include

[FEEDBACK] What do you think of "Flow"?



Show first post

341 replies

Userlevel 6
Badge +5

Well, my story is long, but lets say that it has two points:
 

  • The first one was when 2k exists. I started playing songs in Deezer, using playlists,flows, mixes, until i had an error. Later, I knew it was because of the 2k limit. And I tried different things to avoid it: to begin with, i deleted all 2k songs and started from 0, adding only the best favorite songs ( i have best favorite songs and favorite songs, translated with stars, lets say 4 stars is favorite, and 5 stars are the best). My target was to go slowly, very slowly adding favorites ,making sure i couldn’t live without listening those , because if I could or I get bored , then, they weren’t really the best for me . I created playlist with the first letter of the song, but i filled them quickly. So my next step was to include a seccond letter of the song. As a result, i got more playlists and didn’t reach each 2k limit . I had some of them with 1 song. I knew Deezer’s flow works with your favorites songs,artists,albums….the problem was that i reached the limit in songs and artists, so Flow wasn’t going to improve. I started listening playlists, and also Radio when it was launched! Friends also recommended me songs, some of them from Deezer but the rest were from other streaming apps. In that case, i had to search them individually, or use songcatcher to identify and add them to one of my two letters playlists.
     
  • The second point in my Deezer’s history was recently, when favorite limit increased. Then, things changed. I decided to remove my favorite songs library to start from 0 with Flow and I noticed, as others say here, that it played some songs one time and other and other. I was in freemium mode, which allows you to skip 6tracks per hour.

    So imagine that i spent those 6 tracks per hour limit just with songs i had already listened to. And the funny thing is that after skipping , it could give me a new song or continue playing songs I had also listened, and what is worse, i couldn’t skip! . In other words, the free time i had, was spent by skipping songs and discovering 1,2,3 or 4 per day. Too slow and Flow wasn’t improved.

    Then I took a decision. Listen again to some of the most popular playlists to add new songs to my favorite zone . Doing that, I kept most of the 6 skipped tracks per hour  and only spent with songs i didn’t like. That worked and my library increased.After that, I started creating mixes from songs of my favorite section to discover new ones, until I realized after some time of adding most of them that they repeated themselves again!! Omg!! .

    I returned to Flow and it was improved, not so many already-liked songs played together, it gave me new ones and I could breath, finally. Recently, my subscription was changed to HiFi and I’m able to skip already-liked songs and songs I don’t like. Making it faster for algorithm to know more about me.

So in conclusion, at the end, Flow understand me, or it seems from what I see. Definetly, new 10k limit will help to improve the system. Maybe you ask why I didn’t transfer songs from other streaming services to Deezer? Considering that i have 26k in some of them, as a result of years and years discovering music in different streaming services, and sending songs from one to another and from the another to the one.

Well, my answer is easy: if i had done that, then i would have filled 10k limit at the moment, and that means that i would have  gone back to the first point: using again the playlist with 2 letters of the songs system and Flow would be, again,  in a deadlock because I couldn’t add more songs!! It would have improved , of course, but taking into account that i have 26k favorite songs (approximately) and Deezer “only” accepted 10k, it would have lost the 16k remaining.

That’s one reason. The other one is that i want to see how many time (months,years) take me to reach 10k limit with songs I knew, and new ones! I want to enjoy again pressing heart icon one time and other and other, after years without doing so. And when I filled the 10k limit, and transfer to other streaming services (just to know how many songs in total i have, for playing i prefer Deezer, by far ! ), i’ll probably hit a new record.

By the way, playlists with the first two letters are still on my library. Sometimes i remove songs with heart iccon filled , as they are in favorite zone, and deleting from those playlists translates in that i will have more space in the future when i have to return to this system: having 10k favorite songs + ( 2letters playlists * nº of songs in each one)

For now, i added 1914 songs and increasing...

I enjoyed reading it, thanks!

I used too Freemium for my first day which was 29.06.2019, and I was not happy with this 6 time skip, so I bought annual Premium. After it ends I will get Hifi Family from Deezer to try new stuff.

My Deezer has 2010 favourite tracks right now :)

I’m glad you liked my story with Deezer Flow , hehe. 

