Spotify recommendations is bad!

[Jondoe3]

Is there another streaming app ? Because Spotify updated their algorithm and it literally recommends the same 5 songs no matter what genre I listen to. Apple music is really bad , do we know if tidal is good?

[Hfrancisco17]

Totally agree!! The recommendations the past few months have been terrible. Spotify only recommends songs and artists I’ve recently played, liked, or listened to. I barely discover new artists/songs anymore in Mood Playlist or Recommended songs. I listen to a variety of genres and Spotify only recommends 2 genres- so boring. Their  recommendations are terrible lately ! I miss the old Spotify recommendations , discover weekly, and mood playlist algorithm.

[Loysplaylist]

I frequently get a chuckle from the recommendations. I want to see an even broader catalogue, there's much older music that was popular then but doesn't appear in the catalogue such as Neil Sedaka "wheeling West Virginia".

And it's not "gramophone days" old either. 

What's going on Spotify?

[vaajy]

They are always improving. I found out Daily lists were too much of what one already had in library.

Now they released daylist which updates severally a day and has many not liked tracks/outside library. Already discovered 10.

This is good if they keep it this way. Only complaint is that on that list no added indication in column.

This is important to have, so one can see when these track were added by Spotify.

Daylist recommended.

[xnqy]

I agree - every single song radio plays the same exact songs over and over again and I'm so fed up with it. The only playlists that have music I haven't heard are Release Radar (but that depends on artists putting out new music) and Discover Weekly (absolute garbage most of the time).

[swepett]

I came here because I also have issues with how the recommendations work lately. I used to religiously listen to Release Radar and Discover Weekly every Friday and Monday and over the years, I have discovered lots of good stuff. It has also been one of the reasons I have stayed with Spotify and something I have used as an argument when people ask me why I haven't changed to a higher resolution platform. 

Lately though, the lists are unlistenable. The reason being that the list have started to fill up with amateurs that frankly aren't very good. I would love to discover something completely unknown to the rest of the world, and it would be a very nice feature for artists trying to build a following, but trust me, there is a reason why these artists only have <1k listeners every month...

But this here is just a discussion among us grumpy users. 🙂 Has Spotify addressed this in any way? I would guess not. Not that I can find anyway. 

[onshay]

I'm here for the same reason. If I filter my "home" screen to show music only, I get nine (9!!!) albums/playlists suggested. That's it. Every time I finish an album by a particular artist, instead of offering more, similar music, Spotify plays the exact same song every time (for example, it might always play Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind after I finish The Beatles' White Album). My home screen is nothing but "your mixes," "recently played," "jump back in," etc. The DJ feature gave me hope but that's just more of the same. The algorithm for podcasts seems like it's gotten much more attention which makes sense since Spotify doesn't seem to care about music any more. Spotify, listen to the feedback or expect to lose subscribers.

[TransgalacticFelis]

Same problem here. Recommendations seem to be getting worse the more I use the app. How is that even possible? Just today, Spotify is recommending a podcast that I actually despise and would never, ever listen to, nor do I listen to anything remotely like this particular podcast because it is distasteful. At the very least, we need ways to fine-tune our preferences and tell Spotify when a recommendation is good or bad. Even YouTube will ask once in a while if a recommendation is good. While typing this comment, Spotify Community website interrupted my typing with a popup to take a survey to tell them how they are doing. Well, you interrupted me while typing a comment, so not great... Companies like Spotify simultaneously try too hard and not hard enough. With all of the advances in machine learning, large language models, recommendation engines, gen AI, etc., it boggles the mind how they can screw up something so simple in 2024.

[TransgalacticFelis]

Addendum: Regarding the OP... I agree, Apple Music is also as bad as Spotify. I have not tried Tidal, so might look into it, but probably not my cup of tea. The one service that annoys me the least is ol' Pandora. Some might say it's outdated and lacks certain features/functionality that we're used to, but that has its advantages. Pandora is still pretty good at both giving you what you want but also allowing for some great discovery of music you might not have heard but have a high probability of being interested in. Otherwise, I'd love to find a service that functions the way most of us would *actually* enjoy. 🙂

[onshay]

I kind of wonder if Spotify even reviews these posts or customer feedback.

