What does it mean to 'follow' an artist?

[ansky]

What exactly does it mean to 'follow' an artist?  I understand that if I go to My Music > Artists they will show up in a list there.  But how is that any different than just creating a playlist for that artist?  Will I get updates somewhere for artists that I follow?

[Peter__]

Yes, you get a notification when an artist you follow adds new content.

[bzite]

It is actually really great - you can follow artist you're interested in and always immediately know when they release something on Spotify. I enjoy this option very much 🙂 

[ansky]

Thanks.  How is the notification received?  Does it show in the application somewhere or is it via email?

[adisib]

I believe both in the application and an email, though it may be possible to make it just show in the application.

[Jonahman10]

Adisib is correct; you can change whether you get notifications via E-mail by changing the account settings here.

You will also get a notification on Spotify at the little bell near your username (at the top right on the desktop, but bottom left on the web browser).

[hans-jürgen]

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ansky schrieb:

What exactly does it mean to 'follow' an artist?  I understand that if I go to My Music > Artists they will show up in a list there.

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You should note that these two lists are independent and not directly related to each other. If you follow an artist, it will show up under Your Music -> Artists as "Following", but it does not mean that all of his back catalogue is automatically added to Your Music. And you do not find him under the "Follow" tab of the navigation bar in the desktop software or web player anymore. You can find the list of the artists (and Facebook friends) you follow in your user profile under "Following" instead, one of the weird "improvements" Spotify likes to add now and then to confuse everybody. 😉

[rod_law]

I follow a fair number of artists but rarely get any notification of new tracks or albums. Am I missing something as I'm assuming this is the whole point?

[robot_tourist]

It would be great if there was a way to listen to music at random from all the artists you follow.

[fullagrace12]

I think it means that you get notifications when they release a new album or song on to spotify.

[rod_law]

^^ that rarely happens for me

[robot_tourist]

Thanks. Makes sense. Though I think it should be an option to listen to music from all the artists you follow, instead of having to go and select one, or select an album, then having to select another artist or album after that. Plus, often Spotify's suggested tracks are crazy, e.g. it only has one Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra album, so I shuffle play Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and suddenly it's playing some super-obscure random trance song that bears no relation even to TSPO's easy listening stuff. I'm down with the obscure, but I have my limits. On the other hand, because I follow a wide range of artists, if I was able to listen to them all on shuffle it would be super-easy to start listening and keep listening (more ads for Spotify!) and I wouldn't mind the strange jumps in genre because I know there's a chance that one minute I'll be listening to ska, then bluegrass, then drum and bass.

[johnvestevich]

r.i.p. rdio- it was so easy to do all of this there.

[elton5]

Well what is the artist i follow already passed away? What does following them do

[dangandini]

"Yes, you get a notification when an artist you follow adds new content."

This is SO not true. 

Spotify has an INCREDIBLE database to be worked on but their social interation is ridicously minimal - to the point of non-existance. 

The same goes for the playlists we follow and people we choose to follow. What's the point to follow someone if we don't get ANY notification? It's lame lame lame. The playlists used to send notification whenever it had a new song uploaded in it. Today? Zero. None. Nothing. Nada. Neca de biritiriba. 

As of today, July 2016, there's no reason to follow someone/some artist. Only frustration of a service that doesn't work. 

[perryamarcus]

this is totally true. I think someone from spotify needs to clarify this please. I don't even have a notifications area anymore in my desktop app. I follow all my artists so I can be notified as soon as they post new content. But this has never happened. Seems so obvious yet does not occur.

[vitar]

On Spotify web site go to Account, then to Notification Settings.

Just found that most notifications are turned off, which might explain notifications not sent for the artists I follow.

Checked what and how I'd like to be notified and will see if it fixes the issue.

[Jango17]

Did it change anything? In my case, I follow around 100 different modern artist but I don't any notification at all! I've used both the web player and application for a long time, and I do remember that I got some kind of notification, but that was years ago..

Why have a "follow" features when there's no good use of it? Remove the feature and put it back when it actually work Spotify, please! 

[the_train]

it was true in 2014 and 2015.  i don't know **bleep** happened but i don't get notifications anymore.

[xyzz]

Me neither. I just want to know when someone i follow released new music. 

I don't get any notifications at all.

And my "notifications settings" in my account is empty, there's only a "cancel" and "save" button, nothing else.

Spotify please fix this!