Artists section of Library no longer works after following 1,000+ artists

[MattSuda]

It's great news that Spotify has removed the 10,000 library limit for songs and albums, but what about artists? If you follow more than 1,000 artists, the artist section of your library becomes incomplete and unusable and it breaks the follow buttons on artist pages. You should be able to follow an unlimited amount of artists too.

In early 2019 the artists section of library was updated so that only followed artists would now show up in the section. Following artists worked just fine before this and it had no impact on the library. Ever since early 2019 when the new updated library system rolled out on desktop and mobile, the mobile app and desktop app "artists section" only shows some of the artists I am following. However, on the desktop app it shows I am following 2,300 artists like it's supposed to show when I go to my Spotify profile, but when I go to a lot of those artist pages in the mobile app it shows that I am not following them like it does show I am following them when I view the artist pages on desktop. There seems to be an issue with the mobile app having a separate "followed artists" database than the desktop app uses when going to the artist pages to see if you follow them. Another issue is it seems the library "artists" view doesn't show all of the artists you are following. If you count them you'll see a lot missing and it's less than the number shown on the "following" list when you go to your Spotify profile page. Artists that I have saved music from are not showing up. I only follow artists I have saved music from. So it isn't a problem of the artist doesn't show up because I haven't saved any music from them, I have saved music from them. Support wasn't very helpful solving this for me either when I contacted them several times. Using a test account I was able to reproduce the problem. So "artists" library section and artist pages on mobile only recognizes a small amount of followed artists and if you try to follow a new artist in the mobile app it doesn't save it. Solution for now is to only manage artists (follow and unfollow) using the desktop app. If you go to an artist page in the mobile app and follow it, Spotify will show you are following that artist, but when you restart the mobile app it's gone. Have to follow/unfollow artists from the desktop app. The artists library section and artist pages in the mobile app are not functional right now for people who follow a few thousand artists. Can Spotify please allow unlimited following of artists in library too and not just songs and albums? Following a few thousand artists means only some of them show up in library and sometimes will show you not following them when you go to their artist page.

Originally posted here: 

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Community-Blog/Save-save-save/bc-p/4964078/highlight/true#M17716

TL;DR: If you follow more than 1,000 artists, some artists you follow won't show under "artists" section in Your Library in the desktop and mobile apps. The follow button on artist pages in the mobile app becomes broken. So even if you follow an artist, the mobile app will show you are not and it won't save any new follows. Solution is to only follow or unfollow artists using the desktop app.

It's confusing to explain but hopefully you understand what I'm talking about. The screenshots do a good job at showing what's going on.

Screenshots below (note: this happens to many artists not just the one shown)

Desktop:

Mobile (iOS):

[Xenia]

Hey there @MattSuda,

Thanks for sharing this detailed description of your issue. We'll be happy to look into this and see if we can come up with a solution.

Even after the update to the new Your Library experience all artists that you are following should still show up in the Artists section and sync across mobile and desktop devices, as the list is ultimately the same. Just keep in mind that a larger collection could lead to slower loading times. 

The Following count includes also non-artist profiles, so this could be a reason for the discrepancy in number shown and artists followed.

Also, artists that you have saved music from will not automatically be followed due to the new bookmark model. You can read more about that here. 

We can see from your screenshots that the artist Chelsea Culter does not appear in your followed Artists list in neither the desktop nor the mobile app. But on desktop the artist’s profile page shows that it is followed.

Could you go through the following steps and let us know how the app behaves, so that we can investigate this further:

1. Unfollow 10 artists along with the music you have saved from them
2. Follow 1 different artist on mobile without following any of their music
3. Listen to a bit of music for approx. 5 minutes, make sure not to make any changes to Your Library
4. Close the app and restart your phone
5. Check if the new saved artist still appears as followed on mobile and in the Artists section

We'll be on the lookout for your update!

