What is the difference between Flow and Shuffle My Music (SMM)? They seem very similar to me in concept. They both seem to be a shuffle/mix of favorites and non-favorites but executed quite differently. Here are the differences I have noticed:Flow plays less favorites, even if I’ve toggled on the “More favorites” option on mobile. SMM plays more favorites. (Winner: SMM) SMM has an “Automated recommendations” toggle and Flow does not. I’m still not sure how this affects SMM but I assume it makes SMM play more non-favorites if on vs off?? (Winner: unknown) Flow only considers favorite songs and playlists but not albums or artists. SMM considers favorite songs, playlists, and albums, but still not artists. I almost never hear from favorited artists using either Flow or SMM unless I also favorite at least one song or album. (Winner: SMM but wish I would hear non-favorited songs/albums from favorited artists) Flow follows my “exclusions” list but SMM does not. (Winner: Flow). Flow is more repetitive, both songs and artists, even repeating non-favorites. Flow also usually sticks to the same genre. SMM doesn’t repeat nearly as much. (Winner: SMM) In Flow you can pick a genre or mood but not SMM. (Winner: Flow)Could someone please verify if my assessment is correct?If so, they each have features I like and don’t like and would ideally have one adopt the good features of the other. SMM is almost there. If it would not play my “exclusions”, play more favorite artists with non-favorited songs/albums, and have the genre/mood option, it would be nearly perfect.

Hello @Keelsfordthanks for your post. Thanks @Nina Nebofor your help here.Indeed, Nina is one of our superusers in the English Community. She is super engaged to helping all our users.Regarding your further questions, let me try to address all your doubts:So I’m hearing Flow is more about discovering new music than playing favorites. You say it plays recommendations as if it’s only recommendations but it also plays favorite tracks and from my playlists. But I hear you saying that it’s more about discovering new music, EVEN IF I’ve toggled to “More favorites” on mobile. Is that correct?So Flow on mobile, will play more favourites (with some new discoveries in the middle) or more discoveries (with some favourites in the middle) depending on the setting you select.Shuffle My Music doesn’t have any music discovery (at least for the intialqueue). Every track is either a favorited track, from a favorited album, or from one of my playlists. BUT, if I have “Automated recommendations” toggled on, then after that queue completes, it will switch to discovery mode and add songs NOTfrom any favorite track, album, or playlist. Is that correct?Reply: That is correct, if you have “Automated recommendations ON”You said that Shuffle My Music is only music from tracks, albums, or playlists, but didn’t mention artists. That means a song from a favorite artist that is not a favorite album nor is a favorite track, will not come up in SMM. Is that correct?Reply: Indeed that is correct to. Shuffle My music plays content from favourite tracks, favourite albums and playlist.There’s an album that I’ve favorited because I like the album, but there’s a song on the album that I don’t like so I’ve asked to exclude it. As far as I can tell, that song may still show up in SMM. Is that correct?Reply: The algorithm should consider the dislike songs and don’t play it, but with the like on the album there is a slight chance it can be played. (something that we are looking at how to improve our algorithm)

K

Keelsford

Rising Star

Answered

Flow vs Shuffle my music

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
November 21, 2024
17 replies
319 views

What is the difference between Flow and Shuffle My Music (SMM)? They seem very similar to me in concept. They both seem to be a shuffle/mix of favorites and non-favorites but executed quite differently. Here are the differences I have noticed:

Flow plays less favorites, even if I’ve toggled on the “More favorites” option on mobile. SMM plays more favorites. (Winner: SMM)
SMM has an “Automated recommendations” toggle and Flow does not. I’m still not sure how this affects SMM but I assume it makes SMM play more non-favorites if on vs off?? (Winner: unknown)
Flow only considers favorite songs and playlists but not albums or artists. SMM considers favorite songs, playlists, and albums, but still not artists. I almost never hear from favorited artists using either Flow or SMM unless I also favorite at least one song or album. (Winner: SMM but wish I would hear non-favorited songs/albums from favorited artists)
Flow follows my “exclusions” list but SMM does not. (Winner: Flow).
Flow is more repetitive, both songs and artists, even repeating non-favorites. Flow also usually sticks to the same genre. SMM doesn’t repeat nearly as much. (Winner: SMM)
In Flow you can pick a genre or mood but not SMM. (Winner: Flow)

Could someone please verify if my assessment is correct?

If so, they each have features I like and don’t like and would ideally have one adopt the good features of the other. SMM is almost there. If it would not play my “exclusions”, play more favorite artists with non-favorited songs/albums, and have the genre/mood option, it would be nearly perfect.

Best answer by Leonídia.Deezer

Hello @Keelsford thanks for your post. Thanks @Nina Nebo for your help here.

Indeed, Nina is one of our superusers in the English Community. She is super engaged to helping all our users.

Regarding your further questions, let me try to address all your doubts:

So I’m hearing Flow is more about discovering new music than playing favorites. You say it plays recommendations as if it’s only recommendations but it also plays favorite tracks and from my playlists. But I hear you saying that it’s more about discovering new music, EVEN IF I’ve toggled to “More favorites” on mobile. Is that correct?
- So Flow on mobile, will play more favourites (with some new discoveries in the middle) or more discoveries (with some favourites in the middle) depending on the setting you select.
Shuffle My Music doesn’t have any music discovery (at least for the intial queue). Every track is either a favorited track, from a favorited album, or from one of my playlists. BUT, if I have “Automated recommendations” toggled on, then after that queue completes, it will switch to discovery mode and add songs NOT from any favorite track, album, or playlist. Is that correct?
- Reply: That is correct, if you have “Automated recommendations ON”

You said that Shuffle My Music is only music from tracks, albums, or playlists, but didn’t mention artists. That means a song from a favorite artist that is not a favorite album nor is a favorite track, will not come up in SMM. Is that correct?
- Reply: Indeed that is correct to. Shuffle My music plays content from favourite tracks, favourite albums and playlist.

