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.

[jdemaeyer]

Hi everyone!

I have created a poor man's solution to break out of my echo chamber, at least for Song Radio and Artist radio, at https://spoqify.com/. It works by (internally) opening the Song Radio that an anonymous user would see, then copying those songs into a new playlist and forwarding you to it.

I'm hoping I can shut it down soon when Spotify implements a "disable personalization" setting, but until that happens at least I can listen to some fresh music without having to switch to another service. And since it's there, why not share it with other music lovers? 🙂

Cheers!,

-Jakob

[Bänz]

Jacob you are da best! I am enjoying it already! And it doesn’t start with the seed, even better. What a relief. Thank you!

[tzachar2]

Holy cow dude thank you Jakob!

This is awesome. Spotify should take notes from you brother--

[Or at least be clear as to why they haven't fixed this yet]

[rcs2]

Thank you Jakob! Just what I needed!

[andrewgallagher1835]

Crazy this has been posted for 2 years now and not resolved. When I click on artist radio I want to hear that artist and discover new music similar to them. If I wanted to listen to my favorite music that is vaguely familiar, I would just do so. Honestly so frustrating. Very dumb Spotify wouldn't want to fix this as well, it's the only reason I still have both Spotify and Pandora.

[Pleasejustletmepost]

Please make the radio more diverse and functional. I would make a playlist if I wanted to hear the same 30 songs; I am attempting to use the radio function to hear new music in a familiar genre. The option to seed the radio station to help the algorithm play different stuff would also be great. If I listen to 10 bands in a similar genre, their radio stations shouldn’t be literally completely identical. I love Spotify and think the app is incredible overall, which makes it unbelievable that the radio function is so poor. 

[Dmitrу]

Country

US

Device

Tesla Model X 2022

Operating System

Tesla OS

My Question or Issue

Every day, Spotify for Tesla starts playing the same shuffled sequence of songs in a large playlist. Basically, I’m listening to the same several songs in a playlist of thousands of songs all the time. It doesn’t help to turn off and turn on Shuffle - this works only once, and then the original ‘random’ order restores next day. It doesn’t help to restart or update the car. The ‘random’ order remains the same anyway. Tesla Service is saying ‘works as expected’ on any reported software issues. Please fix this issue. Is there a workaround that we can use until it’s fixed?

[Dmitrу]

I reported an issue with Shuffle, and a moderator merged that bug report with this topic about the radio. Who are they do decide that black is white?

[neiltarnowski]

I used to love Spotify and its will to introduce new songs on many levels, back in 2016-2017. Now, features like Song Radio and other playlists "curated" for each individual user are just backwashes of other songs I already play or know. I know this functionality is convenient for the average radio user, but for people who actually use Spotify to find new songs, these features have little to no effect resulting in not utilizing what Spotify puts forward. I have been disappointed in Spotify for this exact reason for many years now. For people who actually have a driving passion to find new and exciting songs, Spotify has been pushing their lazy algorithms and almost non-existent creativity on us ultimately making us use other applications tied to Spotify to find songs they should already be providing. Spotify, please go back to your original ways, or please provide a better code to drive us users to new and exciting songs. I know there are millions of artists and songs on your servers due to the growing user popularity, so why not put those songs to good use and project them? 

[Dmitrу]

Uploaded videos demonstrating a similar issue in Spotify for Tesla: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Other-Podcasts-Partners-etc/Shuffle-in-Spotify-for-Tesla-is-produci...