Alternative music radio station?

[TheWards]

Dear Friends,

I've just made the leap from satellite radio to Spotify and I'm thoroughly enjoying this new prospect. 

But here's my question! Is there any way to get Spotify to create and/or play a current alternative music radio station. And if you can do it through Alexa that's even better. I understand there are plenty of alternative playlists, but I'd like something more akin to Sirius Alt Nation channel. 

Thank you in advance for your answers!

Jeff

[Peter]

Hey @TheWards,

Welcome! Exciting times ahead 🙂

A few things spring to mind regarding what you're trying to do:

1. Spotify has some pretty good editorial playlists for pretty much every genre/mood/decade under the sun. The place to go for that is the Search tab. You can scroll through the genres there and see what you find. On the mobile app for Android (not sure about other platforms), you can search using "alternative" and then filter the results by Genre & Mood. You get a neat list of all the different Alternative genres which looks like this:

2. You can also create radio stations based on a specific song, artist or album. So, say, if you wanted to listen to more music similar to The Black Keys, you can generate a playlist which will contain a mixture of songs by Black Keys and other bands with a similar sound. You can find instructions for how to do that here: https://support.spotify.com/us/article/spotify-radio/

Hope that helps! I'm happy to help with other suggestions if you have any questions 🙂

PS I just checked out SiriusXM's Alt Nation. Could you tell me more about it? That way I can get a better idea of what you're after.

[TheWards]

Peter!

Thank you for the stellar answer! I was beginning to get a handle on the entire artist-based radio station prospect, but you cleared 90 percent of it in one short post and I truly appreciate it!

Per your return question, I enjoyed Sirius XM's Alt Nation for a decade, but between militant DJ's who thought they were smart enough to speak on social issues (they're not) and a slow but steady gearing towards younger listeners (That's not music!), I decided to make the jump. 

In less than a Spotify week, I've also quickly noted it offers a FAR great variety of music in general. So, in my mind, an alternative radio station would include songs like this:

Solamente - Tai Verdes

By and By - Caamp

Holly Humberstone

Foo Fighters

Of Monsters and Men

Glass Animals (most of their songs)

Sir Sly

Mumford & Sons

The Killers

Sharon Van Etten

Declan McKenna

Death Cab for Cutie

Manchester Orchestra

Silversun Pickups

Black Keys

Vance Joy

Bastille

Chvrches

Foster the People, etc...

It would NOT include:
Maneskin ( yikes!)

Imagine Dragons

Milky Chance

Foals

Or anything remotely resembling disco - which can be great when it's done right!

To quote another alt band, "Not to put too fine a point on it," but I'd love if whatever radio station I created would throw some "classic" alternative into the mix. Things like Blink 182, My Chemical Romance, Radiohead, Oasis, REM, Green Day Gorillaz, etc.

Thank you again!

Jeff

[Peter]

Hey Jeff - I totally understand. Spotify (and in fact any steaming service) gives you a lot more control over how you listen, and having such a vast library of music at your fingertips is something I often take for granted. I'm thinking back to the days of iPods and mp3s where you were stuck with what you'd downloaded to the device, not to mention all the other amazing features that have come along since.

With the risk of being a bit overenthusiastic, I've got a few other suggestions for listening based on what you said:

*Note: I'm a heavy mobile user, so some of the features below are likely mobile-only.

1. If you have your own playlist (made by you) with songs from the artists you listed, you can use the Enhance feature which dropped a few months ago. It basically adds songs to that playlist based on what's in it, and you can then easily remove any songs you don't think fit. I don't listen to personal playlists much myself, but when I've tried using Enhance it's been surprisingly good. More on that here: https://newsroom.spotify.com/2021-09-09/get-perfect-song-recommendations-in-the-playlists-you-create...

2. At the bottom of every album/playlist context menu, there's usually a carrousel with 4-6 suggestions for Spotify-curated playlists which are similar to the mood/genre of the album/playlist, under the heading "You might also like". I use this one a lot - I'm a sucker for their playlists 🙂

3. If you've found a playlist curated by someone else (Spotify or another user) that you like, but there are a few stinkers on there, you can tap on the three dots next to any song and tap "Hide this song", and it won't play that song in that playlist. You can also "Hide" specific artists (e.g. in your case Måneskin) by going to their artist profile, tapping on the three dots at the top and tapping "Don't play this", and Spotify won't play any songs by that artist in any context (but only on that device).

Let me know how you're getting on. Also, great indie selection! I'm particularly loving Holly Humberstone, but I'd gladly listen to a playlist with all those artists. I do admit that I enjoy Imagine Dragons, but I appreciate that they're not everyone's cup of tea 🙂

[TheWards]

Peter,

Thank you again for the excellent response. With your help I'm now well along the Spotify radio station learning curve. I truly appreciate your time!

Jeff

[Peter]

My pleasure, Jeff 🙂

https://open.spotify.com/track/6dIU41Lx5NqUncAnPOJDco