Be careful with family members if they are from Internet, friends and family members are better. You can imagine the reasons: 
- they don’t pay: in this case isn’t a problem at all because if you are the admin, you don’t give access until they pay
- you pay and admin disappears: is the worst situation. You lose money and is difficult to get it back , maybe using paypal they can help you. Also, most people pay > 1 month or yearly, so admin thief makes his/her month !!:money_mouth::money_mouth::money_mouth:
- members leave family: you can find a lot of reasons here: without work, earning less money at job, more economic outputs, don’t like this streaming service, fights between family members,etc.

2010 songs 1 month away,  maybe you have already 2,5k, or more,  now. The question is if you are going to stop somepoint between 9-10k or just get the limit. 
For now I have 3069 songs as favorites and i’m thinking about stopping at 9,5k so i have 0,5k songs until 10k limit goes higher in the future. Because if i got the limit, the only way to improve Flow would be pressing “don’t recommend this song”,  songs added to my ! playlists with 2 letters wouldn’t improve Flow. 

I don’t like it. How can I stop Flow to add tracks to what I am listening?

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +7

I'm not sure I understood what you said @LaClau Copada but if you mean you'd like to discover new music, maybe try Monday Discovery in the homepage.

Also, check this out and leave your vote:

https://en.deezercommunity.com/ideas/private-from-flow-session-deezer-incognito-mode-58434

It’s werid, why do live albums, that have to be listened in a proper order, come up in Flow?

Listening the third part of Keith Jarrett live in Koln makes no sense…

I guess I won’t use it anymore.

Userlevel 7
Badge +7

Good point @RenatoG 

The good news is that our Content teams are actually working on a way to classify our content into different categories, EP, Singles, Live...that way the algorithms we use can provide better recommendations as well :relaxed:

Thanks for the feedback and stay tuned!

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

It’s werid, why do live albums, that have to be listened in a proper order, come up in Flow?

Listening the third part of Keith Jarrett live in Koln makes no sense…

I guess I won’t use it anymore.

You can ban that track and it hopefully won’t be recommended again.

Userlevel 1

I dont know what has been happening but Flow has been amazing over the last week. I’ve noticed a lot more song and album variety from my bands. The songs that play all the time are now down by about 10x. Literally upgraded to Hi-Fi plan and looking forward to the continued improvements :)

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

I dont know what has been happening but Flow has been amazing over the last week. I’ve noticed a lot more song and album variety from my bands. The songs that play all the time are now down by about 10x. Literally upgraded to Hi-Fi plan and looking forward to the continued improvements :)

Nice to hear that.

Did you know that Deezer is working on FLOW as we speak and FLOW you like will get much better than even this pretty soon. Hopefully you can wait just a bit to hear it yourself once again.

I hope to deal with you again. Take care.

Thank you for being honourable Deezer customer.

Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Just got Deezer, and Flow is rather impressive, with decent results after just a couple of days, and about two dozen favorite artists. However, one thing that’s annoying is that it plays many favorited songs, even after I played them more than once in the last couple of days. There should be some kind of cooldown period. I’d rather hear different songs from the same artist.

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Just got Deezer, and Flow is rather impressive, with decent results after just a couple of days, and about two dozen favorite artists. However, one thing that’s annoying is that it plays many favorited songs, even after I played them more than once in the last couple of days. There should be some kind of cooldown period. I’d rather hear different songs from the same artist.

Thank you for your kind feedback.

Deezer is working on FLOW as we speak. I can’t tell more about it, but there will be more features to say FLOW what you want to hear. In my opinion they could bring anything really to the table.

I am glad that you selected Deezer. You are honourable person doing so. Grateful to have you on board, stay for a while to see even much better FLOW. Thank you for being Customer!

Userlevel 2

Here’s an idea:

Add sliders to FLOW for customization for each use. In order of preference/most useful:

  1. What % of FLOW should be from your favorite tracks (0-100%)?
  2. What % of FLOW should be from your favorite artists (0-100%)?
  3. What % of FLOW should be from XYZ genre (0-100%)? I realize there are pre-made mixes for these sometimes, but this option would be keeping it within your favorites. Within FLOW, sometimes I want more of one genre or another. Sometimes I want to mix in some metal, sometimes not. Sometimes I want mostly relaxing music. Sometimes I want more upbeat. So I could select 100% on slider 1 above and then all metal for example. It would only play my favorite metal tracks.
  4. What % of FLOW should be new releases (0-100%)?

