What happened to Radio Stations?

[d34ry0u]

• Every artist's 'radio' (in the Windows 10 App) is now a simple playlist that a couple of people subscribed to - so it's not even personalised anymore...and no: I don't want to use/switch on-off the 'Autoplay'-option every time I like to keep the music going. I still can 'Go to radio' on iOS though.

• The button to create a new radio station is gone (in the Windows desktop app)

• I can't create playlist radios anymore. The option is just...gone.

I only recently switched from Apple Music to Spotify because of the better recommendations and the radio functionality and I'm already thinking about going back after my trial period.

Also, while listening to the old radio stations on my desktop pc I still have two thumbs up/down-buttons to improve the radio. However, the apps on my iPad and iPhone feature a heart and a crossed circle. Pressing the heart adds the current song to a 'Liked from radio'-playlist (completely ignoring, which radio station it was played on...it all ends up in one playlist...who would want this???), pressing the crossed circle makes the song unable to be played ANYWHERE.

Only adding a previously 'disliked' song to your library makes it playable again. You can remove it from the library after that, but it's not exactly intuitive and/or fun (there isn't even a message why a song can't be played).

[s-cjbikj_tpd]

Try email to support@spotify.com  They will intitially try and treat it as a technical issue.  You have to push to speak with the "Executive Support" team.  They will try and baffle you with BS, saying things like they are trying to create a "unified experience", but just go back to them and explain, politely that no, that isnonsense, it'sjust that someone made a mistake and this is a stuff up, and it's actually anti-spotify to lose the previous features.  Probably the support guys are as mystified as we all are, that some marketing boffin thought this was a good idea, so just keep pushing and try and get it escalated.  It's a mistake: a serious downgrade of the user experience. 

I suspect the change was driven by the music publsihers: I can't conceive of how anyone could possibly think it was better for the listener (the cusotmer!).  If everyone keeps at them, and explains it clearly and repeatedly, they will have no choice but to change.  The trick is to get out of this echo chamber and get more direct access, and to not take no for an answer. 

[cbriguglio]

I would like to mention i as well noticed this and was a little confused with why the option to create a new station was gone - hence why i have been brought here. I saw the review someone left regarding the playlist being the same as the radio function which is true so i simply typed in the artists name i wanted to listen to on this nice rainy work day and i was given the "radio" option if you type in the artists name in the search bar you will get the radio options back. I tested this on a few artist. It's odd why this isn't a simple option within the "radio" tab but... oh well i'm just happy it's not 100% gone

[s-cjbikj_tpd]

But can you thumbs up/down to build the station?

[cbriguglio]

update on my life - i have been fooled this is not the same as the previous radio, at least definitely not on my desk top sooo... ... i'm just trying to listen to gravity bro

[DavidP1]

Definitely not the same. Those are just more playlists. When I signed up for premium, we could easily save a radio station, like a genre station, or based on an artist, then that station could be easily found in the library, under "stations", and easily selectable in a car as well. Then that changed, first it started by not loading more songs after 20 or so, then the selections even disappeared. Now the only way I can select something that feels like a radio in my car (but without being 100% sure it's one) is by going to select an artist that I've previously set to follow, replaying those same 4 or 5 songs at the beginning, then letting it load more (set the option to load more similar songs in the settings, until that disappears too, maybe) at the end.

[jayjoyce]

As of the iOS update of Spotify to version 8.5.7.601 which I noticed yesterday, 6/14/19, Spotify has removed all my radio stations and doesn't even show the stations you are following in your library or elsewhere. 

The fact that they have eliminated my radio stations so I now have to search and find them individually when I want to play them is unacceptable.  It creates a danger when you want to find one to listen to while driving as you can’t access them in your library easily anymore. 

I’m going to cancel Spotify and go to ITunes with Apple radio or Pandora or even Amazon Music and will urge all others to do so as well.  Radio is the only way to be exposed to music and artists you may never have heard that your algorithm identifies as similar to the artist or song you created your station with.  

They just turned Spotify into iTunes (which Apple just killed off) without the benefit of Apple Radio.  I only hope that the media will jump on this and get some pressure on them to change.  If you know anyone at CNET, Gizmodo, The Verge or Wired etc., write them to let them know our frustration as I soon will. 

I emailed them and asked the following:

Where are my stations?  First you made stations into downloaded playlists that don’t allow you to like or dislike songs to make the station personalized for you. 

Their response:

On Jun 14, 2019, at 10:03 PM, "support@spotify.com" <support@spotify.com> wrote:

Hello there,

Thanks for reaching out. We understand you're a bit confused on the changes happening. No worries, we're here to clear things out.

