Unexpected Release Radar updates

[lefibbo]

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

across all devices (Android app, Windows desktop app, web browser, ...)

Operating System

see above

My Question or Issue

For a few weeks now, I have been noticing unexpected changes to my weekly Release Radar. I usually check the Release Radar on Friday, then listen to all the songs on there throughout the weekend, save songs I like to my personal playlists, etc.

What I mean by unexpected changes is this: After the intial update on Friday, my Release Radar will often get another update on Saturday or maybe even Friday night. After this second update, most of the songs from the intial update are usually still there but some are replaced by different songs while others simple change positions in the playlist.

To me, this is an inconvenience because I'm not always able to save songs I like to my library right away, and it has happened that wasn't able to find a song I liked because the Release Radar has changed in the meantime.

Here's an example of the kind of changes I'm talking about.

This was my Release Radar as of Friday, October 22, 2021 around noon:

1. Sickle and Peace, Mastodon
2. Enemy, Swallow the Sun
3. Magura‘s Last Kiss, Ignea
4. Speed Dating an Arsonist, Diablo Swing Orchestra
5. Road Trip, Ninja **bleep** Party
6. Like It‘s the First Time, Skinny Lister
7. Fisher Island Sound, Beirut
8. Field of Sorrow – Orchestral Version, Orden Ogan
9. Deceiver, Deceiver, Arch Enemy
10 Grim Awakening, Sarke
11. Warm Seas – Nothing But The Truth, The Pineapple Thief
12. Halloween, Faun
13. Immaculate Deception, The Agonist
14. Silly Boy Blue – Alternative Ending Mix, David Bowie
15. Alles verkacken, The toten Crackhuren im Kofferraum
16. Culture War, Twelve Foot Ninja
17. Bartzabel, Behemoth
18. House of Cadmus, Khemmis
19. Nuages, Wiegedood
20. Trance V: Cerulean Sun, Anomalie & Sakis Tolis
21. Passenger, Wilderun
22. Bela Lugosi‘s Dead, Frayle
23. Empire of Lies, Grand Cadaver
24. Blooms of Oblivion, Emma Ruth Rundle
25. Orphan, Whitechapel
26. In Colour, The Gathering
27. Dominion of Cain, Nothgard
28. Yörn Torni, Havukruunu
29. Refuturing, Maybeshewill & Marcus Joseph
30. KFM, Die Ärzte

And this was my Release Radar by Friday, October 22, 2021 around midnight:

1. Sickle and Peace, Mastodon
2. Enemy, Swallow the Sun
3. Magura‘s Last Kiss, Ignea
4. Speed Dating an Arsonist, Diablo Swing Orchestra
5. Road Trip, Ninja **bleep** Party
6. Like It‘s the First Time, Skinny Lister
7. Fisher Island Sound, Beirut
8. Field of Sorrow – Orchestral Version, Orden Ogan
9. Deceiver, Deceiver, Arch Enemy
10 Grim Awakening, Sarke
11. Warm Seas – Nothing But The Truth, The Pineapple Thief
12. Halloween, Faun
13. Immaculate Deception, The Agonist
14. Silly Boy Blue – Alternative Ending Mix, David Bowie
15. Alles verkacken, The toten Crackhuren im Kofferraum
16. Tangled, Twelve Foot Ninja
17. Passenger, Wilderun
18. Nuages, Wiegedood
19. House of Cadmus, Khemmis
20. Bartzabel, Behemoth
21. Trance V: Cerulean Sun, Anomalie & Sakis Tolis
22. Blooms of Oblivion, Emma Ruth Rundle
23. Orphan, Whitechapel
24. In Colour, The Gathering
25. Dominion of Cain, Nothgard
26. Bela Lugosi‘s Dead, Frayle
27. Empire of Lies, Grand Cadaver
28. The Necklace, Kayo Dot
29. Yörn Torni, Havukruunu
30. Coast of Barbary, Four Stroke Baron

As you can see, three songs have been completely replaced, seven songs have changed positions in the playlist.

I don't think these additional updates are supposed to happen. I would appreciate

a) some feedback on why this is happening, and

b) a bugfix that gets rid of these unexpected updates.

Thank you!

[CarlosE]

Hey there @lefibbo,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community and welcome!

It could've been due to a hiccup when syncing to the servers. We suggest logging out, restarting your device, and logging back. It's also worth restarting the app twice in a row to force a resync.

If you notice this in your next Release Radar, it may be a good idea to run a clean reinstall of the app by following these steps. This can be helpful to get rid of any cached files that might be causing trouble.

Hope this helps. The Community is here in case you have any questions.

[lefibbo]

Dear Carlos,

Thanks for your reply.

I'm not sure if this is really a synchronization issue between my app and the server because I use Spotify on multiple devices (desktop app for Windows, mobile app for Android, ...) and I always get the same behavior on all my devices. What I mean is that when I get an unexpected update, I always see the same updated playlist on all my devices, and I never have a situation where I get different playlists on different devices.

Still, I tried the steps you recommended (logging out, restarting my device, logging back in / restarting the app twice in a row) and will let you know if the issue occurs again.

