Release Radar Songs Disappear

[SianiO]

Plan

Premium

Country

NZ

Device

Desktop or phone

Operating System

All Windows versions, Android

My Question or Issue

I've noticed this a few times lately. I've started playing my release radar in the car on the way home from work, and listened to a couple of tracks, but not been able (hands free) to like the or add to favourites. Then when I get home, get inside and look back for the tracks, they are gone, seems to be the first couple on the release radar. There are still 30 tracks on the list, but the couple of tracks I have already listened to have been replaced. The release radar does not change again when I try to replicate the issue, stays the same for the rest of the week.

Any ideas why this happens? Seems to be with songs I really like too, most annoying.

[Alex]

Hey @SianiO,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community.

We'd like to look into this further, but to do so we'd need some more info.

Can you replicate with certainty that Release Radar updates the first few tracks every time you connect to the Car? Does this happen if you connect to another Bluetooth device, like headphones or speakers?

Release Radar should update once a week, but can sometimes refresh more frequently based on your listening activity. So, if you listen to a lot of music it might update more than once a week.

Looking forward to your reply.

[SianiO]

Hi Alex,

I waited till this week to replicate the same procedure, and this week it has not changed from the original list. And previously, with the same listening pattern, it has not done this every week, just the occasional time. Always the first couple of songs on the list.

My listening does vary over times and days, but I listen a lot, and have never had a release radar list change at any other time.

The changes I have noted have always occurred after that first play of the first part of the list on my way home which is the same day every week. These changes are irregular.

[Kiril]

Hey there @SianiO,

Thanks for your response.

Do we understand correctly, that the behavior of the Release Radar have normalized and you aren't experiencing such changes now? To be honest, on our end, we still aren't able to replicate this behavior.

Marking songs with the heart symbol and adding them to your Liked songs playlist is still the best way to preserve and save them for later listening. This good practice also improves the playlists made for you.  As you mentioned that you like to enjoy this playlist mainly while driving your car, here are some tips how to enjoy Spotify behind the wheel, where we believe using voice commands to 'like' the songs can be of help.

Hope you find this useful. Keep us posted if you have any questions.
 

[SianiO]

No, the behaviour has not normalised. As stated in my initial post, it does not occur every time, and I have only had one week to replicate the exact circumstances. It may still happen again. 

I understand the procedure of liking songs, but again as said in my first post, I was driving, and therefore not able to do this. Fiddling with a phone while driving is not prudent. Voice control is problematic for me for reasons I won't go into here. Suffice to say I can't use it.

The Release Radar list also does not refresh at any other time.

I will post again when it happens.

[MafeG]

Hi @SianiO,

Thank you for keeping in touch.

Please let us know if this happens again. In the meantime, keep in mind you can always check your Recently played songs on the mobile app, so if you notice the songs you play have disappeared from the Release Radar, you can review your Recently played to check if they match.

Keep us posted.

[Driondy]

I experienced same issue just this week, the artist I listen to the most his song was first in my rader but was taken down after I listened to his song though I didn't take note of the others.. it was my first experience and it still surprises me.

[nvxx]

I'm running into the same issue. The release radar playlist updates on Friday as expected, but then over the following days it changes, tracks get added and removed, and tracks get reordered. Super annoying to be half way through listening to the playlist and it changes a bunch so you're not sure if you've missed anything.

There's no reason the playlist should update other than on Friday as described, it's terrible user experience otherwise.

[CarlosE]

Hi there @nvxx,

Thanks for your reply in this thread 🙂

Could you save a screenshot of your Release Radar playlist when it updates on Friday, and then a new screenshot if it's somehow modified after that? This way we can gather more information about what you mention you’re experiencing.

We'll be on the lookout for your replies.

Take care!

[RJBN]

I experienced this this week and have before.  Normally it’s okay but this week I was listening to a great song - even listened to it a couple of times - without noting the name (I can just recall the cover art) and now it is gone!  Another song was changed to a different song from the same album so the first song was only on my release radar for about 12 hours 

[AndresM]

Hey @RJBN,

Thanks for reaching about this in the Community and welcome. 

Could you tell us when did this happen (e.g. Tuesday, Friday)?

Changing tunes, let us know if the song changed was replaced for a similar one (alternate version).

We'll stay tuned. 

[auxarcnative]

This has happened to me multiple weeks. Most recently, today. My release radar came out yesterday, I was about halfway through it, pulled it up this morning to finish and the song I was listening to was missing from the playlist entirely, there were some new ones, and everything was in a different order. I agree with others, it is frustrating. 

[Alex]

Hi there @auxarcnative,

Sorry to hear this is happening.

Could you try and capture two screenshots when this happens next time? One Friday, when the playlist should get new songs, and one on Saturday when the songs change up on your end? This will help us investigate why this is happening.

Cheers.

[00000100]

I've got some data and screenshots to share that will hopefully help the support folks to get a lead on this.

