More relevant radio

[Sam_Garner]

Update from Spotify staff:

"Hey everyone! As this idea is quite vague and it's difficult to say when it has been officially implemented, we're moving it to the Help boards. From there we will continue to pass this feedback to the Radio teams--who are continually working to improve the Radio experience. 

Please keep leaving your feedback here, including the following details:

• Device / Platform you're using
• Approximately what time (& time zone) the problem occurred
• How did you start the radio session (i.e. started radio based on artist X, or based on song Y, or using genre Z, etc)
• Any actions you took during the sessio (i.e. hit Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, or Skip through a lot of songs)"

Original message:

Dear Spotify,

First of all, awesome program. With that being said, the relevance of music that the radio plays is really poor. The Music Genome project has a significantly better way of picking songs to play when forming a radio station in terms of relevance that the station was set to. Currently, when picking a 'Skrillex' radio station, the thing plays one skrillex song, then is giving me Beyonce, Chris Brown, and music that ultimately has nothing to do with dubstep and dirtier electronica. 

If you can integrate a stronger, more relevant radio I wouldn't have to use Pandora or Last FM as much. Even Window's Zune has the DJ feature where you can pick a song, and it then plays songs of similar nature. Unfortunately your radio is like listening to MTV or something that plays one song the user enjoys, then songs that fill the space between the next more relevant song. 

Just as I write this, Kelly Clarkson comes on the Skrillex radio station. This is not pleasurable, although makes me laugh a little when a completely irrelevant song comes on (sense of humor helps).  Maybe this is a product of what kind of licenses that you have with music lables, but it would be a good idea to integrate a better radio service into Spotify if possible, so that people dont have to switch between programs for radio and music streaming.

[Khalysto]

First, I am reluctant to continue paying for spotify because of the horrid nature of the streaming radio. My gripes are as follows:

1. Why is it you cannot implement a streaming radio feature that simply reads the Genre type of the song you started the radio station with and limits tracks played to that genre? If you want EDM + Metal + Industrial for example, you seed the radio station with songs of that genre. How does it make sense that 'Classic Rock, Jazz and R&B' come up when I seed a radio station with EDM?
2. If I accidentally double click the 'dislike button' I have totally screwed myself out of adding a potentially awesome song to my radio station. Pandora UI allows you to cycle back through your radio station tracklist to change your mind about what you've liked / dislike, so why can't Spotify?
3. If I accidentally like a song, I'm stuck with it. There is no ability to change your like to dislike. This is separate from 2 because I'm referring specifically to a track that is currently playing instead of a track that is in your list of previously streamed tracks on your radio station.

Can someone at least explain why the nature of the Spotify radio is as such? It's as if the radio development team didn't look at the competition's functional capabilities before developing their version.

=Khalysto=

[Danny1024]

I read that Spotify purchased The Echo Nest recently. Does this mean that your radio will get better now? I would love it if it was as good as iHeartRadio which also uses The Echo Nest for the song selections. I am also a Premium user and would love to not have to use separate apps and websites to get relevant music.

A station seeded with UB40 or Inner Circle should not include "Never Gonna Give You Up" or "I'm Too Sexy" just because they were from the same decades as those two bands. iHeartRadio gives me a much more relevant playlist with those artists.

[geedog]

Clearly, lots of ppl are unhappy with the radio feature. My patience is close to its limit, I feel like starting to look for a different streaming provider. I cannot believe that Spotify is giving up after having done such a tremendous job acquaring a huge user base...

[jmoons]

Spotify is of course not primarily a radio service. I also understand that this is a continuous process.

My frustration with radio (I use radio mostly with my own playlists) is that it's not at all surprising. It's usually just similar songs from the same artist, genre and/or era. Plus, there's loads of repetitions of songs and artists. Most of the songs are pretty big hits. What it would love for Spotify to do is get the 'feel' of a playlist, though I admit that's difficult. I may have playlists that have hiphop, country and indie and everything in between.

A first start, I think, would be for radio to add some more randomness, quirky choices, even if that might mean an off shot now and then.

[user-removed]

Hey there.

When Spotify started, these was focused on easily available music everywhere. I think they are still in same boat. Radio is just a good option, but most of people are complaining about stuff in Radio. I know the pain, as I myself mad with this stuff when radio plays things over and over again. Most likely they use some little playlists (automatically created) around stations and change these sometimes as in local radio stations. I don't know why they do that, if they do, but I think it's a possible stuff here.

Big competitors for Spotify still local FM radio, as most people listen these with Lady Gaga over, over, over, over, over, over, over, over, over and over again. Ha! And according to my idea about variety, they don't have any plans to improve radio experience. I'm sorry!