With these sliders, I can’t think of any reason why I would ever not listen to FLOW. All of the other “daily” mixes, “playlists you’ll love”, etc. “Music” section can go away. There would be no need for any other automated mixes.

Userlevel 7
Badge +17

I enjoy Flow, but my biggest challenge with it is the same that I have with other streaming services playing a personalized mix for me. And that is that I listen to such a wide variety of music, that any personalized mix is bound to vary greatly in genre and mood.
 

So I can go from an absolute banger from PA Sports to mellow piano from Riopy, and that’s usually not what I’m looking for. I’m usually feeling like one or the other.
 

So I tend to find myself playing music based on an artist or a genre rather than using Flow. 
 

I feel like I get the same discovery benefits from just playing Latin music, for example, on deezer that I would with Flow. Deezer still introduces songs and artists via this method that I haven’t heard before, or at least not recently.

 

Overall, I’m fairly pleased with the user interface and experience with deezer, I would just love to have personal playlist support through Alexa and some type of Spotify Connect-style control.

Userlevel 4
Badge +1

I enjoy Flow, but my biggest challenge with it is the same that I have with other streaming services playing a personalized mix for me. And that is that I listen to such a wide variety of music, that any personalized mix is bound to vary greatly in genre and mood.
 

So I can go from an absolute banger from PA Sports to mellow piano from Riopy, and that’s usually not what I’m looking for. I’m usually feeling like one or the other.
 

So I tend to find myself playing music based on an artist or a genre rather than using Flow.

 

I’m getting very good results from the daily mixes. In effect, they automatically group my music tastes into five coherent groups - and offer new tracks too. Plus I see the list in advance and can edit it - e.g. removing the songs I know I don’t like, or the ones I have heard too many times. It’s something that works really well, and not all services have. A killer feature, I think. If you have the time to edit the playlist, it can be a music discovery playlist, or “the best of”, even without sliders to customize it.

So the only reason I’d use Flow instead is like zero effort radio, e.g. when I’m in the kitchen, and can only skip the tracks occasionally. But even then I’d like to have control over the styles - e.g. some genres can be inappropriate to play out loud. So maybe the better way to use Flow would be to offer shorter daily mixes as a starting point - e.g. 20 tracks, then follow up with Flow based on the tracks you did listen to.

Userlevel 7
Badge +7

Thanks for sharing this @Gaffer13, awesome!

@GropplerZorn we're developing both, and the Alexa skill should be updated very soon.

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

For me FLOW has been bad long time.

As they now removed my Legends status I finally can be honest about it.

It does not work the way I want him to work. I do understand it’s their main product and selling point, but honestly nothing too special. I came to Deezer one year and 3 months ago and since then I and other people been complaining about poor variety in FLOW. We want to DISCOVER, not hear again.

I play FLOW weeks from now and it’s about 90 % my playlists or liked tracks.

Only 10 % is something new.

You complain here, they say Skip for a while, ban artist. Skip as fast as possible.

Unlike a track? Isn’t it even a solution? Add different tracks.

I’ve been doing that, liking different remixes, yet FLOW never played them.

It was one Remix version I added and it played on flow constantly.

I finally was so fed up with it, I changed to Spottily.

It’s not for everyone, and I do get that, but for me it solved the issue. On Deezer I had issues of not having anything new on the table. I was hard to update any lists as no recommendations.

They did add “You might like” row as we asked, but it’s just a start and seems to suggest artists I hearted or listened. So they are rarely new. On service I mentioned there is full main page of suggestions. Personally made. I feel like I finally can be lost in music and my playlists updated.

My happy hardcore playlist has been growing since 1st, so much recommendations.

FLOW Track Mixes no more playing charts.

It just works, on every radio/flow elsewhere. You generally get here nice answers like “Someone is looking into it right now”, but I’ve been here for over a year now. For how much longer to look?

Now I looked elsewhere and did I say to be happy about it.

They know it their product is not ready, and people are leaving because of this, yet they’ve seemed to be unhappy with my decision to go as Legends. I was in a way fed to be Legends in the first place, as I needed to share these empty promises and cache clearances just in case.

On the new platform I do not need to start my day with cache clearance. Ever.

Why it should be even something to try anywhere.