By the way: I got another update to my Release Radar today (Sunday) prior to me trying out the steps you recommended. This time, six songs were replaced by different songs.

[Eni]

Hi @lefibbo,

Thanks for getting back to us. 

We're currently running some tests to improve the Release Radar playlist. That's why you might've been having a different experience with the playlist. We’re always testing possible improvements and new features, so you might see something on the app that other users don't, or get a brand-new feature for only a temporary period.

We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us and will make sure to pass it onto the right team, as we always strive to improve your experience.

Hope this clears things up. If you have any questions or need anything else, the Community is here for you.

[lefibbo]

I'm not sure what to take from this. Should I simply not expect my Release Radar to only update once a  week but instead expect it to change any day?

Because that is exactly what keeps happening. This week, my Release Radar was updated from Friday to Saturday (exchanging 1 song for a new song) and changing the queue order of 1 other song; and then it changed again from Saturday to Sunday (exchanging a total of 10 songs for new songs).

[mfaheyii]

I have been experiencing this precise behavior, across multiple apps and across multiple platforms, for about eight weeks now.  I am pulling my hair out with the inconsistency.  In fact, this week my RR has gone from 51 on Friday to 47 songs today, and I've even had one song that was a mid-week replacement last week reappear this week and stay there for the entire week.  Sometimes, I hear the entire list on Friday morning , then I go back and re-listen more carefully later on Friday, and the list has already changed, with bands added or songs swapped out.  

I feel like I am at my wits end.  I LOVE the Release Radar; for the widely documented issues it has, it is still one of my favorite Spotify features.  I don't always like what's on my RR, but please do NOT change the list mid-week and give me a chance to hear the 3 - 4 hours of music closely and carefully so I can give it the critical evaluation it deserves and not make a snap like/dislike decision.

[Kiril]

Hey @mfaheyii,

Thanks for posting in the Community!

It's cool taking the time to share your feedback with us about the Release Radar playlist. Be sure we make sure to pass it onto the right team, as we always strive to improve your experience.

As @Eni mentioned above, there are some ongoing tests to improve the Release Radar functionalities and how well it presents new releases to everyone. That's why you might've been having a different experience with the playlist lately. Not to worry, it will remain a weekly playlist but instead of a single instance of it getting updated it's now a more gradual process and that can sometimes take longer to complete fully.

Hope this clears things up. If you have any questions or need anything else, the Community is here for you.

[thedeclaimer]

I just noticed this too. I normally go through my Release Radar on Friday, saving the music I like to my playlists etc.

Decided to check it again on a Sunday. Most of the same songs are still there but quite a few have been replaced with entirely new songs.

[ntc85]

Hi, this has been happening to me for at least a month. Sometimes it replaces one song by an artist with another of the same artist. This week, it has updated at least twice. I listened to all the songs on the playlist, having added to them my queue. I happened to look back at the playlist while the songs were still playing from my queue, and the playlist had already been updated. I then also listened to the new songs that were added, but now two days later, I've checked the playlist again, and it has been updated yet again with just a few changes. 

If this statement from a mod above is true -- "Not to worry, it will remain a weekly playlist but instead of a single instance of it getting updated it's now a more gradual process and that can sometimes take longer to complete fully. -- I do not understand how it's an improvement in functionality. It defeats the purpose of a weekly playlist. If you want to give me more regular updates of new songs I might like, I think it would make more sense to give me a notification when the songs are added, and remove the songs from the playlist that I've already listened to. It doesn't make sense to me to gradually update a weekly playlist and not notify the user updates have been made. 

[lefibbo]

I'm sorry to say this is getting ridiculous. I barely had the chance to start listening to the release radar before it was turned completely upside down.

I looked through the original playlist and it was OK for the most part; there were two or three songs on there that had already been included in previous weeks (which I understand isn't supposed to happen at all) but whatever. But then, only two or three hours later, almost the whole playlist was replaced by what is essentially last week's release radar. Only the first ten songs remained. The rest is just gone and replaced with stuff I already know. This sort of thing keeps happening but this is the most extreme case yet. 

Please don't tell me that you're tweaking the playlist to improve my experience or that it's some new feature you're testing out because I just don't buy it anymore. This does not seem intentional in the least and I can tell you for sure that it's not what I want from the release radar. And from what I can tell from the other comments in this thread, it's not just me either, the release radar as it currently functions simply isn't serving its purpose.

Just to spell it out, these are my expectations regarding the release radar:

• I want a weekly updated playlist that gives me new songs by artists I follow and artist your algorithm determines I might like.
• MUST HAVE: I don't want the playlist to include any songs that I already listened to (either through previous release radars or through my own exploration).
• MUST HAVE: I don't want the playlist to remove any songs mid-week that I haven't listened to yet.
• MUST HAVE: If I tag a song as "I don't like the artist", I don't want future playlists contain any other songs by this artist. (This is something I haven't touched on at all so far, but this also isn't working. The PC app shows a popup that you won't include songs by this artist in the future but it keeps happening anyway.)
• OPTIONAL: I don't want the playlist to contain multiple songs by the same artist in one week. (This is working fine. I haven't had any cases so far where I had multiple songs by the same artist. I'm just mentioning it for the sake of completeness.)
• OPTIONAL: I'm happy with the current 30-song length of the playlist but I'd much rather have a playlist with variable length (i. e. a playlist that might be a bit shorter in a week where there are not as many interesting new releases for me) than a playlist that contains songs I already know.
• OPTIONAL: I don't want the playlist to change mid-week. (I guess I could live with mid-week updates if all the other requirements were fulfilled but that's definitely not the case right now.)

