Why Radio Is Still Better Than Spotify’s Algorithm
I still listen to the radio at my desk like an absolute freak. Yes, I know streaming apps exist – I also use Spotify every day. Spotify is great for listening to entire albums and even individual playlists. However, the service loses me when it tries to use my listening history to recommend more music. And the worst version of this is Spotify’s autoplay feature, which automatically plays something else at the end of what you’re listening to.
Perhaps it’s my fault. Many people really like this algorithm. I may be using Spotify “wrong”, or at least not in the same way as a normal user. But it’s clear that every time I finish listening to an entire album, Spotify’s algorithms suddenly decide that I’m obsessed with that artist and that it should be constantly listened to, even if I only listen to the album once. In other words, more often than not, it sends me straight down the rabbit hole.
Rabbit holes can be fun, but I don’t want to be in one all the time. Sometimes when I listen to music, I like to hear a mixture of what’s going on in the culture along with a bunch of old songs that I already love and haven’t heard in years. Sometimes I want to hear strange music that I’ve never looked for and that an algorithm would never recommend to me. And yes, I like it when my music is occasionally interrupted by a real person telling a corny joke or commenting on the news.
Sometimes, it turns out, you want a radio.
The algorithm is a trap
The theory behind using a music recommendation algorithm makes abstract sense: you like Artist A, Artist B is similar, therefore you might also like Artist B. In practice, however, the result is that I listen to a lot of music in the same key, so to speak.
Last fall, I listened to Boygenius’s The Record at least once a day. Spotify jumped on this and recommended similar low-key indie rock to me, which I passively listened to. Apparently the algorithm concluded that I was a twenty-year-old art school dropout. If it sounds specific, it’s:
Some people who are obsessed with things like “facts” and “reality” would consider me a man over 30 years old. However, I don’t necessarily mind. There’s a small part of me that clearly gravitates towards sad girl indie. But Spotify had been recommending the indie project Sad Girl to me for months , and that made up most of what it autoplayed on my behalf. Any playlist that says it’s “made for” me usually has the same three songs or so at the top, and DJ mode tends to dive into the same stuff.
But I’m more than just a sad girl. I have a varied taste in music and want to continue to explore and expand my horizons. I don’t listen to music because I want to calm down by listening to the same thing over and over again. I want to be surprised, to discover weird and wonderful things that I would never look for, and an algorithm trained on my listening habits probably won’t push me to do that.
For me, the best way to find this is with the help of other people. A good disc jockey can offer me a much more eclectic—perhaps even complex—playlist instead of hours of the same vibe.
How to find a radio station for yourself
So, the easiest thing you can do to find a radio station is to dig out an actual physical FM radio and see what’s on the dial. Now, depending on where you live, the number of retail outlets not monopolized by the same company owners may be limited, and I’m willing to bet that most people don’t have an FM radio handy in the house, so you might want to start online if it’s easier. I spent some time searching for online radio stations I liked that had playlists curated by people. A few years ago I even wrote a guide to finding them .
I would recommend finding some local radio stations – ideally community-run radio stations that don’t interrupt the music with commercials. Where I live in Oregon, I like Portland Radio Project and Shady Pines Radio , both pretty eclectic but have great stations that still broadcast all over the world. Radio NTS is intentionally placed all over the map, and Radio Paradise visits some unusual places and still plays some songs you’re probably familiar with. There is also SomaFM , which offers many different stations under one roof.
And these are just the stations that I personally like. Part of the fun of escaping the algorithm is the thrill of finding your favorites, customizing and discovering what you like and what you don’t.
Best Online Radio Apps
There’s nothing wrong with listening to the radio through a web browser – in some ways it’s easier. But I prefer to have an app to work with, if only because it makes it easier to pause or change stations on the fly.
I use Eter to listen to radio on my Mac. You can use it to search for specific stations or discover new ones. You can also add stations yourself, as long as they don’t appear in searches and there is a suitable iPhone app that syncs a list of your preferred stations.
On Android I like RadioDroid . It has an extensive station database and a decent user interface. It’s also open source and ad-free.
If Spotify is smart, it will add radio stations
Spotify has made it its mission to dominate audio as a category. That’s why the company has spent so much money trying to take over podcasting , and why it’s currently pushing audiobooks so hard . Another obvious way to take better control of your audio life is to simulcast real radio stations.
Apple Music works very well for radio, especially if you have a subscription. There are even some Apple exclusive programs programmed by real DJs, and you can also search for almost any station on Earth and find it there thanks to the TuneIn integration. I have no idea why Spotify hasn’t copied this feature. Until then, I will avoid the algorithm and head elsewhere.