I kept posting bug reports, that’s a thing as Legends, but I’ve seen it’s road to nowhere.

Nothing gets implemented, only certain lives matters here and LGBT campaigns on.

Userlevel 4
Badge +1

We want to DISCOVER, not hear again.

We do? :wink:

I mean, we surely do, but not all the time. Like I mentioned above, if I’m in the kitchen, I don’t want to keep going back to the PC to skip unwanted tracks or to add the discoveries I liked to my library. And the issue with genuine discovery is that you’re going to have many tracks you don’t like and have to skip - so not much of a “flow”. I’d rather keep most of the discoveries to the discovery playlist that we have now - or maybe additional discovery playlists if there’s a need in them.

 

When I was about to try Deezer, my biggest worry was that, after about3 years with other streaming services, I’d be “discovering” the same tracks I heard before. Turns out it’s not a problem - I’m hearing a lot of new music even in daily mixes, not just the discovery playlist. But there’s still a possibility that, after a while, the algorithm can start going in circles - just not the same circles as with other services. So the positive early impression, from Deezer or Spotify, might or might not last.

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

We want to DISCOVER, not hear again.

We do? :wink:

I mean, we surely do, but not all the time. Like I mentioned above, if I’m in the kitchen, I don’t want to keep going back to the PC to skip unwanted tracks or to add the discoveries I liked to my library. And the issue with genuine discovery is that you’re going to have many tracks you don’t like and have to skip - so not much of a “flow”. I’d rather keep most of the discoveries to the discovery playlist that we have now - or maybe additional discovery playlists if there’s a need in them.

 

When I was about to try Deezer, my biggest worry was that, after about3 years with other streaming services, I’d be “discovering” the same tracks I heard before. Turns out it’s not a problem - I’m hearing a lot of new music even in daily mixes, not just the discovery playlist. But there’s still a possibility that, after a while, the algorithm can start going in circles - just not the same circles as with other services. So the positive early impression, from Deezer or Spotify, might or might not last.

This is why there is Bluetooth headphones on the market.

You do not need to go ANYWHERE to skip. As well if you use something else than Deezer, you have no need to even skip, as radios and flows are on point and they do not play same to the point of tireness. Keep listening, FLOW, in your kitchen. I couldn’t take the same music anymore playing.

My playlist update percentage grew like 50% alone when I changed platform with better discovery.

Skips went like 90% down.

Userlevel 4
Badge +1

This is why there is Bluetooth headphones on the market.

You do not need to go ANYWHERE to skip.

I’m not buying lossy headphones for general use, and don’t like the idea of having to charge one more device. Plus I don’t actually need to go to the PC to skip tracks - I have a media remote. It’s still an unneeded distraction, and skipping tracks disrupts the flow - it’s not the experience I want when the music is meant for atmosphere. But I do need to go to the PC to check and manage the tracks.

And I actually don’t have issues with Flow. I also like daily mixes, like I already said. I did find “mixes for you” rather lacking. Maybe that’s why they’re pretty much hidden. :grinning: But, again, my point is that I don’t want a lot of discovery in Flow, not that I don’t get it. I want discovery when I’m in the mood for it, and within specific genres, not all over the place.

Userlevel 1
Badge

I don’t know if this is relevant yet, but I’ll add my share.

 

Flow took a long flight to flow. It was a gruesomely repetitive experience at first, and it really p*ssed me off because of the insistence in the same artists and the same songs from the same artists.

 

Now, more than a 1000 favorite songs and several favorite albums and playlists later it’s finally catching up to my taste.

 

Some inputs, though:

 

  1. Stop recommending classical music songs in Flow. That’s not the way most classical music is listened to in concerts nor the way they were intended to be listened to by the composers. It doesn’t make sense to listen to a single movement from a classical concert in the middle of pop songs, even if they have similar moods.
  2. Why can’t I add songs to “Play next” in Flow? This doesn’t make any sense at all. Is it for cache reasons? Well, keep the already cached songs in cache and play them as soon as the “added next” song plays. Flow would benefit from that, should that option be available. The algorithm could be modeled in a way that a song added as next could shape the direction and mood of the next songs.

 

Userlevel 4
Badge +1

The algorithm could be modeled in a way that a song added as next could shape the direction and mood of the next songs.