[MattSuda]

UPDATE:

Daniel Ek and a product manager at Spotify both said this is being looked into and we should be seeing improvements to this especially in the mobile app in the future. I really appreciate everyone looking into this. 🙂

https://twitter.com/eldsjal/status/1266651001844531202

https://twitter.com/AnaGrouv/status/1266054271398752258

@Xenia

Thanks for the reply and help looking into this. A product manager said that the mobile app is currently limited to displaying 1,000 artists and that this will be improved in the future. That explains why I am having trouble in the mobile app with artist pages not showing that I am following an artist and the artists section of library not showing all of my artists. So the improvements coming to mobile might solve this on mobile, but I am also having this issue in the desktop app. I am aware that the following count includes user profiles as well. I probably follow less than 200 users on Spotify. In the desktop app when I go to the artists section of my library and scroll down, it is a lot less artists than I am following. Now when I go to the web player website and scroll, it keeps scrolling down further and further. From what I have seen the web player correctly shows all of my artists in the artists section including the one shown in my screenshots (Chelsea Cutler). Also I know that saving an album/song from an artist doesn't automatically follow the artist. When I save a song I like I usually also follow the artist.

[Mario]

Hey @MattSuda,

Thanks for the updates and info.

We'll keep a lookout for the same improvements being rolled out for Desktop while we wait and see how the mobile-related ones work 🙂 

Thanks for your collaboration. Really appreciated!

[ebon_ibex]

Device: Samsung Galaxy S9+

Operating System: Android version 10

Spotify Version: 8.5.60.1013

Issue: Artist follow count feature is corrupt, not updating, removing artists. 

My follow count is vastly lacking as well. As a music nerd and longtime Spotify user my follow count should be at least double if not 10xs what is currently listed. I'm experiencing this issue on mobile and desktop apps. At first I thought I hit a follow cap of some sort but soon after realized that Spotify was actually unfollowing artists without my consent or knowledge. 🤯

[Elena]

Hey there @MattSuda and @ebon_ibex !

Thanks for reporting this info to us.

Our developers are indeed looking further into this but just as a heads up, we’re not able to confirm if or when this will be resolved.

We appreciate your feedback as it helps inform our investigation going forward.

We recommend keeping your Spotify app up-to-date to guarantee you get the latest features and fixes. 

You can keep an eye on the forum for more info.

Take care!

[urdaishon]

Hello!

Has this been resolved? I've been dealing with this for more than a year and it's a real pain in the ass to know that some of the artists you "follow" you are actually not following which leads to not having their new releases on the "Release radar" playlist. It's a big pain to have to go to the artists and follow them again, when can we expect a fix for this? Thanks in advance!

[MattSuda]

@urdaishon 

Thanks for sharing that you have the same problem too. It has not yet been fixed, I am still having this issue.

Spotify says this issue is still being looked into.

[DonKrill]

Having the same issue. Thought it was just me...lol

[Wuschel1505]

Hallo bis wann kann mit dieser Aufhebung der Limitierung im mobilen Bereich gerechnet werden. Letzter treat im Mai jetzt haben wir bald Oktober.

[DonKrill]

Danke Schon. 👍

[yagotanaka14]

same for me i would want to know how is the situation going with the problem

[Travelguy36]

I have found topics dating back to at least 2013 which explain this as an issue.  7 years is a long time to wait for a fix.

When I follow an artist and close Spotify, the next time I open Spotify some artists appear under "Recommended artists".  No matter how many times I follow some of these artists, once I close Spotify, they appear under "Recommended artists when I reopen Spotify.  The artists this happens with are random but, nonetheless, this is super obnoxious and tech support was not of much help.  I had tried all of the generic fixes like restarting my phone, checking for updates, shutting off and turning on my phone, uninstalling and reinstalling Spotify, etc.

The only "fix" Spotify tech support could offer was to tell me to create a new account and once I did so, they would transfer my liked songs to the new account but they could NOT transfer followed artists.  I follow more than 1200 artists and they told me I would have to refollow all of them + there was no guarantee this issue would be fixed on the new account.

