Spotify Radio on Android: endless mode gone, stops after fixed playlist.

[tlangner]

Device:

all Android devices 

Operating System Version:

Android 6.0.1 

Spotify Version:

4.7.0.878 

Description:

Starting a radio station on the Spotify Android app used to start an endless mode playing different songs everytime the radio was started anew. Now starting a radio station creates a fixed playlist and then plays the songs in the playlist and stops. Redoing the same step creates exactly the same playlist with the same songs.

This used to be a crucial feature for me as I don't want to have to interact with Spotify to create a constant stream of music.

To reproduce:

1. (On Android) Go to Menu -> Radio
2. Scroll down and select e.g. "Rock" from the Genre stations
3. Observe that Spotify creates a fixed playlist which is started when clicking on "Play Radio"
4. Skip to the last song of the playlist and then skip to close to the end of that song.
5. After the song ends, playback stops.

Workaround:

N/A

I tried re-installing the app, deleting its data and even installed it on a different phone. But the issue was present on all attempts, making me believe that this is not an isolated problem on my phone but a serious bug in the radio feature.

Disclaimer:

I have posted this bug before at https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Spotify-Radio-on-Android-endless-mode-gone-stops-aft... but it was closed as noone else confirmed this problem. However I just stumbled over a forum post https://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Android/Radio-Stations-on-Android-turned-into-playlists/td-p/1... which describes the exact same problem.

[tlangner]

This post seems to hint at the same/a similar problem: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Desktop-Linux-Windows-Web/Bug-Radio-and-Playlist-Radio-repeats...

[Jason]

Hey @tlangner

Thanks for the feedback on the matter.

Right now, we're looking into the Radio works. We'll be sure to pass this information on to the right folks.

Thanks again for the comments!

[tlangner]

Why did you change the status of this report to "Not an issue"? It is clearly still an issue with me. I don't feel like I'm taken seriously, despite me being a paying customer of Spotify for the last four years. If this does not change, I might have to consider to switch to a different provider...

Regarding the actual bug: It seems related to using my Chromecast for streaming. When playing the last song of a radio playlist while listening through my mobile phone speakers, the play perspective suggests that a new song is lined up by displaying the cover of that song next to the cover of the currently played song. And when the song ends, it smoothly transitions to playing the new song and populating the playlist with a few more songs, which is what I would expect. But when I connect my phone to my Chromecast, this behavior does not work anymore. It even goes that far that when playing the last song of the playlist and activating casting, the cover of the next song disappears and subsequently playback stops when the last song of the playlist finishes.

Is this a bug or is this intentional? Please fix this as this completely breaks my Spotify experience and really makes me consider moving to a different music provider...

[Elenakz]

Yes, i want endless playback from radio stations. Not 20 tracks.

[hewtech]

so no one has an answer to this? please don't make me go back to pandora! but a cannot start a new station every 15 mn or i will be fired!!

[flournoyhenry]

Same complaint here. Running Spotify on Mac streaming to multiple devices via Airfoil. Radio used to work as expected but now the same fixed playlist from "Go to Playlist Radio". So this is clearly a product issue and not isolated to any one format or streaming device.

Rediculous! Please address as this is a must have option for me to continue my paid subscription.

[apertotes]

Why is this "Not an issue"?

[essenmitsosse]

 Same here. All Radio stations only consist of 20 songs, that never change and have to be restartet manually when they end, making radion basically completely pointless.

[mynameismevin]

@Jason how is this not an issue? I came back to here from Google Music solely because of the app (I was a previous Spotify customer for several years) features, but endless radio is no longer available? How is that not an issue? I'm about to go back to Google Music because of this feature. This is a make it or break it feature for people who listen to music 12+ hours a day.

[ScottEldridge]

Same here, and this is going to be a deal-breaker for me. I currently pay for premium Spotify, but I'll be cancelling and going back to Pandora if this isn't fixed.