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

[cawul]

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.

[Gnomename]

Spotify as a paid service should cater to all kinds of users. As a premium service you should aim to offer the best experience for your users, whatever their needs. Just removing a function many people use doesn't fit with that.

[user-removed]

I wondered why I was getting very strange, jarring, contrasts in genres when moving to radio play, and pretty much the same 10-20 bands I already know.

Please, go back to playing songs by similar artists rather than what we already know.

[Martles]

Lately the album radio seems to heavily favor songs that I have already heard. It used to play random songs from the same genre, which was perfect to discover new music. Would be fine to just completely revert that change, in my opinion.

If I wanted to listen to my own playlist I would not use the radio feature.

[bjoern268]

This truly horrible. I tried Apple Music for the past week to see how their algorithm behaves and apparently it's way better than Spotify's now. This wasn't the case even a few month back but now the radio stations in Apple Music are far more diverse yet still fitting to the style of music I wanna hear when chosing a radio station.

[Serialkvetcher]

Apple Music discover can be a bit out there, but I appreciate them adding in other artists for me to test the waters. Meanwhile Spotify plays it safe. Cmon, shake it up a little!

[simplestuff]

I think we have to remember the majority of people on Spotify DON'T want new music discovery. They're quite happy to listen to the same mainstream/pop sings over and over again, rather than getting new 'weird' songs. I think Spotify has realised that these are the customers they need to keep happiest in order to maximise their profits. Every decision they've made in the last couple of years seems to reflect this, rather than being in the best interests of listeners with more diverse music tastes who want as many features as possible to find new and interesting music.

The solution in my opinion is to bring back all the old features which made discovering music so much easier — most importantly the old radio with thumbs up/thumbs down option for each song. This was the best discovery feature by far. 

But what you do is make these features optional so you can turn them on/off in settings. It surely can't be that hard for Spotify to do this and I can't see any reason why any user would object to having more optional features for listening, even if they would object to reverting to the old radio. 

Everyone would then be happy.

[mo_Thursday]

A Radio overhaul:

• When right clicked on a song, have the song radio Song Radio as an expanded menu (like "Add to Playlist >")
• In this menu have three options (all based off that song):

• Favourites Radio (the core problem of this problem is that it's not a problem - people love their favourites)
• Mixed Radio (what the people want) 
• Discover Radio (all fresh, all the time (by which i mean it has minimal plays by the user, and after a few plays moves to a mixed selection)

Funnily enough, a good Mix is the reason i fell in love with Spotify, as new users are presented with new music it thinks we'll like. This disappears the more it's used, like the flare in a relationship, it goes stale over time as the giver continually offers the experience it sees as the favourite of the taker. 

It's also the reason i used to love YouTube (and hate youtube music and other streaming services, which have similar issues), the algorithms never seemed to give a dull experience.

Lack of variety in Radio does have authenticity going for it though: like traditional, national radio stations, just playing the same popular beats over and over until the next comes out.

[dinomight]

I'd like to see radio be a bit more discovery oriented, but there was a time when I felt radio went too far in that direction and would play a lot of totally unrelated things. I think my ideal radio would be around 70% popular related tracks and based on what I already enjoy and 30% or so discovery. I know others probably want a much higher percentage of discovery, but I'm not sure how this might satisfy the majority of people without some kind of option where we can fine tune this ourselves a bit. 

[whosent4u]

Since different people will want different degrees of "discovery" in the radio, it sounds like we need more ways to give feedback on suggestions. This also applies to songs that are Recommended when you create your own playlists. There can be options for Like, Dislike, Known/Snooze and New. Basically options for when a song you already know and like comes up, and you don't want the algorithm to keep pulling it as a recommendation, or you want Spotify to know the song is new to you. That could give the algorithm more info to work with on what each person really wants when they use Radio or Recommendations, more than just number of plays or other more simplified feedback (Likes). 

[osornios]

Updated on 2021-04-21

Hey @tzachar2 

Your Idea has been submitted a while ago, and unfortunately hasn't gathered enough votes (50 votes within 3 months) to keep it active in the Exchange. Be sure to know that this does not mean that your Idea has been declined by Spotify.

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