Why are Spotify Radio's are all almost identical?

[#1]

Every single time I want to find new music my first thought is to check a song/artist/playlist radio to find songs from similar genres, however, I'm always reminded how bad the radio feature is due to the fact that no matter what song, which artist, or which playlist I start the radio from, it always plays the SAME SONGS. The entire reason I use the feature is to find NEW music (to me, not necessarily new) that's similar to what I want to listen to, and because I am BORED of the same songs playing over and over.

I listen to a huge variety of genres and it seems Spotify is trying to make the radios based on my listening history rather than making it around the song/playlist/artist I've chosen.

[AlejaR]

Hey there,

Thanks for posting in the Community and welcome.

We couldn't replicate this behavior on our side. That being said, we'd first recommend you try a clean reinstall of the app by following the steps here, to see if that makes a difference.

If after that you’re still having trouble with this, could you provide us with the following info:

• Make/model and OS of the device on which this is happening
• The exact Spotify version running on the device
• A video recording of this behavior

You can attach it in your next reply in mp4 format, or you can also upload it to YouTube or Google drive and make it public, so we can visualize it.
 

We really appreciate the time you took to let us know about this behavior. We'd like to add some insights. Keep in mind that the longer you use Spotify, the more the algorithm learns about what songs you like. The more you listen, you'll notice that stations improve over time. 

It's also possible to hide a track in a Radio based to let Spotify know about your preferences. In the mobile version app, do the following: select the song> three dot-menu at the top of the song> Hide. 

While there's currently no way to prevent a radio to play songs you’ve already listened to, we’d recommend you add your votes in the thumbs up icon to the idea below, if that’s something you’d like to see in the future:

• Spotify & "Song Radio" is Essentially Just an Echo Chamber & Doesn't Breed Discovery

Even though the status are set as Case Closed, it doesn't mean the ideas have been rejected. We’d suggest adding your votes and subscribing to them to get notified as soon as we have any updates to share.
 

Keep us in the loop and don't hesitate to get back to us if you have any other questions.

[rvissia]

I would like to add my vote to the New Songs only radio, but I am brought to a page that says "Access Denied" when I click the links you provided above: 

• "[Radio] Spotify Radio - New Songs Only
• [All Platforms][Radio] We need preferences settings for the radio"

[Alex]

Hi there @rvissia 

Thanks for the post.

Looks like the Ideas from AlejaR's post have been archived, since they didn't gather enough votes in 6 months to stay open. 

You can add your +Vote to this idea - here. It's currently set to Live Idea, which means that it's actively gathering votes. 

Hope this helps. 

[surfame]

Whenever I start a Radio for a given song, I am getting the same exact songs in the rotation. This is really frustrating because the whole point of the Radio is to discover new songs similar to the song I am starting with.

[121895776]

literally hundreds of posts on reddit and forums about this issue but "spotify cant replicate it", great service. 

[nstvartak]

When I start an Artist Radio it says "Made For (me)"  rather than just the Artist Radio of like type artists/songs.  I wanted to listen to heavy metal for a while... not my typical classic/alt rock but because the Radio is "Made for Me" it assumes I want the Classic/alt Rock songs.  Very Annoying!!!

[RRTheGuy]

bruh, stop listening the same radio

[sorenrehkopf]

You're not understanding the issue. The issue isn't that every radio is literally playing the same songs, it's that when people start a radio for a song they don't want it to be customized "for them" based on other things they listen to, they literally just want songs similar to the song they've selected in a not customized fashion. The feature might be working as intended but the way it's intended to work is stupid. I'm literally telling the app exactly what I want in that moment, "songs like this song", and the app is going "I know better, let me give you songs kinda like that song, but also like everything else you already listen to" which is not what I've asked for and invariably gives me songs that I already know and might even like, but are not really like the song I've asked for songs similar to. It's annoying as **bleep** and has had me seriously considering switching to another app at times. Please remove customization from radio generation entirely please for the love of God nobody likes or wants it. It actively makes the product so much worse.

[Rufous]

Of course Spotify can’t duplicate the issue on their end; probably because they think that’s how it should be. 

I’ve changed everything from songs, artists, & genres yet still get almost identical songs on different stations. Of course, changing genres makes a different station but creating a new station in the same genre creates a new station with 90% of the same songs as the first station. 
I first joined Spotify around 2011 and closed the account due to growing tired of listening to the same 15-20 songs no matter what station I chose. Ten years later rejoined Spotify just to find the same, old, easy to fix problems. 
$17.00 each month to a company that can’t write, steal, or borrow a simple randomizing string of code.