Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

news.cornell.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

351–360 of 660 posts

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#351

Post by NamTaf »

jonathankoren wrote: post #348
S0und wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Entity resolution is a thing though, and the Discover Weekly algorithm actually tries to combine artists (possibly due to collaborations), which is what goes wrong. For example, I follow Cornelius, the Japanese guitarist. I liked several of his song. So the data indicates I’m a fan. I’ve been recommended a new song by a different Cornelius. This other guy is an African gospel singer. I don’t follow him. Never even pl…

I wonder if, instead of a string match, enough people have searched “Cornelius” and (accidentally, out of curiosity, etc.) played the gospel singer’s songs that it’s algorithmically linked the gospel singer to the other artists these people listen to, which are then linked back to the Japanese guitarist.

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#352

Post by kortex »

notyourwork wrote: post #85
feanaro wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must say your dismissal of this is rather annoying. Multiple users are telling you they are facing a real -- and completely obvious and predictable -- problem due to the feature not being available. In a comment section regarding research showing it would be an improvement to recommendations. Increased UI clutter due to a single extra icon is not a good nor sufficient argument for not including it.

My dismissal is based on a many-million digit customer base and online real world data. Sorry if a few hackernews users feel they want a dislike button, most users don't and if you give to them most users don't use it. I don't mind disagreement but dismissing real world data from this industry is sort of silly to counter with 'because I want it you're wrong'.

This totally ignores effects from the long tail, black swans, power users, and criticality dynamics.

Downvotes are way more "potent" than upvotes. If I'm listening to music that I like, I'd say I probably log over 100x upvotes than downvotes. But when I downvote, I usually want to nuke the site from orbit.

What is the ratio? What ratio of users use downvote? What ratio is that compared to users that interact in any way? How are you controlling for sampling bias? Berkson's paradox? How much utility are the users that downvote obtaining, vs the disutility of being unable to?

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#353

Post by judge2020 »

approxim8ion wrote: post #59

YouTube music has both like and dislike buttons. I don't use them as much as I should, but I'd be interested in the results.

YT Music works pretty well for me, using the dislike/like buttons for when I know what I think about the song and just skipping when i'm just not in the mood for that song.

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#355

Post by Talanes »

oriolid wrote: post #149
dfdz wrote: post #115

I have seen this article before. The author are so close to understanding why Spotify does NOT need a dislike button >To dislike a song is easy – to like one, you have to actually invest time in it. Likewise, to detect if a user dislikes a song is easy since the user will not invest time listening to it: the skip button is the dislike button. In contrast, detecting if a user likes a song is more difficult: there need…

Skip could also mean "I like this song, but I want to hear something different at the moment".

Sometimes it even means "I love this song, but I'm trying to listen to something new."

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#356

Post by rsyring »

fpgaminer wrote: post #127
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…

Seriously. I listen to podcasts, but I'm not going to do it through Spotify, who's working to build a walled garden around a traditionally open media. I'm also not interested in Joe Rogan, which they _constantly_ plaster my front page with. I did try a Spotify podcast once. It was on my recommended list and was called daily dad jokes or something. Figured it was worth a quick laugh. Well it turned out to be a bot pod…

I rarely listen to podcasts but was going to try and listen to a specific one Joe Rogan did recently. After listening for a few minutes, an ad came on. I pay for spotify, why am I listening to an ad?

Anyway, I waited like 90 seconds and he came back on. Withing about 15 minutes, I had two more ads come on and they were 90 & 120 seconds each. After the second ad played, the podcast didn't start. Fiddling with it caused the podcast to start over from the beginning. When I tried to seek to the last place I was, it played an ad immediately. Seriously unbelievable.

I gave up and will never attempt to listen to an ad supported podcast on Spotify again.

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#357

Post by [deleted] »

greggman3 wrote: post #54

I cancelled spotify recently when I had a guest in my car who proceeded to play all her favorite music on my account. I wanted to remove her music from my history so spotify would hopefully not recommend her music to me but there is no way to delete your history https://community.spotify.com/t5/Your-Library/2021-how-do-we... Account deleted. I know I'm not the norm but Spotify has never done a good job for me recomme…

[deleted]

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#358

Post by 3np »

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…

Agree on the above (though are duplicates really that much of a practical issue? I did discover some Russian rap through that). I'd like to add:

3. Discover Weekly stuck recycling through the same songs over and over again (it's also years since the algorithm found anything new for me, apart from name collisions)

4. Geo-language-locking. My CC will apparently only be accepted with its registered address in Spain. I barely speak a word of Spanish and don't have interest in the music popular in Spain. Yet it's what they keep pushing me, especially podcasts (including any episode in generated lists). Long-standing issues on all their community forums for this, eg https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Browse-Allow-to-...

I recall a 100+ page forum thread on 4 but can't seem to find it now.

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#359

Post by jcims »

sam_bristow wrote: post #227
greggman3 wrote: post #54

I cancelled spotify recently when I had a guest in my car who proceeded to play all her favorite music on my account. I wanted to remove her music from my history so spotify would hopefully not recommend her music to me but there is no way to delete your history https://community.spotify.com/t5/Your-Library/2021-how-do-we... Account deleted. I know I'm not the norm but Spotify has never done a good job for me recomme…

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.

I just checked in to an airbnb and someone left their google account signed in to the youtube app on the TV. The temptation to spike the recommender with something is very strong. :)

Re: Dislike button would improve Spotify's recommendations

#360

Post by 3np »

campground wrote: post #200

I'm genuinely confused by people who complain about Spotify's recommendation algorithm. I have eclectic, often obscure tastes, and I've found it to be an incredible way to discover new music. I think you do have to prime the engine a bit. I "like" a lot of albums and songs. Every time I hear something new that I like I press the little heart button. Same when I discover music outside of Spotify (I listen to WFMU a lo…

I've been stuck in the same local optimum for years, getting the same songs and artists in the same genres (that I do and did like, but it's gotten old now)
Post reply on HN