[PorterF]

Hi Spotify,

First off, I love your apps, integration, music and playlist features. It keeps music going when I am working and studiyng, but I don't want to baby sit it and create strategic plans to how I can coerce the radio system into giving me more variety. I try to create other stations based off of artists, or bigger playlists, but it still seems to play the same music. I have resorted to using spotibot, which piggy backs off of last.fm to create playlists for spotify. It's limited and its a workaround. The fact that this tool exists for a "premium streaming music" product is a major issue for me.

After 6 months of being a subscriber, I am frustrated. I hope that you guys can improve the radio algorithms allow for more variety or I am moving my subscription to beats. As I am sure many others have already done so.

In the compettive and growing world of streaming music, please prioritze making the radio more enjoyable and tuneable.

Kind Regards,

P

[dspeed]

Hey Spotify,

So I am a premium member and would like nothing more than to stay that way!  I love the library of music you offer and other features.  

That being said, I have never used a more horrible and useless radio feature.  It repeats songs with only ONE song in between.  So every other song I hear is a repeat of what I just listened to... very annoying (especially while driving).  I have tried creating extensive playlists (as you recommend) and creating radio stations based on those playlists, doesn't help!  It plays only music in completely unrelated genres.  Very disappointed in the radio service.

If this isn't fixed soon I will be cancelling my service and opting to pay for a Pandora subscription (MUCH MUCH MUCH better radio) and using Spotify on a very limited and free basis.

Figure it out!

- A frustrated customer.

[boss_skinhead]

I'm gonna pitch this app if they dont sort this out, I'm **bleep**in my chick to some kinky **bleep** then maroon 5 pops on

[OnBeat]

My Two Cents - which have probably also been outlined by other users above...

I would like to make the following suggestion because I have noticed several aspects of Spotify's radio that need some "nerd love":

- Create a playlist of "good" music / music that people who really like that genre listen to. Kudos if the station is also specific to my taste. 

At the very least, I would like to:

- Categorize radio song rejections as either "inappropriate to genre" or"this song sucks"

Because......

- Songs that don't fit the genre of the radio station seem to make up the bulk of my radio playlists

- These songs repeat, even if I give the "thumbs down"

- The same songs repeat on every radio station, regardless of the genre. 

In general, though, I really like Spotify and I hope that my suggestion isn't difficult to implement.

[Konga]

Eight months later and the radio function is still terrible.

Playing LOTS of irrelevant / not matching music. Rock changes to Pop changes to Electro.

Honestly, the Pandora service (or mainly music genome project) is just working out way better. I am giving up on spotify for now.

[link_]

I'd like to create a Chill/Vocal House Radio Channel.

Here a example what happens:

Disclosure Latch - like

XXX 88 MO - dislike

Pharrell Williams Marilyn Monroe - dislike

Disclosure Whats in your head - like

Sam Smith Money on my mind - dislike (WTF?)

Flume Holdin On - next

Disclosure Stimulation - next (but just out of fear it would mess up my list)

Flight Facilities Crave You - next

John Legend All of me - dislike (Trance, not House)

Disclosure Whats in your head - next (???, I begin to suspect the radio just wants give me Disclosure Tracks, so I don't get angry.)

Infinity Ink Infinity - dislike (don't like it)

A Great Big World Say Something - dislike (NO, you stupid thing)

Major Lazer Get Free - dislike

Disclosure Latch - next (Disclosure again? Another helpless try to keep me satisfied?)

Clean Bandit Dust Clears - dislike (don't like it)

Rixton Me and my broken heart - dislike (ARE YOU F****** KIDDING ME?)

Disclosure Flow - next (Disclosure again? Another helpless try to keep me satisfied?)

Empire of the sun Alive - dislike  (NO NO NO NO NO NO)

Iggy Azalea Change your life - dislike (darn YOU)

Haim Falling - dislike (it just gets worse!)

Sub Focus Turn back time - next (but just out of fear it would mess up my list)

Disclosure Intro - next (but just out of fear it would mess up my list)

Arctic Monkeys Do i wanna know?  - dislike (WHAT THE?)

OneRepublic Love runs out - dislike (Why me, why, why why?)

Tove Lo Habits - dislike (...)

After a while more.. I don't see any sense to try to adjust further.

It's just too depressing and makes me wanna break something.

[bpierce815]

Just tried to create my own Holiday Radio station.  I have all of my favorite Christmas songs in the playlist and even named it Christmas, but it keeps wanting to play very strange stuff like One Direction or John Travolta.  I don't understand why the radio station cannot recognize that I only have Christmas songs in my playlist.

[meahtenoha]

Hey everyone! As this idea is quite vague and it's difficult to say when it has been officially implemented, we're moving it to the Help boards. From there we will continue to pass this feedback to the Radio teams--who are continually working to improve the Radio experience. 

