"Similar artists" is missing since UI update

[burph]

Plan

Premium

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

Since the new UI update which was installed automatically on my work laptop today the feature "Similar artists" is gone which was displayed at an artists page on the right corner of the site.

This was very helpful for me to discover artists that somehow have similar music content.

Can we bring that feature back in? Would be decent!

[Mihail · Accepted solution]

Hey @burph!

This feature has only moved a bit. Scroll down on the artist profile and you will see a row labeled: Fans also like

This is the same as similar artists, now renamed to make it more clear how that list was being populated in the first place 🙂

Cheers!

[_jbj2r-q9pw1]

Considering that section might or might not be there (some artists don't have it), would the design team consider moving it back (or adding a shortcut) in an immutable location? Or at least have the box exist with a "no suggestions yet"?

Otherwise, there's a lot of scrolling involved checking every single block to make sure you didn't miss the one you are looking for.

[Mihail]

Hey @_jbj2r-q9pw1,

currently there are no plans to bring that design element back. From received feedback, having an empty box is not useful and it just takes up display space for people who are not interested in this particular feature.

As the box cannot be a dynamic element, we've gone with the row option to find a compromise between including such a discovery element and preserving space for users who mainly navigate to an artist and want to listen to them specifically, which is the most common use scenario. We can look into switching its positioning but so far it seems it is a good balanced spot, as it is one of the 1st discovery elements to be displayed, right after playlist features (which itself is kind of a segway, as it does have an element of discovery but also still focuses on looking for more of the same artist).

We're noting this down though and will see if any optimizations can be done. Ultimately, we understand that we won't be able to make everyone 100% happy, but we're doing our best to find good compromises for both usage types.

Take care!

[burph]

Thanks, I wasn't sure if this brings up the same results 🙂

Regards

[_jbj2r-q9pw1]

Thanks for your answer. Though, as far as "unobtrusiveness of less used features" was concerned... tabs were working just fine and I really hope your team brings them back at some point in the future 🙂

(My level of annoyance with the new design is roughly around "that time the free spotify version served ads with malware popups", but I don't have the option to "subscribe out of it" this time and it's frustrating.)

[T1964]

For me the option to discover similar artists was great, the solution provided come's nowhere near to the ease of use before the update. The emty box on the right of the screen (friends activity) is also absolete to me and can be used for displaying similar artists.
kind regards.