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Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

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Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#331

Post by tkgally »

tehjoker wrote: post #324
brenainn wrote: post #319

A dislike button would be handy. There is that feature on some of the generated playlists, but I don't think they do anything. My two biggest issues with Spotify right now are: 1. Release Radar filled with re-releases and remixes, often from artists who have long since passed away. I want new music as in released for the first time. 2. Name collisions. I'm surprised this is an issue, but I will often get songs from d…

How do you find good music blogs? I've basically given up on the recommendation engines and I don't have a ton of musically tuned in friends.

A few months ago, I started listening to new-music programs on BBC Music Introducing [1], particularly the London program [2]. As you might guess from how I spell “programs,” I’m not British and have never lived in the U.K. But I’m an older guy who responds most viscerally to the same old songs I liked as a teenager. Listening to music created by young people today helps to get me out of that rut.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/M6hmZj0X5c8nxQQydf...

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p025tszp

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#332

Post by gundmc »

kfarr wrote: post #327
tehjoker wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you find good music blogs? I've basically given up on the recommendation engines and I don't have a ton of musically tuned in friends.

I still like https://hypem.com as a meta music site aggregator. Also https://www.indieshuffle.com/

I used hypem religiously from 10 years ago or so. Good to see them still around!

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#333

Post by cjlovett »

I love my Spotify, especially love I can now use it in my Tesla. I mostly use it for podcast channels, like Joe Rogan and Charles Mizrahi. But I also rarely use their recommender, I mostly know what music I like or I get recommendations from friends I know well. A dislike button sounds like a great idea, even if it is purely for the psychological pleasure pressing it.

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#334

Post by sam_bristow »

blackoil wrote: post #318
sam_bristow wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in a similar situation at the moment. Somehow Spotify has decided that I listened to a bunch of Hindu music a couple of months ago and now over 50% of my recommended playlists and podcasts are in that genre. Their refusal to let you delete history is just puzzling.

You mean Hindu religious/fusion music or Indian music?

It seems to be a bit of a mix. Some is definitely religious Hindu music, other bits seem to be more broadly Indian/Bollywood.

As is the curse of modern technology I don't want to interact with it at all in case the algorithm decides I'm into it and undoes my work retraining my preferences.

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#335

Post by gundmc »

klyrs wrote: post #78

An option to hide all podcasts would significantly improve spotify's recommendations. I don't listen to podcasts (though I have accidentally clicked on one, when a podcast interviewed a musician I like... blech). Why is my screen filled with podcasts multiple times per day? I like the music recommendations, "so and so artist radio," etc., but they make me hunt for them. Also, while I like a broad variety of genres, I…

I listened to one episode of "Call Her Daddy" because I saw it ranked as one of the most-listened podcasts out there and Spotify will not let go putting it front and center on my home screen every day.

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#336

Post by mattgreenrocks »

Arainach wrote: post #276
nkozyra wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like Doobie Brothers followed by Nirvana. What's inherently comical about this? One of my least favorite experiences is having a radio station based on a song and getting nothing but songs that sound just like it. Unless you have only played 90s grunge or 70s soft rock I'm not sure why this juxtaposition is not considered a feature.

That example might be OK, but my daily mixes include "Weird Al, Nerdcore Comedy, and also Radiohead" and "60s/70s/80s Rock and also Broadway Show Tunes". The transitions are very bizarre.

My recent favorite was an auto generated “Soul playlist.” It had some super old school R&B tunes…then Dark Souls boss battle music.

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#337

Post by can16358p »

I don't think it's worth the additional complexity and having a "negative" element on the user interface. It's not only about the engineering and sucking that last bit of optimization from a technical perspective, it's also about creating a product/service that people love and embrace. Something with a negative-though invoking elements like a dislike button wouldn't be in favor of that.

Spotify is a big company and I'm pretty much sure that they've thought about adding it multiple times throughout years. If they haven't, there must be a reason.

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#338

Post by kortex »

notyourwork wrote: post #2

I work in this industry and actually we’ve found from online experimentation customers generally don’t want to tell you they dislike something. The expectation is customers get what they like (relevant) and sometimes they want to express stronger affinity for specific things. The converse hasn’t shown to be true. Generally customers don’t have a clear picture of how their explicit signals impact recommendations. Thou…

> I work in this industry and actually we’ve found from online experimentation customers generally don’t want to tell you they dislike something.

> Skipping a song after less then 20 seconds for example can train a model as well as incorporating an explicit dislike button.

Really? Cause I constantly wish for granularity in my ability to dislike something. Insta-skip might mean I'm just not in the mood. Or it might be "never play goddamn clownstep in my neurofunk mix". Or it might be "I actually love that song but I reserve it for special occasions to get into a specific headspace and if I listen to it too much it loses spark". Same signal, three radically different valences.

I just wish services didn't treat all their customers like simps. I'd easily pay double for the ability to like, specify "Tuesday is flying microtonal banana day" or "start switching to prog house around 16:00 because that's when I start to get really deep into code but also easily frazzled." I'd pay gobs of money for Pandora's ability to discover new music with the library of Youtube+Spotify.

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#339

Post by hugocbp »

klyrs wrote: post #78

An option to hide all podcasts would significantly improve spotify's recommendations. I don't listen to podcasts (though I have accidentally clicked on one, when a podcast interviewed a musician I like... blech). Why is my screen filled with podcasts multiple times per day? I like the music recommendations, "so and so artist radio," etc., but they make me hunt for them. Also, while I like a broad variety of genres, I…

Agreed.

I love podcasts, on my podcast app.

I'm really disappointed how Spotify is buying several big podcasts and moving to their platform exclusively.

I tried to listen to a Science Vs episode the other day, and now my Spotify is almost completely filled with podcasts recommendation. Plus, the experience is still far from specialized podcast apps.

The result: I'll probably stop following Science Vs (and any other podcast that moves exclusively to Spotify).

They could, at least, have a separate Spotify Podcast app so things wouldn't be mixed (kind of like Wealthsimple has separate apps for Investing and Trading).

I'm still sad Spotify bought Gimlet and apparently will do (if not already) this to all their podcasts.

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#340

Post by johnsoft »

S0und wrote: post #329
brenainn wrote: post #319

A dislike button would be handy. There is that feature on some of the generated playlists, but I don't think they do anything. My two biggest issues with Spotify right now are: 1. Release Radar filled with re-releases and remixes, often from artists who have long since passed away. I want new music as in released for the first time. 2. Name collisions. I'm surprised this is an issue, but I will often get songs from d…

2. "Name collision" unfortunately that's not Spotify's fault but the artist who set the wrong Artists ID. So instead of creating a new one for themself, they just use an already existing one with the same name. What I did in the last i just email the record label ( if they have one ) and ask them. In my case i listen to metal, but every know and then a mediocre rap song shows up in my RR. Usually because the artist i…

Is it really that easy? Can anyone just sign up for Spotify as an artist and upload a Beyonce album?
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