Disliking artists have no effect on auto-generated playlists

[SousaAF]

Plan

Premium

Country

Brazil

Device

Windows and Android

Operating System

Win10 and Android 10

My Question or Issue

There are two artists I added their songs to a playlist I used for a single occasion. After that, they keep popping on my friday and monday auto-generated playlists. Every time I see their names, I always click "I don't like this artist", but they KEEP showing up.

There hasn't been a single week when their names haven't appeared on my playlists. I read here the iOS version can effectively block a specific artist, but how can I do that on the Win10 app and the Android app?

[Mihail]

Hey @SousaAF,

Thanks for posting on the Community!

The suggested artists in those playlists are being populated depending on your listening habits, however this would need some more time and more listening of different music to reflect it in the playlists curated for you. The practice of showing the app what you dislike is a good one and we encourage you to continue doing so. For the the  Windows app you have a icon that appear next to the song duration when you hover over it in the list. On Android you can find it in the bottom right of the now playing view. What we also recommend is to doublecheck if you have not accidentally followed any of those unwanted artists, if so make sure to unfollow them. 

Another tip we can give is to try log out and log back in from your mobile device twice in a row. This may sound odd but it's how the app does a refresh.
 

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get on.

[SousaAF]

I have been hitting "dislike" on those two artists for about two months now. How much longer do I have to "teach" the app for? 😁

As I said, I had two or three songs from them on a playlist I used once, for an occasion. That was before the pandemic. Since then, I haven't played any of the songs in that playlist. And yet, somehow Spot thinks I like those artists? 🙄

I will try the double log-out suggestion later tomorrow and we'll see if I'll be greeting them on the monday playlist, and I'll get back to you then.

[SousaAF]

Yeah... No, they popped once again on the friday playlist. I've even removed the playlist they once featured on, and did log out and re-logged on the android app (even though I mostly listen on Win10 app).

Basically, the "Dislike" feature does nothing then. Short of reporting the artist as abuse, I don't know what else to do now.

[SousaAF]

Yup. Confirming the dislike button has no effect on weekly playlists anymore.

[Ver]

Hey @SousaAF,

Thanks for getting back to us.

It's a good idea to check if there are any changes when you open the artist profile>click on the three dots menu>choose Don't play this.

Just to double-check-do the songs of the artists play or they appear to be grayed out?

Keep us posted.

[SousaAF]

After I click "I don't like {artistName}", both songs that appeared on today's list got grayed out, yeah, and it skips them normally, even though there were two songs from this artist on today's playlist.

And when I go to the artist's page and click the dots menu, I get a context menu with no "Don't play this artist" option, just the ones in the screenshot (Follow, Go to Artist's Radio, Report and Share)

[Ver]

Hey @SousaAF,

Thanks for keeping us posted.

In case the songs don't play and are grayed out-this is an expected behavior. The app should skip them.

You can try opening an artist profile on your phone and then choose Don't play this. That way songs from a specific artist should get skipped.

Hope this helps. If you need anything else, the Community is here for you.

[SousaAF]

Alright, so I did tap "Don't play this" on the artist page on my phone (that option only appears on the phone app). And yet, two songs of the artist popped up on today's list. So, no... Still no effect on the auto-generated lists.

[Xenia]

Hi @SousaAF,

Thanks for giving those steps a try. Could you confirm whether the songs still play or if they are now skipped when you listen through the playlist? 

You're right that the 'Don't play this' option on artist profiles is currently only available on mobile, but once selected it will be applied across all platforms. While some of the artist's songs might still be included in your personalized playlists they should be automatically skipped, so you don't have to listen to them.

Keep in mind that there are many factors that play a role when generating personalized playlist, including the listening habits of people who have similar taste in music, but if you keep listening to the songs you like the recommendations you get will improve in time.

Hope you'll find this clarification helpful. Let us know if you have further questions.