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

It used to be great. Recently it has started playing a bunch of crap I really don’t want to listen to.

Used to be like an 80% hit-rate, good songs, either ones that I’ve Liked or stuff that I actually want to listen to. These past 6 months it’s gotten significantly worse, with only 10% of the suggestions being absolutes gems that I love, 20% songs I don’t mind listening to, 40% songs that I just skip, and 30% that I actively have to tell Deezer to stop recommending me, but my Flow doesn’t seem to adapt to my choices as well as it used to.

And as some other users have already mentioned Flow doesn’t appear to make any distinction between genres and might jump from a classical piece to a hardcore metal song just like that. I like songs from either genre, but jumping straight from one to the other is a bit jarring for me.

Flow has always been my main reason for sticking with Deezer but seeing as it’s been quite disappointing lately, I might really have to consider moving on to other music streaming services at this rate...

Mostly, I’m finding Flow and mixes to be very accurate. I’m really enjoying them. And I have fairly broad taste in music (your 2019 summary concurs) so its especially impressive.

The one issue I have is that it also includes recently played tracks as basis for recommendation as I mentioned in the below thread (and now based on songs someone else played in my account, as mentioned).

https://en.deezercommunity.com/ideas/967#post148230

Also, there occasionally appear some really hokey classical piano tracks played on crappy pianos that I can’t explain at all and won’t seem to take the hint to die in a fire (makes me wonder if there’s a bug that starts intermingling people’s accounts making recommendations, which might explain the gradual degradation some mention). 

@Thesandman did you recently have any issues where your account appeared “hijacked”? Or do you lend your phone-account to others (your family, kids etc)?

Actually there is a major shortcoming of Flow. It does seem to really favour particular artists and songs. I ALWAYS get some version of Mayonnaise by Smashing Pumpkins (no idea why that song cuz I don’t really like it compared to many other Pumpkins songs), and a Nine Inch Nails song (makes a bit more sense).

I have a theory as to why Flow might degrade over time. I am almost certain that recently played (non-favourite, non-playlist) songs influence Flow recommendations. I became aware of this as mentioned in another thread that a song I played many times repeatedly suddenly was in my Flow which didn’t make sense. Also when someone else had hijacked my account they were playing a French pop playlist and I started getting recommendations from that playlist (also not in favourites or my library).

So, this being the case, it seems likely that Flow is self-reinforcing, in that whatever it plays then influences the next Flow and on and on until it’s cementing I correct recommendations.

That’s a theory anyway. As mentioned in an Idea, recently played music should not influence Flow unless it’s in your library. 

Also I keep getting these bloody awful cheesy synthesised classical tunes which makes absolutely no sense. Surely no one listens to them, and I can’t comprehend why Flow keeps recommending them.

My Idea about not using recently played songs.

https://en.deezercommunity.com/ideas/967

Flow should contain new music of a similar genre so you get to constantly update your music. Flow and discover should be one in the same thing and it shouldn't contain songs that you have liked.

I’m actually totally confused as to why I’m getting recommended all these French songs from the “Promo Star France” playlist which was played when my account was compromised. It was only played once so it’s very odd. Maybe my account is still intertwined with someone else’s? It’s seriously compromising Flow. 

That's a real shame @teqteq. If the account is compromised to the point you have more of this music than your actual favourites, you may need to contact our support team here for other options, as I mentioned to you on the other thread. Keep me posted and in the meantime, try to use the mood button to change the genres in Flow.

First of all flow needs back button.Also algoritam for finding songs is very bad. I can never find new songs that like how can i reset it. But the worst is that I cant return a song that I like. ALSO DEEZER IS AT THE MOMENT NOT WORKING IN CROAITA WHY DO WE PAY YOU.

Hit here, we already added the back button. What device and app version are you using? About the new songs, please check our Discover flow, it's pretty good!

What do you mean about Deezer not working in Croatia? Any error message?

“Do not recommend this song” button doesn’t work!!! The same songs I have kicked out are keep coming back! Please fix it!