At Spotify, we’re often testing and launching improvements and new features.

As you can notice, we're changing the layout of Your Library, as well as the way content is saved to Your Library.

Here's a brief summary of what has changed:

What's in the new Your Library?

• Saved content is categorised under tabs instead of in a list
• Music
• Playlists, Artists, Albums
• Podcasts
• Episodes, Downloads, Shows

What's been removed from Your Library?

• Stations
• Any old saved Radio Stations have been removed
• Radio can still be found from the options tab on artists, albums, and songs
• Videos
• It’s no longer possible to save a video, but videos can still be found in Search
• Made For You
• The Made For You hub will live in Home.
• It can also be found by searching for Daily Mix, Discover Weekly, Release Radar etc.
• Settings
• Now found in the top-right corner of Home
• Profile
• Now found in the top-left corner of Home
• Recently Played
• Now found on Home

Regarding the stations you follow, you can still start a radio session for any artist, album, or track by clicking the “Go To Radio” option in the 3-dot menu, or in most search results.

Hope we cleared everything. Let us know if you have any questions. We're always here to help. 🙂

Have a nice day,

Irish

Spotify Customer Support

And now you have just eliminated stations altogether?

[s-cjbikj_tpd]

Their answer is typically obfuscating.  The point is, radio has gone.  You can't "like" or "dislike" anymore.  It's not radio.  They think they are clever removing radio, then calling playlists "radio".  It's just silly, it's annoying all of their customers, and they respond with condescending statements like "your confused".  Terrible customer relations, terrible communication and terrible decision making.  Why did they remove the old radio function?  Nobody pisses off their customer base without a reason. 

[user-removed]

---

@DavidP1 wrote:

It's just terrible. Can no longer use a genre radio. For example, how do I play an 80s radio? Previously, I had one that I created in my stations. Now I have to go to search, then decades, then all out 80s, then go to the properties then choose to go to the playlist radio and.....I have no option to save/follow that radio so I can have it saved to my radios and recall it whenever I want. What seems like a couple extra clicks on the mobile app actually makes it impossible to use on the head unit of a car. Browsing through the head unit, I can see the radios that Spotify cooked up for me or suggestion, but cannot access the 80s radio that I want.

---

^^^THIS^^^

I've never been really satisfied with Spotify's radio in the sense that I like a mix of genres and styles. I never could really to get a custom station of mixed stuff to work the way I wanted it to. But at least it was something and I have found new music this way. But now we can't save and access these stations as easily as we could and is imposible through Andriod Auto. I listen to Spotify 85% of the time in my car. I can let auto play continue from where a playlist leaves off, but that takes too long if you have a large playlist and not enough variety if you have a short playlist.

[cjreeve]

What is even more backward the "Liked from Radio" playlist is no longer to add to via the radio playlists. 😮

So backward.

I miss Last.fm from 2005. I am still hoping for the day a personalised radio station exists that uses artifical intelegence to play music I like - not just feed me trash they want to sell.

[erock_c]

Every change Spotify makes has become so infuriating and midguided, and they care zero about their community.  They roll out changes in stealth and unapologetically give everyone the finger if they don't like it.  They don't even have spellcheck on this very reply form.  Good tech, but run by useless people.

So I've officiall had it, and I'm hereby rage-quitting Spotify in favor of Pandora, where they actually care about community feedback and serving them with the best and most desired features.  I encourage everyone on this thread to do the same! 

Cheers,

[drogue]

Uhgggg!

Mistake to remove RADIO as an option for listening.

Not sure why spotify would do this.

[mister_alakista]

I guess the best thing to do now is to talk to someone from customer support and get them to escalate/report it?

I just did, and I don't know if it will change anything but it's not that hard or time consuming to do.. rather than complaining to other people with the same problem.

[red718]

im about to cancel my subscription for he same reasomn, i hate this new design

[maciustv2]

I dropped spotify few years ago, due to the handling of offline playlists. Decided to give it a try again, 3 months ago. Surprisingly it just became worse than it used to! Radio stations are a MUST, this "new" experience is pure nonsense.

Byeeeee

[Silithas]

Thumbs up and down means that up adds to a linked songs playlist while down means you will hear less of that stuff you don't like.

But i rather have radio back because i wanna discover enw artists.

[Mrihar]

This is**bleep**. Shame on you Spotify. Ever since you IPO’d, got an influx of capital your platform has gone**bleep****bleep**.