I hope this is at all helpful and I'd be happy to hear back from you.

[mfaheyii]

I'm so glad to know I am not the only person experiencing this and frustrated by it.  I agree with most of your well-articulated points above. I do wish to add a few personal observations:

* I do NOT want the playlist to change mid-week, regardless of whether I've heard the song.  Sometimes I need to hear a song multiple times over the course of a few days to determine how I will treat it (whether to like it, which playlist(s) to add it to, etc.).  I don't want the song to disappear while I am evaluating it, especially during busy weeks when I can't give a song the proper attention until Wednesday or Thursday.

* I am already currently receiving variable-length release radar lists, usually longer.  Today's is 55 songs.  (What can I say, I like a lot of artists.)  But having longer lists emphasizes the importance of the point above.  Determine a list for a full week, keep it unchanged for 7 days, then respin it on Friday.  This does NOT seem like it would be a challenge to program.

I too would love to get additional insight from the Spotify team.

[mollkai28]

Hi,

I´ve been experiencing the same problems with the release radar for some time now and it´s getting increasingly frustrating. Moreover, I've been waiting for the announce high resolution option for some time now. The release radar has been the single one feature, that had me sticking to Spotify. If you don`t fix the problems soon, there is no reason for me anymore, not to switch to Tidal. As there have been no answers by you here for some time now, it seems, that you have given up on the problem, or will you deign to give me a reply?

[Nuith]

Same problem here. It's very frustrating. At first I thought I was going crazy but this happens weekly. This weekend I've noticed it even more so. The playlist changed between Friday and Saturday and yet again today (Sunday). This week a total of 7 songs have been changed on my playlist. Two of which were songs being swapped with other songs on the same album. The other 5 were completely brand new to my playlist as of Saturday and Sunday respectively.

[bc_kuma]

Yes, please don't meddle with the Release Radar once published. Second week in a row I've lost music I want to listen to again but they're missing once I return to release radar. 

[user-removed]

Same problem.

[actuallyrocio]

I'm so glad I found this thread, because I feel the exact same level of frustration as everyone else here. I've been experiencing these issues both with my Release Radar and Discover Weekly for a LONG time now. This time, I had already saved 4 songs from my Release Radar to my Liked Songs on Friday (thank god for that, else they'd be completely lost) and was really looking forward to listening to the rest of the playlist as it was, since it was quite a promising one. Today, on Monday, I open my app to go listen to the rest and all the songs I had liked disappeared and the ones I asked to be removed were still there, including the first few songs I listened but didn't enjoy. The rest of the playlist had changed, so now I have no way of knowing which of the songs from the original playlist are still there.

At the height of my frustration, when I noticed these issues weren't going away, what I started doing was saving the Release Radar as my own playlist so I could listen to it in peace and keep track of any changes. Cumbersome and unnecessary, but at least it's a tip I can recommend to those willing to take the extra step and save their original playlists.

I just don't understand why any changes need to be applied, when the concept and original functionality of these personalised weekly playlists were working just fine. Please bring back the old automation and stop messing with playlists that people look forward to all week. This is really bad Customer Experience from a company that otherwise brings so much joy and enjoyment to people.

[bc_kuma]

No updates in this?

This has been ongoing for months. Listening to Release radar in the Friday mornings and afternoons is not the same experience. Some songs remains while others have been replaced.

Really frustrating.

Please fix.

[liffer]

I experience the same issue. 
Please fix this!

[masterc81]

I also experience this issue and have swapped numerous emails with Spotify Support.

Release Radar makes daily updates on my personal account, my wife's and my daughter's.  This happens across all devices: phone, laptop, ipad.

All I get from Spotify Support is "log out, log in, uninstall, test this, test that, repeat all steps again."

They clearly don't know what the problem is and they clearly aren't interested in fixing it.

Disappointing considering I pay for premium and I'm not receiving appropriate customer service.

I don't understand why they can't compare Release Radar algorithm against the Discover Weekly algorithm.  There must be something in the coding that's causing this.

My fix is to create an 'untainted release radar' and just listen to that.

[joblo8]

Are there any fixes for this? I have been experiencing the changes to the Release Radar every week now for several months. It's getting quite frustrating to say the least. Usually I start off my Friday's with opening the Release Radar and listen through the whole thing, then check out a few bands here and there and when I come back to it, some songs completely disappeared or band's will have different songs all of a sudden. Mainly this is frustrating when you come across something cool and don't get to save it right away it might be gone later on and you don't even know what band / song it was...

This happens both on the iOS App as well as Windows Desktop. Already logged out/in and re-installed etc...