Why does the search function on iOS suck now?

[nedyken]

I've been using Spotify for a while on iPhone, iPad.

At some point recently they updated the app and it seems to have changed the search function.  To me, it seems like it has regressed.

It use to be that if you searched for a term... for example "Bowie", you'd have 3 separate screens to check.  Artist, Album, Track

It seemed to always sort results by popularity, but this functioned rather intelligently.  Obviously under artist, the top result would be David Bowie.   Under Album, you were more than likely to see his most popular album on top (Ziggy Stardust).   Under tracks, it would be a list of David Bowie's most popular songs.  You're probably looking for "Space Oddity", "Changes", "Life on Mars", or one of his other many hits.

Now, Spotify search is dumb as bricks.  It had it's brain removed.  I don't understand what the heck happened. 

Now, when I search "Bowie", it pulls all the results onto one page (not a big deal), but it gives ridiculous results.

#1 - Under artist, it lists David Bowie first.  That's fine.

#2 - Under "album", the first thing that comes up is "Bowie at the beeb".  That's weird.  "Ziggy Stardust" is 9th in search results behind "We were so turned on - Various Artists", "Singalong to the hits of David Bowie" and "The Bowie Variations - Mike Garson"  WHAT THE FLIP!?  Why the heck would I be searching for an album by Mike Garson???

#3 - Under "tracks", the first thing to pop up is a song called "bowie" by "Flight of the Conchords".  I mean, I like FOTC and all, but that's dumb.  Second on the list is "Bowie The Desert Pea" by some artist called "Kay Kay".  Next is some song by Poison The well.  Next is a song by Jessica Lea Mayfield.  8th on the list is "Life on Mars? - String Quartet Tribute to David Bowie"...  I have to go all the way down to 10 on the list to see "Space Oddity"... The actual "Life on Mars" is buried 28th on the list.   ????

I'm merely using David Bowie as an example.  I'm noticing the same issue if I search for any artist... I search "Ray Charles", for example and it lists a song called "Ray Charles" by Chiddy Bang as the top result.  It's not until the 9th song that you actually see a song by Ray Charles himself ("I've got a woman").  In the past, Spotify was intutitive and logical.  It knew if you searched "Ray Charles", you're probably looking to find his top songs... not "Baby Grand - Duet with Ray Charles" by Billy Joel. 

What the heck happened?  This is a negative experience.  I usually search for songs while jogging and it's becoming very difficult for me to find songs on the fly.  I don't understand why Spotify search become stupid overnight.  

[nedyken2]

Nobody else has noticed this??

[Peter__]

Running this search my experience is:

Top Result:

David Bowie (Aritst page) - As expected.

Tracks:

Bowie by Flight Of the Conchords - Which tbh makes sense to me, it is the closest match by track name in the catalogue. (Since actual David Bowie's most popular tracks are shown at the top of his artist page which is the first result. The application seems to place track title matches above artist name matches in these results (since it would be expected you could go to the artist page easily). If this wasn't the case it would be impossible to easily search and find a track name with the same name as an artist I guess.

Artists:

David Bowie - As expected

Albums:

All listed albums are by David Bowie which is as expected.

Playlists:

As expected

Profiles:

David Bowie - As expected. 

Overall, can't say I use the search function a lot on mobile (do most of my playlists on Desktop) but it appears to act in a way I would expect - maybe it's just me!