Based on my Spotify Home screen, they're simply trying to push whatever is most profitable or whatever they've already invested a ton in. It feels much less about customer enjoyment and experience and much more about Spotify trying to force-feed it's subscribers specific content (why can't I hide the effing podcasts on my Home screen?!?). Feels pretty gross from a user experience side and I don't doubt that another service could eventually swoop in and eat Spotify's lunch - though, as a few of you have pointed out, not many major platforms are doing it well yet.

Spotify, if you're listening, we're aching for you to cater to your subscribers over your business partnerships. I'm sure there's a lot of motivation to prioritize the big money but, without us subs, you're nothing. All it'll take is another service doing it slightly better and you're done and that can happen before you even realize it. Don't be greedy!

[swepett]

I have Tidal alongside Spotify because you know they also have something
Spotify doesn't seem to care about - hi-res audio. For a while, I paid
extra for hi-res until one day, Tidal mails me and says everyone will get
hi-res, and because of that, they lowered my monthly fee to their standard
subscription!

So why am I still on Spotify? Yeah, who knows...

But, regarding the algorithms; Tidal is just as bad as Spotify. They only
make me playlists with the same 50 or so songs in random order. Oh, and
split up in different lists according to genre, because as you know, it is
impossible to have Dire Straits and Megadeth in the same list. 😭😂

[TransgalacticFelis]

Dire Straits and Megadeth in the same list would be pretty awesome... Thanks for the scoop on Tidal.

[angsumankar]

I have made this web app for finding similar songs based on a given song.

Try :  https://findmusicalike.app/ 

Love to get feedback to make it better.

[swepett]

All I get is: "Right now, I'm facing some technical difficulties. Please try again later."

[angsumankar]

Hello @swepett,

Thanks for checking it out. Whenever there is some issue in Spotify data for the track you have mentioned, it will give such error.

I would request you to try it out with few other tracks and let me know if you still getting the same error.

[johnibuckley]

I have been using Spotify since the day it released in the USA, in 2011! I was a "Spotify evangelist" back in my High School days and have been using it ever since.

From 2016-2020, in particular, I can recall the Spotify algorithm working very nicely. I loved the recommended music I'd find in "Discover Weekly" or "Release Radar". Like many in the early 2010s I used "Pandora" but ended up dropping it all together because Spotify was that good.

But what happened? From 2022 to present, I've noticed a substantial noticeable drop in quality in the algorithm quality. My "Release Radar" is now useless and recommends artists I've never heard of. My "Discover Weekly" also is mostly garbage. "Smart Shuffle" is a great new feature, but also runs into the same issues.

I say this as someone with a long history with Spotify who wants to love this app again. The music recommendations have gotten so bad that I've been tempted to switch to Apple Music, even though I have 13 years of playlists through Spotify.

Spotify, can you please take this seriously?

[angsumankar]

Hello Johnibuckley,

I have built a music recommendation app. Initially I built it for my personal use only. But later when noticed that there are many like me then I have hosted it for public use. If you would like to try it out here is the app link [ FindMusic@like  ].

Now this app helps me discover Spotify catalog in a new way and hoping that it would help you too!

Happy listening!

[user-removed]

Hii! Follow my profile for some good music stuff 🙂

[Sajgoniarz]

At least Discover Weekly is working horribly for last 3 years. I used to add ~50% of those songs to some of my playlist, mostly the one i'm using for work (calm, no vocals etc.), but since then i'm not even skipping the songs, i just click minus because most of them are not even close to what i'm listening to over whole day. 50% of Discover Weekly is Epic/Trailer music which i last listened to like 5 years ago. (Just get bored of it, because genre is now sick of Zimmermanism and everything sounds the same). Rest of them is either way too calm or contains vocals, which i only accepts when listening to Power Metal. It also likes to return with some already recommended song every month. Few times it even contained song that i already had on some of my playlists.

[phatrobot]

I am completely with you on that. Paid user since early 2015. It drives me up the wall when I get the same old tracks in every radio I play. They also removed "Radio from Playlist". I had a hundred different playlist to use as "prompts" for my Radios, now they are useless. 
I will be actively researching alternative platforms and looking forward to cancelling my Spotify Family subscription.