Please keep leaving your feedback here, including the following details:

• Device / Platform you're using
• Approximately what time (& time zone) the problem occurred
• How did you start the radio session (i.e. started radio based on artist X, or based on song Y, or using genre Z, etc)
• Any actions you took during the sessio (i.e. hit Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, or Skip through a lot of songs)

[dinomight]

I'm noticing that thumbs up and down seem to be having very little effect on any stations anymore, although if I do give a song a thumbs up or down it tends to return to the seed artist immediately. Also, some stations are giving very little artist variety. Below is a particular problem case I had today.

• Device: Windows 8.1 Laptop, Spotify version 0.9.15.27.g87efe634
• Approximately what time (& time zone) the problem occurred: 5:30 pm CST, January 22, 2015.
• Resumed listening to an artist station based on  NONONO. I'd given some songs thumbs up/down in a prior session.
• It played a song by Scissor Sisters that I didn't like...I'm really not a fan of Scissor Sisters in any way. Later in the same session, another song by this band played. I gave it a thumbs down. Then, later on, I got yet another song from the same group. I also was getting a particularly high amount of songs by Ellie Goulding and Katie Perry. It just felt like there were about 5 artists it was cycling through the entire session, and I probably listened an hour or so. This seems to happen on many stations now. I used to get a lot more variety out of radio.

[KentSwearingen]

The "playlist radio" function is a complete joke. I have a playlist that is about 50% classical, 25 % jazz, and 25% rock. When I hit "start Playlist radio" I get nothing but Bryan Ferry, Jeff Buckley, Paul Simon, Crosby Stills And Nash, Tom Verlaine, Leonard Cohen, Velvet Underground, and a few other similar groups. After more than a hundred tracks it has never played a single jazz or classical track. This even after i started hitting the thumbs down on everything it played. It would say "improving station" and then just keep playing the same stuff, sometimes playing the EXACT SAME TRACK that I told it five minutes ago I didn't want to hear.

[sethalicious]

My playlist radio is broken. I'm not sure if it's just stuck on one of my playlists or what, but I create a new playlist with some diverse music, but it will only play stuff I've previously liked in a different playlist.

I've tried setting the playlist to the current playlist. It doesn't matter. 

Example:

I added a gypsy cabaret band: The Bad Things.

...electronica: Crystal Method

... rock: Red Fang

It starts only playing Red Fang, Mastadon, and then Slayer.

I try removing Red Fang from the playlist. When I start the radio it plays...Red Fang and Mastadon.

So...does the algorithm favor stoner metal for some reason? 

[SilentNyte]

Please stop playing Nickelback!!!

I just joined Spotify and I started out by creating a playlist called Angry! And I picked my favorite song from 12 different artists. I thought this would get me a great distribution of good and angry music. Then on my iPhone I started the radio based on this play list. Ever 4th song is NICKELBACK WTF!!!

Here are the artists in the play list:

Disturbed

Godsmack

Korn

Manson

Pantera

Powerman 5000

Rob Zombie

Sick Puppies

Slipknot

Three Days Grace

White Zombie

NIN

[BobboZmuda]

Fix Spotify's radio service. I don't pay one of the higher streaming music subscriptions to have the radio repeat the same 10 songs, continuing to play them again after they've been thumbed-down, and playing things which are well outside the genre of the song or playlist which generated its content.

I like most aspects of Spotify. I want to stay here and am fine paying you money, but industry-worst radio is a glaring oversight that drags the entire product down and makes me and others less certain we'll stay.

Perhaps if the forums were littered with posts from users unhappy with the radio function -- you know, like it would be if it accurately reflected the actual sentiment of users -- something might be done sooner, rather than herding us all into the same rejected and ignored threads to add a +1 kudos. I don't want to leave kudos on something which has already been read and dismissed. The idea that we need to shut up and +1 instead of creating new and timely threads is insulting.

Again, being forced to "leave kudos" for a thread or two which have already been marked "Not Right Now" by devs who create and implement Spotify's changes.

Mods: you do the community a disservice by closing threads about how Spotify's radio is bad and needs to be changed, summarily directing them to what amounts to a dead and unimportant thread. It also creates an artificially clean complaint section which allows Spotify to focus on areas which the users aren't as concerned about. Leaving kudos in hopes that they'll change their mind is a contemptuous way of rejecting and killing the exposure for new threads about the same problem.

Fix the radio. 

[BobboZmuda]

Mods: Please read the bolded and underlined sections before closing the thread and linking to some other "Fix The Radio" thread.

[user-removed]

There are lots of topics related to radios that are bad and repeatative but no improvement for 2 years. Spotify is very playlist based at the moment and they include lots of songs that i don't like and it's impossible to eliminate them. I use Denied app for this on desktop but a great radio functionality would fix problem.