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.

[NameNotAvailable]

Thank you so much, @jdemaeyer !!!

I tried that out, looks promising.

If you want something do e properly, do it yourself! ;⁠-⁠)

[Johan11]

Jesus Christ Spotify how long is it gonna take to fix this? It's getting worse and worse every day. If I only wanted to listen to music I have in my playlists, I'd just play one of my playlists.

[emma853]

Adding my voice to this! Spotify, please update us on whether there are any plans to re-empower listeners with their own music discovery again?

[olmosmarcos]

It's 2024 and I feel like this is still an ongoing issue. I went to Metallica's "One" Radio and got recommended many of the songs I already have on my Liked Songs, but also songs from Pink Floyd, The Doors, if The Beatles were there it would complete the Dad Rock Quartet. "One" is a classic rock song now, but it really should be matched with songs similar to it, not songs/bands decades in the past and sonically different. 


*None of this is a dig on any of the aforementioned bands, I love their music but it's time to mix it up! 

[Strommingen]

MAKE THE SONG RADIO FEATURE GREAT AGAIN (please 🙏❤️)

Heh! This has been bugging me for years but I only discovered this thread today. At least I'm not alone in my frustration 😅✌️

Been a premium user for over 13 years and have seen many features develop, come and go. Usually for the better but the radio feature somehow keep getting worse 🙈

To me, the mood/vibe of the track is what I expect to get "radio" suggestions from. But the "song radio feature" seems to totally ignore the mood of the track and give (almost) static playlist/recommendations as per both artist and genre. Ie an RnB slow jam from a certain artist gives more or less the same playlists as one of the artist's house tracks. At first I thought it was a temporary bug but it keeps on. And I have many similar examples from many other genres. Rap, country, house all repeat the same few tracks/albums.

I’ll give you an enligtning example:

EVERY time I ”radio” a 90s RnB tune it features songs from Lucy Pearl's album now matter what artist or song I "radio". It never fails. Now, I don’t mind Lucy Pearl but I’m an explorer and WANT to use radio to discover new things. There are literally thousands of artists in this genre/mood, why keep radio recommendations static? 

Or is it a bandwidth/computing issue? If you keep radio quite static per genre I guess you'll save loads of bandwidth. I might be naive but I don't want to believe that you intentionally would make a feature crappy just to save money on bandwidth right?

Dear Spotify superstar developers, please make this feature smarter and more diverse going forward. Many of us heavy music lovers would be forever grateful! ❤️🙌

[LadyPenelopeC]

Please Spotify - if thousands of your users are upvoting this - there is something that needs changing. Instead, the issue is getting worse and worse in that everything is now Made For me. Your AI seems to be directed incorrectly in its very purpose - users do not need ever-increasing personalization. Why not allow users the choice of Made for me or Made for everyone?

[user-removed]

Been using this app since launch, but may be looking for another. There’s a ton of music pushed to this app daily so there’s no reason for it to shuffle the same 15-20 tracks over and over. I can understand including some things I may have heard, but when the radio is the same 15 tracks I have liked for multiple stations, there is a problem. The app is essentially like being locked into an FM radio playlist, you have to really go out of your way now to hear anything new. Kind of funny we’re being charged for something so limiting at

this point. 

[bwayned28]

Yesterday I played Cake - The Distance song radio.

It basically only played songs I already have in my liked songs, many of which aren't even close to the same genre. Rage Against The Machine was in there like 3 different times, and they are not even close to fitting in that song radio. But because I listen to their Evil Empire album a lot, it put tracks from that album into that radio. It also had a lot of Tool, Queens of the Stone Age, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. I don't feel like any of those make sense. But this is a recurring problem, no matter what radio I put on, it populates with tracks I have saved that are only related in the fact that they released within like 10 years of whatever song I chose. Super frustrating.

[rydr83]

For a while now I thought I was doing something wrong. I recall when Spotify used to play different music out of my genre and I have now noticed that it plays the same Sh!t I've already heard. The worst part of all is that it keeps looping it over and over again like if I wanted to continue listening to the same song over and over when I'm not even clicking it. The fake AI DJ is even worse. It plays the same playlists for days. Come on Spotify, what happened to the original algorithm that had me discovering new music frequently. I can't say I have added much new content to my favorites playlist. 

[jtomusic]

Been following along with this thread ever since I commented on it a while back. A recommendation for you all, check out last.fm. You can connect spotify to it and it will track everything you listen to. They have a pretty good recommendation engine that will give you a combo of stuff you've heard and stuff you haven't heard. I've been "scrobbling" tracks to last.fm since Sept 2007. It's kinda fun to have all that history too.