I don't have apples-to-apples screenshots to share of my playlist yesterday vs my playlist today, but I do scrobble all my plays to last.fm which gives some comparisons I can share. First, I am 100% sure that my release radar had 200 songs yesterday. I specifically remember wondering if perhaps 200 was the limit. Today there are 187. I listened to my release radar until 8:57 PM EDT yesterday. Today at 4:32 PM when I next opened Spotify I noticed that many of the artists that I had already heard new music from yesterday still had songs that I hadn't yet listened to later in the playlist. I did not rewind or skip songs. In my experience I have never before seen more than one song from the same new album on my release radar (excepting cases where there are multiple artists that I follow on the same album).

Some examples of changes. This list is not exhaustive.
I listened to "Lubię sobie popatrzeć" by Martha yesterday. Today this song is not present on my playlist. I have a hypothesis for this one: the band called Martha that I follow did not release this song, and this song has since been sorted to be under a different artist with the same name. I would guess that this is due to CDBaby or whatever other digital distributor not differentiating these two artists with the same name when they submitted the release to Spotify.
"Keep Your Name Alive" by Sloan is currently on my playlist (#27). Yesterday at 10:00 AM I listened to "Dream It All Over Again" from the same release in the same spot of the playlist.
"When I Leave The World Behind" is currently #54. Yesterday there was no song from this release between the My Name Is Ian release (#53) and the MxPx cover (#55).
"Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" is currently #101. Yesterday there was no song from this release between the The Dahmers release and the Voltaire cover.
"Disney" is currently #103. Yesterday at 3:07 PM I listened to "Jim's Teeth" from the same release.
"Winter, Yet" is currently #104. Yesterday at 3:12 PM I listened to "Daltonians" from the same release.
"Tumbleboy" is currently #105. Yesterday at 3:15 PM I listened to "Mirror Mirror" from the same release.
"Kites" is currently #136. Yesterday at 5:36 PM I listened to "79th and Stony Island" from the same release.
"When Ya Get Drafted - 2022 Mix" is currently #165. 22 hours ago (yesterday at 7:28 PM) I listened to "Forward To Death - 2022 Mix" from the same remaster. Note that from this point on, almost every track is different.
"Am I Evil? - Remastered 2021" is currently #166. 22 hours ago (yesterday at 7:29 PM) I listened to "The Prince - Remastered 2021" from the same remaster.
23 hours ago (yesterday at 7:36 PM) I listened to "Make the Best of It" by Stop The Presses. This release is not currently represented in my release radar. This is particularly troubling, as this is a smaller local band and I'm sure they want as many people to hear their new album as possible.
"I Am Trying To Break Your Heart - The Unified Theory Of Everything Version" is currently #167. 22 hours ago (yesterday at 7:39 PM) I listened to "War On War - The Unified Theory Of Everything Version" from the same re-release.
"Can't Shake Her (with Ty Dolla $ign)" is currently #168. 22 hours ago (yesterday at 7:43 PM) I listened to "Angel" from the same release.
"Thunder and Lightning" is currently #169. Yesterday I did not listen to any songs from this release, though it is possible it was later on in the version of the playlist I had yesterday.
"Victimhood" is currently #170. 21 hours ago (yesterday at 7:45 PM) I listened to "Allow" from the same release.
"Part VIII - Live" is currently #171. 21 hours ago (yesterday at 7:51 PM) I listened to "Part X - Live" from the same release.

https://ibb.co/1RdsFtx

My current release radar can be seen here https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZEVXbxJ9mjzIafml?si=2f0a6d88f0db4cd9

https://ibb.co/DKSZY1r

[Alex]

Hi @00000100,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community and sharing your detailed report about the issue.

This looks very odd, especially the fact that your Release Radar has about 200 songs in it, when it should usually have around 30. 

If you're using a VPN/ Private tunnel, this might affect the time zone on your account, which could influence playlists like Release Radar. Can you let us know if you're using a VPN?

Looking forward to your reply.

[00000100]

I follow over 1,000 artists (my profile says "1,000 Following", the count doesn't seem to go any higher). My guess is that in most cases people don't follow more than 30 artists that release music in any given week. I haven't seen the code but if I were to hazard a guess, I would wager that release radar is probably coded to be a playlist of every artist one follows who had a new release within the last week, plus some algorithmic recommendations if the user follows few artists. If it makes any difference, my release radar has grown over the years as I follow more and more artists.

I am not using a VPN.

[Lyubka]

Hey @00000100,

Thanks for getting back to us and apologies for the delayed reply.

Can you let us know if this happened on this week's Release Radar as well? 

We'll be on the lookout for your reply. 

[bc_kuma]

Yes, 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.

[mttzb]

Same here. The RR that I listen to on a Friday has often changed - some tracks removed, others added - by Saturday.

[Phalix]

The same happened to me

Today is Saturday and my release radar has already changed. This is not the first time but I normally ignore previous encounters. It's frustrating this time because there were some songs on it that I didn't get to save and now I can't find them again