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Spotify & "Song Radio" is Essentially Just an Echo Chamber & Doesn't Breed Discovery

This hasn't always been the case, and I don't know if this has to do with the amount of time I've had my Spotify account or if something about the algorithm has drastically changed - but whenever I start a radio based off a song or artist (which is with the intention to find a NEW artist or NEW music that is related to the song/artist I'm starting the radio off of) it just creates essentially a playlist of music I've been listening to - and not even within the same genre off the song.

 

I've realized that I haven't found any new artists or any new music, and just continuously listen to the same things over and over again which is quite depressing. The point of the song radio or at least how I use it is to discover new artists that are in the same realm of the artist I'm listening to, and I think you all at Spotify are putting everyone - artist AND listener - at a huge detrimental disadvantage by having it go that way because then there is no discovery for new artists and there is no way for listeners to get into new music without scouring the platform instead of giving good recommendations based off your algorithm. More than anything I want to be able to discover new artists based off song radio, not just hear the same songs I've been listening to. If I wanted to listen to those songs, I would just continue to listen to them. Especially since maybe when I start a song radio off something that is midwest-emo/indie, it'll still play hyperpop/rap in the same playlist which are two completely different genre's and moods.

Updated on 2021-06-15

Hey everyone,

 

Thanks for bringing us your feedback in the Spotify Idea Exchange.

 

Your suggestion has gathered the votes necessary and your feedback is now reaching the internal teams at Spotify. They're aware of the vote count and popularity of this idea. We'll continue to monitor and check out the comments here, too.

 

As soon as we have any updates on its status, we'll let you know.

 

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Comments
draketw

Instead of introducing me to new music, it just constantly plays my liked songs. This is not the point of radio, which is to introduce you to similar but unfamiliar music that you may enjoy. Bring back the old radio please ASAP.

LiamByrn_

I've seen lots of other posts about how the radio is an echo chamber. I used to discover a lot of new music through daily mixes and radio and now I am getting the same 10 songs every time I press radio and it's very frustrating. Please look into bringing back an old version of the radio.

thanks

draketw

Mind my language? Are you new to the internet? 😂 Spotify needs to address this issue. There are countless forums and posts about it and nothing seems to be getting their attention. Feel free to avoid reading things that offend you.

Ivan
Status changed to: New Suggestion

Updated on 2021-04-08

 

Hello and thanks for submitting your idea to the Idea Exchange!

 

We've gone ahead and marked this as a new suggestion. Spotify Staff will look into this idea once it reaches the necessary amount of votes.

 

More info on how your feedback reaches Spotify via the Idea Exchange can be found here.

 

Cheers!

HauteHorologer

I agree completely. The previous "radio" feature was the best part of spotify as it allowed me to discover new music. Now it's just "here's the last 20 songs you've listened to" regardless of what genre I create the radio from. The value of keeping spotify over switching to Apple Music has greatly decreased.

disher0

Thank you for making this idea post. I have observed the same thing: all the auto-generated playlists including daily mixes, genre mixes, playlist radios, and song radios have created an echo chamber only showing me music I already know. This repetitive, circular feedback loop is hugely detrimental to spotify as a discovery tool.

BigDoggeTom

Absolutely. When using the new radio playlist feature on a playlist, it's about 50% songs that are already in the playlist, 40% songs that have come up in the radio before, 5% new songs, and 5% new but completely irrelevant songs (eg. why is Rage Against The Machine popping up in EDM radios?)

 

No proper like or dislike options either, just a heart button (which adds the song to your liked songs, obviously) and a "remove" button

 

Edit: Since posting this comment, most of my playlist radios have actually been 48 songs from the playlist, and just two songs that were new

jhat2014

I agree and I also don't think it counted my vote. If you don't fix this then you have no idea why spotify became a success. If we wanted to listen to the same songs over and over we could just use youtube or return to pirating... 

 

The only reason people moved from pandora to spotify was because the diversity of spotify radio matched the diversity of pandora

sidlaveti

Do it or I'll switch to apple music. Your dev team doesn't think before making major changes

SamSamSamSamSa

I think this is a good idea