Radio stations on Linux desktop

[meyertime]

Plan

Premium (trial started today)

Country

USA

Device

Lenovo P50

Operating System

Arch Linux

My Question or Issue

Hello, total Spotify noob here.  I'm looking for radio-like functionality.  It looks like Spotify has been steering users away from the radio station model, aside from adding a dedicated Stations app for Android and iOS for us old farts that still want to be able to just hit play and not waste time.  In any case, I finally figured out how to start a station using the web player.  When I do, it causes the Linux desktop player to play the music, but the controls on the Linux player do not reflect radio functionality.  For example, there is no remove/thumbs down button, while there is in the web player.  (This is also a bit counter-intuitive, since the app has a "Radio" section with "Recommended Stations".  You can also select "Go to Artist Radio", for instance, but it just takes you to a playlist generated with similar music, which is not helpful.)

So in other words, there does not appear to be any way to start a radio station or remove/ban a song in the Linux app.  Is there any plan to add stations functionality?

I know that Linux is technically not supported by Spotify, and that is unfortunate, because this may be a make or break issue as to whether I decide to switch to Spotify permanently from Pandora.  Yeah, I know Pandora doesn't support Linux either, but at least there's an open source player that works perfectly.  I am enjoying the higher quality audio from Spotify so far, though.

[Sebasty]

Hey @meyertime, welcome to the Community!

If you enable Autoplay in Spotify settings, then it will start playing an endless stream of similar music after the playlist or album ends. You can basically just hit play on the last track of the playlist, skip it and then end up in the playlist radio. 🙂

You can enter Settings though the dropdown menu next to username, or hit Ctrl + P.

Also, you should see your first Daily Mix appear soon as you listen to music. That also works like a radio station.

Let me know if you need more help 🙂

[meyertime]

Thanks for the reply.  Skipping past the end of a playlist worked OK...  There's a button to hit if you don't like the song.

It seems like more of a hack, though, than a first-class feature.  What's wrong with having the option to just start radio?

[Sebasty]

@meyertime 

It did use to take you straight to the actual station when clicking on the "Go to artist/album/song radio". It still works that way when you select "Go to playlist radio" on any playlist.

There's this idea addressing that. Feel free to leave your feedback there. 🙂

Note: on the web player it works the way you prefer - as soon as "go to radio" on anything is selected, it starts an endless stream. The 'playlist' is skipped.

Now, the question is, are you able to use that? 🙂 It should work well on Firefox and Chrome.

Hope this helps, have a nice day!