Does the 'I don't liike this song/artist' function actually work?

[yvr2yyz]

Plan: Premium

Country: Canada

Operating System: Android 12 / Windows 11

Week after week the Release Radar and Discover Weekly playlists generate music using the same tiresome formula. And week after week I use either the 'I don't like this song' or the 'I don't like this artist' function to try to influence change (see attached). And then the next week I get the same artists and same musical selections all over again. One week I received three different versions of a song that I had previously said I didn't like! For some reason, Spotify thinks that I really, really, really want to hear nothing but EDM, and I really, really, really don't. Playing and liking other music doesn't seem to influence these two playlists. What can I do to actually influence a change to the algorithm? 

[Alex]

Hey @yvr2yyz,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

The Hide Song/ Artist function is not synched across devices. This means that even if you Hide a song on your mobile, you might see it in one of the recommendation playlists on another device or in the upcoming weeks. 

The algorithm does update, based on what you tend to listen to and the content and artists you Hide. This sometimes takes longer and it might look like nothing is happening. 

What I'd recommend is to listen to more of your favorite music with Private Session disabled. It also helps if you listen to content via the Search option, as content you listen to via playlists like the Daily Mix doesn't influence your recommendations algorithm.

You can also block artists you don't like permanently. On Mobile, go to the artist Profile > click the 3-dot menu > Don't play this. This is synched across platforms and you won't be able to play songs from this particular artist. In time you'll stop getting recommendations about them in your playlists like Release Radar and Discover Weekly.

Hope you find this info helpful. Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have questions.

[Digamma]

Hi, broken record here

Does it actually update the algorithm though? I've had at least one song from this artist known as "thegreatestbits" on my release radar every week since october. And I mean, without fail - there's always one from this artist because of their huge output.
I have them selected as "Don't play this", and they have been since August, and every single week I select "I don't like this artist" when the inevitable song is in the list, but he keeps getting recommended. The last time a song was played from this artist was in december, and that was because the tagging system within spotify failed, and just decided to play the artist anyways.
If the algorithm takes more than 8 months to update, something is wrong with it.

[Wally42]

@Digamma,

It is really funny that you mention 'The Greatest Bits', because that artist has also been in my release radar forever, and I've been checking "I don't like this artist" every week for months, only to see them again next week. 

The algorithm is completely broken in this regard. The message is "From now on, we won't put The Greatest Bits in Release Radar" implies there is a personal blacklist for artists on Release Radar, and obviously this isn't what is happening. So perhaps artists can pay Spotify to never be excluded from a user's algorithm choices?