Spotify, are you for real?  The onus is on YOU to create a fix to this bug.  The onus is not on the user, especially a paying one, to do all the work (and refollow artists), especially when it is not even certain the problem will be fixed.  You have a bug and the users need to do all that work (and refollow)?  Do you realize how time-consuming it is to find and follow 1200+ artists?  Shameful. Seriously considering not only leaving spotify but posting to as many people as I can, with the above reasoning, why it should be avoided as customer "care" is seriously lacking especially when the customer, apparently, is expected to do any extra work in regard to the solution other than a few generic fixes like restarting and reinstalling and updating.

[Brocky13]

same issue and I’m on my 3rd Account. Get this fixed Spotify 

[MattSuda]

This problem is now even worse with the new desktop app design showing my following count as "1,000" when it is around "2,300". Old desktop app design properly showed my following count. The web player has the wrong following count as well, but the web player is the only Spotify app that will show me all of my artists when I scroll through the artists section of my library. Weird since the new desktop app and web player share the same underlying infrastructure. This inconsistency for the artist following system and the artist section of Your Library across all Spotify platforms is terrible and I have no idea why nobody at Spotify can fix this issue that has been happening for 2 years now and I am not the only user with this issue. I even had this issue on the test account customer support had me use to test at one point and that account was following more than 2,000 artists too.

[MattSuda]

I came across a similar thread where someone couldn't see past 3,000 profile followers. This is different than the artist issue since followers list is only relating to user profiles. But it appears for the following / followers system there is a huge issue of it being limited.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Windows/I-can-t-see-New-followers/td-p/5170173

I don't have very many Spotify followers so I cannot test this out to see if I can replicate this behavior.

[Boxster]

The profile on the desktop app(or webapp) no longer shows the total number of artists with the new update(for both) and the following shows the same list that is limited to 1000 artists, but the open.spotify.com/collection/artists will show all of them, and that's fine for me, I would just like them to make it auto-sorted (or sortable) by "recently-added" to give it a bit more functionality since it doesn't help much when new artists are added to the list in a random place.

It's funny because I can remove and readd(refollow) these artists and they show up only until you restart the desktop app, then they disappear from both the 1000-list in the desktop app and the webapp-profile(following) lists.

It must have to do with the age at which they were added by me, but some of the oldest ones are still there, so that's strange. Apparently it has nothing to do with when I added them, there are some not showing up that I added recently.

Chelsea Cutler works for me but these won't for some reason:

Aerosmith,Airplanes,Amy Grant,Amy Winehouse,Angel Olsen,Annie Lennox,Aphex Twin,Arctic Monkeys,B.o.B.,Bastille,Bauhaus,Bebe Rexha,Beyonce,Big Thief,Billie Eilish,Billy Idol,Billy Joel,Bjork,Black Sabbath,Blu DeTiger,Blur,Boyz II Men,Bryan Ferry,Carlos Santana,Chaka Khan,Chase Atlantic,Cocteau Twins,Commodores,Crystal Castles,Culture Club,Daryll Hall & John Oates,Deborah's Child,Deftones,Depeche Mode,**bleep** Dale,**bleep** Dale and his Del-Tones,Die Antwoord ,DiVinyls,Dmitri Shostakovich,Doja Cat,Doja Cat,Dr. Dre,Dua Lipa,Echobelly,Eminem,Esperanza Spalding,Faith No More,FITZ,Flipturn,Foghat,Foreigner,Foster The People,Four Tops,Foxes,Franz Joseph Haydn,Frederic Chopin,Fugazi,Garbage,Gary Numan,Gene,George Harrison,Golden Idols,Graham Coxon,Hayley Williams,Hole,Huey Lewis & The News,Idina Menzel,Iggy Azalea,Inspiral Carpets,Iseeicy Hawkston,Jackson Browne,James Brown,Jamiroquai,Janelle Monae,Janis Ian,JARV IS...,Jet,Joey Welz,Johann Sebastian Bach,John Fogerty,Joni Mitchell,Kacey Musgraves,King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard,King Princess,Kristin Hersh,Lenny Kravitz,Leonard Cohen,Liam Gallagher,LissA,Live,Lykke Li,Madonna,Marcy Playground,Massive Attack,Mazde,Melanie Martinez,Meredith Bull,MIKA,Miley Cyrus,Ministry,My Chemical Romance,Nat King Cole,Natalie Cole,Neil Young,Nirvana,Noel Gallagher,Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds,Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark,Otis Redding,Ozzy Osbourne,Panic! At The Disco,Paolo Nutini,Paul Weller,Peter Bjorn and John,Peter Gabriel,Petit Biscuit,Pixies,Placebo,**bleep** for Pyros,Portishead,Prince,Rihanna,Ringo Starr,Ritchie Valens,RL Grime,SebastiAn,Shania Twain,Shawn Mendes,Sia,Sigur Ros,Simon And Garfunkel,Simple Minds,Skinny Puppy,Slowdive,Sonic Youth,Soundgarden,Space,Sparks,Steve Miller Band,Stevie Nicks,Stevie Ray Vaughan,Stevie Wonder,System Of A Down,SZA,Tame Impala,Tegan and Sara,Tessa Violet,The Black Crowes,The Bluetones,The Boo Radleys,The Cars,The Charlatans,The Church,The Cranberries,The Crystal Method,The Cure,The Front Bottoms,The London Suede,The Mighty Mighty Bosstones,The Notorious B.I.G,The Orb,The Pharcyde,The Police,The Specials,The The,The Who,They Might Be Giants,Throwing Muses,Toro y Moi,Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross,Velvet Revolver,Waxahatchee,Wham!,Willie Nelson,ZAYN

Here are the ones I could find so far in alphabetical order. What makes them different?

[Boxster]

They deleted many, maybe around a hundred of my artists with that update, since I've added more since, some of them include:

Jhene Aiko,Big Sean,Kelis,Usher,Busta Rhymes,Nelly
Childish Gambino,Kendrick Lamar,Flo Rida, Diana Ross, Bruno Mars, Jewel, Fugees, Pat Boone, Coolio, Sade, Jefferson Airplane, Def Leppard, LSD, BANKS, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Travis Barker, Isaac Hayes, Lana del Rey, Pantera, Boy George, Chrissie Hynde, Kiss, Eve, Ric Ocasek, Roy Orbison, Blues Traveler, Counting Crows, Robin Thicke, John Mayer, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Little Richard, Little River Band, 50 Cent, Major Lazer, Mandy Moore, Billy Corgan, Sinead O'Connor, Neneh Cherry, Santo & Johnny, Daft Punk, Beastie Boys, Moby, Interpol, Silk City, Etta James

Most of these I am positive I had, and the evidence is that my count used to be over 1400 and now it's only 1376

And these aren't the same ones necessarily that won't show up on the desktop list, only some are.

Go to open.spotify.com/collection/artists, zoom out and count the rowsX9 and I'm sure it will be less, very upsetting!

[to_be_still]

Just found this thread after noticing that artists seemingly got unfollowed without my doing. After checking the artist collection on the web player, strangely enough the artists show up as followed again when I check their artist page in the desktop app but are still missing when I search them in my library. Is there a different place to check the artists count because on the web app, it says I follow only a 1000 too.

EDIT: I mainly use the desktop app and that's the one where I follow artists which is why I haven't noticed the mobile app bug before.

[MattSuda]

@to_be_still 

Thanks for adding your experience with this to the thread.

---

Is there a different place to check the artists count because on the web app, it says I follow only a 1000 too.

In the old desktop app it showed how many artists/users combined you followed on your profile page under the "following" count. The new desktop app / web player will only show "1,000" if your following count is over 1,000. Right now the only way to see your true following count is to go to your profile in the iOS or Android mobile apps.