Thanks

Kai

i would like to know how the algorithm is working? at the moment it is recommending again songs that are only different versions of the song i already didnt like. or if i already liked one song, it can recommend same song again, from a different album. and i also dont like that it is recommending my already liked songs, if i want to listen them, i go to favorite tracks. i hate to listen the same songs all the time. algorithm is not good. and it would be nice to choose that dont recommend this artist never again (if it is bullshit, as most of them are what it is recommending). and the back button is not working on the flow mode. great app anyway. altough it has one flaw when i try to scroll the song. too many times it will sweep down the view because the interaction point is too close to the scroll bar.

I agree with the main criticism of Flow - it simply relies way, way too heavily on favourites. It should be scaled back to the point where perhaps 1 in 10 tracks comes from favourites and the rest is all new stuff.

Perhaps the main issue is that Flow is trying to be too many things to too many people, and disappointing everyone thanks to impossible expectations. Deezer should just create a 'New Flow’ that is exclusively new music with zero favourites, and then the regular flow would be less of an issue with how favourites are weighted.

Flow is also doing something with regional popular tracks being accounted for, and that is a disaster imo. As a South African I'm being inundated with Afrikaans and Xhosa music that has zero relevance to my tastes, and no matter how quickly I skip tracks or how many artists I add to my Do Not Recommend list, they keep appearing. A user's listening habits should determine their recommendations, not where they live. I haven't had this issue with Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music or Play Music.

All roads lead to Ariana Grande. I have a huge favorites playlist of +300 tracks, never once played Ariana Grande in my life....Somehow the “AI”  suggests her after pretty much any genre and even after clicking  “Do not recommend this artist”. Flow =  Adds.

My flow has gone overkill today and recommended about 100 German songs… 

I cant say I have listend to any and I keep pressing don’t recommend artist but the Germans keep coming… 

Any way to fix this… 

Hi there @pbandj @Trotski444 @BrynCB

Thank you for your feedback, we've passed these comments to our desktop app team so that they're fully aware.

@pbandj when you're using Flow, have you tried changing the mood? Have a look through your favourites, it isn't supposed to recommend songs from a country you don't reside in. Let me know more and I can try to help 

Hello,
When I save a song to my favourites, my flow plays the same song, but sometimes from compilation albums or extended editions.
I wonder, od it could be done so, that Flow preferes the saved and downloaded version of the song.

2 Things I’d like to see in Flow (this is for desktop version):

1. Auto scroll to bottom when next song is playing.
2. A switch that would make it so that flow only suggested new songs - prevent it from suggesting songs that were already played.

@Curator both very good suggestions. I have forwarded your ideas to our FLOW team 

Hey @Petr Hank 

Thanks for the feedback - we'll be letting our Flow team know about it 

i think the flow feature needs possibility of user customization. using the flow i get the impression that the flow plays every day about hundred same songs, and most of them is from my favorite list. i want to use flow to find a new music that basics on my preferences, but the more tracks i have "liked" the less new tracks the flow plays, it plays always what I already heard. i think a good idea to customize flow to play or not tracks from user favorit list and to limit tracks repeat in flow once per day/week/month. this will make the flow really fresh

Hi there @MadMadMad 

Thank you for your feedback. In order to improve your Flow, check some tips on this topic here.

And in the meantime, have you tried your Discovery card on the homepage? It's more dedicated to fresh new tracks and it changes every week. It's a pretty cool feature 

Thanks for the answer @Rudi. Yes, I already read that topic before writing. And I tried using Discovery, it’s not like Flow, it’s like a playlist that contains tracks that are not like my preferences

I’ve noticed something about flow that is getting a tad annoying.

I have a lot of favorited albums, but not many favorited specific tracks. Flow seems to only want to play the first track of a given favorited album, which seems like an odd decision to me — doubly so because a not insignificant percentage of first tracks are intros or preludes. There’s a whole tracklist’s worth of stuff to choose from, flow! I believe in you!

Flow might be choosing album tracks based on popularity, since it’s only logical that tracks will get less popular the later in a given album you go. If this is the case, I would encourage a little more adventurism in this department.