Playlist radio is missing on Android

[philipmacd]

Plan

Premium

Country
USA

Device

LG G8

Operating System

Android

My Question or Issue

I seem to be experiencing the same issue covered in this topic: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Android-Playlist-radio-feature-missing/idi-p/5153300...

I updated to the latest Spotify version and I'm still having the problem. Specifically, on artist playlists, there is no option for "Playlist Radio" on mobile. I have the option on desktop, but not mobile. This is very frustrating because it means I can't start a radio station based on an artist. If I start an "Artist Radio," it's really just a static playlist.

[CarlosE]

Hi there @philipmacd,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community and welcome!

Could you let us know if this is happening with any artist or just with some in particular? It'd be helpful if you send us the URI/link of a couple of playlists that you can't start a Radio from.

Additionally, send us a screenshot where we can see the options that appear after you tap on the 3-dot menu on the affected playlists.

We'll be on the lookout.

[philipmacd]

As far as I can tell, it happens with any artist. Although here are some specific ones where I've noticed the issue:

• Tash Sultana
  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E4yvrFcE1Ebu2
• Break Science
  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E4sdemXm7XsPG
• Pretty Lights
  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E4Cd97t6UDwH6
• Dope Lemon
  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E4zaVdowZRLbg

Uploaded screenshots of desktop (playlist radio is an option) and mobile (playlist radio is not an option) for comparison.

[Eni]

Hey @philipmacd,

Thanks for sending us this info.

We're afraid it's not possible to generate a radio based on an existing artist radio in the mobile app. However, you can have the same effect by starting an artist radio in the mobile app and leave the Autoplay feature on so you can keep listening to similar music.

If you have any questions, just let us know. 

[philipmacd]

I do have Autoplay enabled, but what you recommended is an issue because it forces me to listen to the same 3-4 hours worth of music for an "Artist Radio" (which is really a static playlist), before the autoplay feature kicks in. Is there anyway to get true radio functionality on the first listen every time, instead of having to listen to a full playlist and wait for the autoplay to kick in?

[Eni · Accepted solution]

Hi there @philipmacd, 

Thanks for getting back in touch. 

It's not necessary to listen to the full artist Radio - you can start playing the last song of that Radio and when it finishes the Autoplay feature will start. Make sure that the Repeat option is disabled so it doesn't start the same artist Radio again.

Hope this helps. The Community is here if you need anything else.

[philipmacd]

Thank you for the answer. I suppose this will have to do, although I think it makes the mobile app unnecessarily confusing by unnecessarily simplifying to the point of abstraction. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/laws-of-ux/9781492055303/ch03.html

[philipmacd]

Bringing this issue back up, because my experience has not been consistent with Eni's answer. I have autoplay turned on in the mobile app, but if I select the last song in an Artist Radio Playlist or Song Radio Playlist (including the playlists I linked previously), then press next track, it goes to the top of the playlist instead of playing similar songs. This is very frustrating because I don't seem to have any way to create a random artist or song radio with unique songs (as opposed to a static "radio" playlist).

[Alex]

Hey @philipmacd,

Thanks for the reply.

Sorry to hear that's not working as well.

This issue might be related to your account specifically. If possible, could you ask a friend/ family member to log in with their Premium account on your device and check if the Playlist Radio option is available?

Looking forward to your reply.

[philipmacd]

Unfortunately I don't really have someone with Spotify Premium available to do that.

[Alex · Accepted solution]

Hey @philipmacd,

Thanks for the reply.

We've done some testing on our end with the playlists from your post. With Autoplay enabled, the app correctly continues playback, but what happens is that almost all of the songs that follow, are the same that are already in the playlist. By skipping, we did get an instance of 3-4 tracks that weren't in the playlist, but the majority are. This indicates, that the algorithm just can't generate other tracks based on the source content.

Can you try this on your end:

1. Making sure shuffle and repeat are off.
2. Starting playback on one of the shared radio playlists, for example https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E4yvrFcE1Ebu2
3. Select the last song and fast forward until it's about to end.
4. Playback should continue.
5. Start skipping tracks.

You should see a couple of tracks that are not in the radio. When this happens is random, it could be sooner or later. A lot of the other songs will be the ones from the playlist itself, but in a different order. That means that for this specific content, there's not enough data to create a bigger track pool within this context.

Keep us posted on how you get on with this.

[philipmacd]

Thanks for the response. That seems to be working. Here's what made the difference:
1) I had shuffle on. Based on your instructions I turned that off.
2) I was selecting the last track in the playlist and then pressing the next track button. This would either end the playlist or start playing the first song in the playlist. Based on your instructions, I fast forwarded to the end of the song instead of hitting next track.

It's unfortunate that I have to jump through so many hoops just to get a radio station to play on mobile. It seems like Spotify has tried to simplify to the point of obscurity; it's not intuitive for starting a radio station. Meanwhile, the option to start a radio station is clearly and easily visible on the desktop version without having to jump through all the hoops. Why the difference in UI when there are a lot of discussions similar to mine on the web? There seem to be a lot of other people confused by this.

[Jeremy]

Hi there @philipmacd,

Thank you for your reply and confirmation. We're glad to see that it worked for you.

We understand that things can feel frustrating when things don't work as you'd like them to. Rest assured that we're always trying to improve as we always strive to improve our features.

You can read more about how your feedback reaches Spotify here.

Thanks for the feedback, we appreciate it. Let us know if we can help you with anything else. 

Take care!