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.
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Hi @Keelsford !
Here is my point of view :
Flow play recommendations which are based on your musical taste .
Also you can improve your Flow is by adding more content to your Favorites and listening to music across the app.
Shuffle My Music play only music from your favourites ( tracks , playlists and albums ) .
If you have turned ON "Automated recommendations" in your Queue , after the last song has been played, recommendation of songs based on the songs that are currently in the Queue continue to be played.
Do you work for Deezer and this is fact? Or are you just describing your experience as a user?
Considering how active you are on the forum I’m going to assume the former and ask some follow up questions.
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?
SMM 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?
You said that SMM 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?
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?
Thanks in advance. I’m just trying to make sense of the features to make it work for me.
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)
Thank you @Leonídia.Deezer !
Thank you for being direct and specific answering my questions. This is very helpful for my understanding of how to get the most out of my Deezer experience.
Re: Discovery vs Favorites
This makes sense.
Some feedback: In my experience, Flow still plays too much discovery music even when More Favorites is toggled on.
Re: Automated Recommendations
I already started a new thread under Ideas to have Automated Recommendations include discovery from the initial queue build rather than waiting for post-initial-queue. So all good here.
Re: Including Favorite Artists
I already started a new thread under Ideas for this too.
Re: Exclusions
Glad to hear this is already on your radar to remedy!
