists from the Start menu.

I do not think it is related to the app but rather how Spotify's recommendation algorithm works and I really used to enjoy Spotify's music recommendation but right now it became completely useless for me. I clearly do not need 16 different means that recommend podcasts to me....

My app version is 8.5.86.739

Re: Only Podcasts in Start

Jeremy — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 10:58:15 GMT

Hey again @SubwayCarnival,

Thank you for your reply and confirmation.

If you've been listening to some podcasts it could be that podcast recommendations now populate the home screen, but Made for you should still be there.

Can you let us know if this occur on one specific device or multiple devices?

There also an idea, [All Platforms] Customize Start Screen, that you can head over to and leave a +VOTE and Subscribe to for any updates. You can find the idea here.

Cheers!

Re: Only Podcasts in Start

SubwayCarnival — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 11:12:14 GMT

Hi Jeremy,

on my iPad it looks very similar to my iPhone, except on my iPad the last two sections in my recommendations are For Johnny with My Mixes, Your Discover Weekly and Release Radar and Only for You with shows my time capsule, on repeat, repeat rewind and my favorite songs.

So on my iPad it does look slightly better but I still do not get any music recommendations anymore anywhere.

I get your point that if I listen to podcasts Spotify will recommend podcast but does the algorithm do that exclusively? It is really annoying.

Re: Only Podcasts in Start

Jeremy — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 11:25:54 GMT

Hey @SubwayCarnival,

Thank you for your reply.

We recommend that you listen to music for the next couple of days and see if your home screen gets updated accordingly.

We're constantly aiming to improve our features so we hope you’ll continue using it and find it gets better in the future.

Cheers 🙂

Re: Only Podcasts in Start

SubwayCarnival — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 12:06:03 GMT

Hi Jeremy,

thanks for your replies but I do not think that this is an acceptable solution. I tend to use Spotify more for podcasts than for music so I will always run into this issue. I understand that Spotify should recommend content based on the users activity but why do it so exclusively?

According to this forum I am not the only person with this problem and since Spotify pushes podcasts so heavily I think more users will see something similar.

Best.

Re: Only Podcasts in Start

Jeremy — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 14:25:43 GMT

Hey @SubwayCarnival

We understand and we'll make sure to pass this on to the relevant team. For the immediate future there probably won't be any changes.

We are however continuously updating and tweaking our algorithms, so as we gather more data, the recommendations should also change.

Cheers!