There’s an album that I’ve favorited because I like the album, but there’s a song on the album that I don’t like so I’ve asked to exclude it. As far as I can tell, that song may still show up in SMM. Is that correct?
- Reply: The algorithm should consider the dislike songs and don’t play it, but with the like on the album there is a slight chance it can be played. (something that we are looking at how to improve our algorithm)

Show previous replies

Dawg

Rising Star

Hi @Dawg! Indeed, what I was referring to, was the feature to switch off automated recommendations on mobile devices.

Regarding the feature “Shuffle my Music”, it should give you a mix of all your favourite tracks, plus tracks from your favourite albums and playlists. That’s how the feature should work.

Hi @Leonídia.Deezer!

My own thoughts! But it currently works exactly as I describe. The feature in the mobile app provides me with a mix of favourite tracks, tracks from added playlists, and various tracks that I haven't added. So it functions like the Flow feature. And I can't find any way to turn it off. Checked multiple times.

M

Marcormark

@Dawg It definitely sounds like one of the issues other users also had, as you can read in the following topic:

I personally had a negative experience last year, from July to October, when they finally fixed it for me and for the other users who had reported it during that same period.
However, I have to say, I am noticing again a deterioration in terms of song repetitiveness using the "Shuffle my music" feature in recent weeks...

J

JRR

Rising Star

Hi, I know this is an old thread but I am curious after reading some of the comments stating their Flow plays music from their playlists and would like to check on this as it would be a huge change.

As far as I know and as I have experienced for the past years, Flow will play only my Liked Artists and Genres (and new suggestions) and always mainly well known songs by the artist, the most famous. Shuffle my Music is the opposite, plays everything inside Favourite albums and playlists.

So for instance when playing Shuffle my Music you will not listen to Queen if you liked the artist Queen but did not make a playlist with songs by Queen or liked the albums.

Similarly, when playing Flow you will not listen to Queen if you made a Queen playlist but forgot to like the artist Queen.

Could someone please confirm this is still the case and has not changed during the past months??

I love Flow and getting recommendations every now and then. If Flow played from playlists that would be a huge change for Deezer users in general and also all my music added manually to MY MP3s playlist and other playlists could finally sound in Flow, which is not the case right now. I had to specifically play them if I want to listen to them.

Also, I had to create a playlist will all albums for any artist I like in order to make sure I listen to all their discography in SMM and not only their best known songs in Flow. There is a limit of 4000 favourite albums so it is not as easy as just like all your albums when you have a huge library. If Flow really played from playlists then you could be sure that you may really listen to ALL your music plus recommendations plus your manual MP3s.

That would be the perfect app forever

Thanks everyone

K

KeelsfordAuthor

Rising Star

This is based on my experience and what I’ve read on these forums...

Flow definitely plays music from your playlists. I’ve found that Flow is just a 50/50 mix of my playlists and discoveries, with very seldomly a favorite track thrown in, but mostly doesn’t consider favorite tracks, albums, or artists.

Shuffle My Music plays your favorite tracks, playlists, and albums. It does not take into consideration your favorite artists, i.e. it will not play a track from a favorite artist that is not one of your favorite tracks, not in one of your playlists, nor on one of your favorite albums.

**Upon initiating Shuffle My Music, a 50-song queue will start playing. If you have “Automated Recommendations” toggled ON, it will include some discoveries after the initial 50 songs have played.

So my understanding is that neither Flow or SMM considers favorite artists. So I’m confused what even is the point of favoriting artists if it’s not used anywhere.

J

JRR

Rising Star

Hi, thanks for your reply.

Just today I got songs in my Flow by artists I have in my favourites bu are not in none of my playlists so I can definitely guarantee you that Artists come up in Flow or my experience is different for some reason.

I will check again from now since you confirm playlists also get in the mix. That would be great

What definitely never comes up is my MP3s. Deezer says they are also taken into the mix but I have played Flow for ages and never heard one of them.

bluezzbastardzz

Superuser

You can add uploaded MP3 songs to your own playlists which may also contain tracks from Deezer’s catalogue, e.g. if Deezer does not have a particular album from one of your favorite artists, but you have it as MP3 files. Creating a playlist with all albums from your favorite artist including the ones you have uploaded to your account should also come up in Shuffle my music then. But I haven’t tested this myself, as my past uploads from years ago are all available on Deezer now. Also I don’t know if Flow would play them then.

ZZee ya, Hans-Jürgen (Bluezz Bastardzz and Indigo Rocks, live album on Deezer, last.fm/user/hjbardenhagen)

J

JRR

Rising Star

You can add uploaded MP3 songs to your own playlists which may also contain tracks from Deezer’s catalogue, e.g. if Deezer does not have a particular album from one of your favorite artists, but you have it as MP3 files. Creating a playlist with all albums from your favorite artist including the ones you have uploaded to your account should also come up in Shuffle my music then. But I haven’t tested this myself, as my past uploads from years ago are all available on Deezer now. Also I don’t know if Flow would play them then.

Hi, theory says "shuffle" plays your MP3 when included in some playlist but in many years I never got a song uploaded by me in the shuffle play. Still I can listen to them manually in android or website which is better than any other platform

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