Spotify U.S. Missing Key Feature Available In EU: Pandora-Like Artist Radio
Spotify may be grabbing headlines for its US launch, but missing is a key music discovery feature available in Europe – Pandora-like Artist Radio. As a Spotify user for the last two years, I've sometimes enjoyed the "lean-back and let the algorithm do the work" ease of Artist Radio. And Spotify allows more skipping and control than Pandora. But thanks to licensing issues, American users won't get to experience Artist Radio, at least for now.
“The lack of a radio feature for the time being is a factor of licensing agreements with the rights holders, but it will eventually be available,” a member of the Spotify support team told Kurt Hanson's RAIN newsletter.
For now, thanks to U.S. rightsholders who said no, artists and the recorded music industry are missing out on the potential for new music discovery and purchase that Artist Radio adds to Spotify in Europe.
I’m a long-time UK Spotify user and – to be honest – the radio mode has never been that good. It certainly doesn’t have Pandora’s features that shape the radio based on feedback.
That’s why I created Spotibot (http://spotibot.com ), which hopes to bridge the gap a bit. If you hypebotters would like to give it a spin, I’d love to hear your feedback. It’s had a lot of press since the US Spotify launch so I’m going to work in some new features & would appreciate a fresh pair of eyes telling me where it might need some attention.
Cheers,
~Andy
That’s definitely one of the things I really like about Pandora. I really enjoy sitting back and listening to my various stations and new artists that I may not be in touch with.
I feel like having a “recommendation” or “tastemaker” feature is one of the key areas of weakness in the music world. For instance, I may tend to listen to certain bands. However, I’d love to know what folks in Charlotte are listening to, or in Boston, or Chicago, or Seattle. It seems too hard right now to locate that info.
Thanks,
Greg
Yeah, Spotify’s radio feature has always been terrible. Absolutely worthless in my opinion.
Another major (although hopefully temporary) shortcoming is the inability to link Spotify profiles with a Facebook Artist Page. Currently it will only link to personal profiles.
The artist radio is very poorly executed. Cheers to Andy for dreary ting Spotibot.
Good that we all agree on the Spotify Radio feature. Poor indeed, but head on over to http://www.trushuffle.com
You get a playlist filled with similar music, based on what’s currently played, automatically!!
I’m just happy to have something to listen to online. I don’t have even have a radio or CD player! I guess I’m outside the bell-shaped curve, though.
never used Spotify Radio, tried it, not how i like to discover. Think they are rightly focusing on social peers for recommendations (facebook integration etc).
Personally I find compilations the way I discover music. (I don’t use facebook)
ie. find a track i like, see its attached to a compilation/album, check out the other tracks and so on.
Problem with that is the labels rarely license tracks to other labels comps for streaming services, they have the crazy idea that its in their interest to be the only destination point for that recording.. wrong, wrong, wrong. The more places you can be found the better for everyone.
Spotify could make new music discovery way better by simply adding genre charts (currently top 40 only)
That Spotibot is pretty cool… I just checked it out. Shit like that is what makes new offerings like Spotify and Last.fm worth using