Search API not returning some artists

[ammonha]

Sometimes the API does not return artists that are in the Spotify client. Not sure if this is intentional or not. Most artists return fine, but occasionally they are completely missing.

Example 1: Prince (of Prince and the Revolution)

https://api.spotify.com/v1/search?q=remaster%2520artist%3APrince&type=artist&market=US&limit=20&offset=0

This returns a long list of artist with 3 other "Prince" artists — none of which are the most popular Prince in the world. 

Example 2: Salmo (Trap artist from Italy)

https://api.spotify.com/v1/search?q=remaster%2520artist%3ASalmo&type=artist&market=US&limit=20&offset=0

Returns a shorter list of Salmo artists. None are the Italian Trap artist. When I go to the desktop client and search "Salmo" he comes up first. 

Anyone know what's going on?

[ammonha]

Following up on this question, I'm now seeing that this issue is not consistent. In the example with Prince, his info was returned correctly in some testing. But now see artists who were appearing, not appearing. For example, when I search for "Shakira" I'm not seeing the correct artist in the top 20 results. 

Am I missing a trick here?