I think the issue is exactly how the algorithm would interpret this:

 

  1. No, I don’t like what Flow is doing and would rather listen to something else, here’s an example
  2. I like what Flow is doing, but would like to shift the direction a little.
  3. I like what Flow is doing, and here’s a song I think is similar to what Flow is doing.
  4. I like what Flow is doing, but want to listen to this particular song right now and then go back to what Flow was doing.
Userlevel 1
Badge

@Gaffer13 above:

 

Any of the options would be nice!

 

More imputs:

 

 

  1. Flow is starting to have more congruence in moods, ambiences, atmospheres, call it what you want. It’s not a matter of genre. Rock music has a lot of slow, lowbeat songs, for instance, and those marry well with slow, lowbeat songs from any genre. But the option to change the “mood” refer to genre choices. I don’t want to focus on a particular genre if I ask to change mood. We should be given option to change mood to “dark”, “urban”, “danceable”, “elegant”, etc. Be creative. How can this be implemented? Give the users the option to tag songs, like Last.fm does.
  2. Although it’s better nowadays, flow is still sometimes very repetitive. I got it, Flow is not the place to go when I want to listen to an entirely new catalogue. But I why does Flow always plays the songs I have listened the most ever or been listening the most lately? I have 1800 favorite songs and a lot of them are gathering dust forgotten amidst series of favorite songs from the same artist or album (more probabilities of playing when shuffling).
  3. Please, stop pushing lame compilation albums like “30 hits of summer 2006” or greatest hits albums. I want to know the artist’s catalog in the context of their albums. I bet that every other of us who (still) use the social network in a comma Last.fm still care for the tags they play and hate to see those greatest hit albums among our scrobbles.


Apart from that, I would like to know what is the effect of skipping a track on Flow. Sometimes it’s not an artist I don’t like, it’s just that I wouldn’t listen to them at that moment.

​​

Userlevel 1
Badge

I found the answer to the question above so I’ll post here.

 


Apart from that, I would like to know what is the effect of skipping a track on Flow. Sometimes it’s not an artist I don’t like, it’s just that I wouldn’t listen to them at that moment.​​

 

“Rudi Community Manager
The Godfather
10 months ago

Hi @hpguru 

Yes, it will be affected because it's constantly learning from you.

But the same learning apply if you don't want that - and you should keep skipping on Flow until it changes from RAP back to what you love, Hard Dance. Flow will then learn that you don't like the genre and will stop pushing it on you 👍🏼

Userlevel 1
Badge
  1. Please, stop pushing lame compilation albums like “30 hits of summer 2006” or greatest hits albums. I want to know the artist’s catalog in the context of their albums. I bet that every other of us who (still) use the social network in a comma Last.fm still care for the tags they play and hate to see those greatest hit albums among our scrobbles.​​

About this, would be great if we could dislike an album on flow or on queue list.

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

I found the answer to the question above so I’ll post here.

 


Apart from that, I would like to know what is the effect of skipping a track on Flow. Sometimes it’s not an artist I don’t like, it’s just that I wouldn’t listen to them at that moment.​​

 

“Rudi Community Manager
The Godfather
10 months ago

Hi @hpguru 

Yes, it will be affected because it's constantly learning from you.

But the same learning apply if you don't want that - and you should keep skipping on Flow until it changes from RAP back to what you love, Hard Dance. Flow will then learn that you don't like the genre and will stop pushing it on you 👍🏼

Yes skipping does. Then it plays favourites hard dance with less of new.

I am not sure if flow works different for different people but for me I want to discover, not hear what I already have at my fingers on lists or liked. For me it plays 90% from my lists or liked.

It is lately extremely hard to discover on Deezer noting as well how poor track mixes are playing charts if there’s not enough listens from users on certain hard dance or underground rap etc.

I know that they are working on flow right now.

I can’t tell how they work on it, but I see that it will not change for me how I want FLOW to work.

Usually community moderators here will tell try clearing cache or skip as fast as possible. I think they might be joking. I know skipping works, but skip as fast as possible. Telling to paying customer skip instantly or delete cache feels more like a joke than valuable respect for me at least in opinion.

Userlevel 6

I think it's s***. It plays liked tracks too often, instead of playing new ones that I might like. I thought "FLOW" was about discovering new tracks..

Don't know why many praise such a useless feature.

Reply