Radio Feature - Recent Algorithm Change?

[ymn83]

Hi,

I listen to Spotify's "Radio based on an Artist" feature everyday and I've noticed within the past few days that only the Artist I select will play on the Radio station, rather than multiple artists similar to whom I've chosen.  For example, I was listening to Black Sabbath yesterday and instead of playing similar artists, it was playing songs only from the Black Sabbath catalog.  It did the same when I tried a Smashing Pumpkins station.  Which is fine, but I can just go to the Artist page and play those songs by turning shuffle on.

The radio was more varied up to a few days ago, so I was wondering if this is a bug or a change that you've made to the algorithm.  If the latter, I think people would prefer to have it as it was before, at least I do, because it allowed me to discover new songs/albums by different artists.

Thanks,

Yaseen

[Peter__]

Radio can be a little bit temperamental sometimes, which application are you using?

[ymn83]

I usually use the downloaded desktop application.  Yeah, it's been very good in the past.  It seems to be OK today, but I figured I should mention it regardless.

[spittown]

Maybe Pandora gonna take them to court for the algo

[Peter__]

I doubt it, in terms of radio I feel Pandora are in a league of their own in terms of the quality of the recommendations.

However, bearing in mind Spotfiy have purchased echonest for recommendations, I'm hoping to see big improvements to Discover and Radio in the coming months.

[ymn83]

I have given the radio a few days because I figured it might be a short-term problem, but it seems that the radio is now fixed on only supplying music by the artist I choose and not by multiple artists within the same vein of music.  Spotify, is this the algorithm you intend to keep?

[dinomight]

I started having the same problem last week. I've been trying to get some further information as to whether this is a bug or algorithm change. I'm leaning more towards it being a bug at the moment, as I'm also sometimes getting totally unrelated artists, along with certain tracks playing extremely frequently.

[meahtenoha]

Hey guys! We're always testing by tweaking our features slightly to make Spotify better overall. We’re really interested in feedback and we'll pass it on to the right folks. 

I can assure you your comments are making it back to the right folks. 

[geolord]

It's all busted for me. Getting classic/symphony with my We Came As Romans. 100% useless. Since I primary use the radio/similar artist, for me Spotify is as good offline. darn, and just after the Windows Phone app gets the radio functionality. 

[dinomight]

Yeah, some of the stations I spent a good bit of time setting up with the thumbs up and down months ago have to be totally reworked. The unrelated artists aspect is strange for sure. Personally, I'm pretty much staying clear of radio (in my regular workday listening at least) until it's past this testing phase, as it's now quite a bit of work to listen to. The good news is there are plenty of good playlists to check out as substitutes... And playlist and track based radio do seem to still be okay.

[dinomight]

Had a chance to mess with the stations some more, and it does seem like ratings are starting to have a greater effect than they were the last few weeks. Still some crazy unrelated songs showing up now and then, but it does seem to be improving overall.

[lkilin]

I am having a similar problem. My previously perfect radio stations are playing seemingly random music along with the selected artists. No amount of thumbs down has had a significant effect on quality of lineup. I can't even bear to listen anymore! Back to playlists for now.... Spotify please fix this!

[mintman82]

I agree - it starts picking opera / disney songs out of no where! 

Spotify - please fix.

[ckugo]

Same here.  My Breaking Benjamin station only plays Breaking Benjamin songs and then completely random ones (completely different genre.)  LIke a song from the Pirate of the Carribean soundtrack and other completely random songs.  Please fix this...  At this point the radio is completely useless to me.

[user-removed]

Have the same prroblem over the last several days.  Radio is useless now

[Stacirob]

I loved Spotify radio until the changes mentioned in this post. If I wanted to listen to some random artist unrelated to the radio station I have been working for weeks to refine I would have chosen that artist. If spotify is going to slip new artists in that's fine but at least make sure they fit with the genre of the station. I do not want opera music interrupting Hayes Carll! It's almost comical except I'm paying for this.

[ckugo]

I don't think they are meaning to slip it in. The stuff I am getting is completely unrelated. I think it is just an issue on their end. Hopefully it gets fixed soon.

[Vlad123]

I am having the same problem, usually I really liked the Radio feature, but as of a few weeks the songs are often totally unrelated and a completely different genre to the artist I've selected. Basically Radio is unuseable!

[gnarielle]

I'm having the same problem that everyone else here seems to have. Glad it's not just me, I keep getting classical/Spanish music when I try to listen to ANY of my radio stations. Please fix ! My work week is going to be terrible without SPotify radio !!

[Nauni]

I very much hope this can be fixed because quite frankly right now the radio stations SUCK.  Plain and simple.

I created a station today for Chvrches, a british pop/electronic band and so far I've gotten TLC, Bethoven, Shania Twain... this is rediculous.  Shouldn't a radio station based on an artist play bands that are listed on thier "similar artist" list???  I've used radio stations on Spotify for months and they used to be great.  I've discovered a bunch of new bands because of them and want to continue to be able to find music similar to the bands I like.

***update*** seems to be working a million times better now.  THANK YOU!