Tip: Get the most out of FLOW


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What is the reason that FLOW once again only offers unsuitable songs? How can you make FLOW better?

 

In the beginning there was… :baby_tone2:

FLOW is basically stupid at first and has to learn your own listening habits. In other words, at the beginning, the suggestions that appeal to the general public and maybe you yourself predominate. So everything is still very general, like on the radio.

Attention: FLOW will only appears if there are at least 15 artists in your own favorites!

 

But I'm not the general public… :couple::two_men_holding_hands::two_women_holding_hands:

That's great, then tell FLOW what you like and -most importantly- what you don't(!) like.

 

So let's let FLOW learn a little :bulb::bulb::bulb:

Start FLOW and listen to a few suggested tracks.

Decide whether you like a track or not:

Track is not (yet) one of the favorite songs
Track was heartfelt by you and is therefore part of your favorite songs
With this evil face, you tell FLOW that you don't like the track. Use this button!

 

All right, but I don't just want to hear FLOW so that FLOW gets to know me!

Understandable. :selfie_tone2:

FLOW also learns, of course, if songs contained in ‘normal’ playlists receive a Like or a Dislike. In playlists, which in many cases already contain favorite songs, you can very easily and quickly like a whole batch:

 

Individual songs can also be easily disliked, e.g. in the current song :Notes: - click on the three dots:

And then on:

 

Can I also like/dislike more globally?

Yes and no. So not everything. :nerd:

Globally, artists and albums can get a Like/Dislike.

Genre cannot be controlled globally.

:information_source: Tip: Take a list of the genre that you don't like at all, e.g. Christmas. :santa_tone1: Then dislike all the tracks one by one. FLOW already knows that Christmas is not yours, you Grinch. :wink:

 

I have a few tracks in the favorite songs playlist, but FLOW still suggests a lot of unsuitable tracks.

FLOW has to constantly learn in order to become more precise and also better. There is currently a limit of 10,000 tracks for favorite songs.

:information_source: There is a display limit of 2,000 tracks for the excluded songs. Further tracks are not displayed, but still affect the FLOW. Especially the dislikes should be distributed wherever possible. Simply clicking on is not really enough. Only when FLOW knows what you don't like can really good stuff be offered in return.

 

Where can I see how many and which songs I already have on the dislike list?

Unfortunately, this is not visible in the smartphone apps.

But with the desktop and web version this is very easy: Click on your own profile name in the upper right corner and click on ‘Manage excluded tracks’.

Alternatively via these links:

Excluded tracks: https://www.deezer.com/exclusions/tracks

Excluded artists: https://www.deezer.com/exclusions/artists

 

My mood has changed...

That's not possible… Joking aside. :joy:

No problem at all! :thumbsup:

Heart :heart: simply previously excluded tracks or grab tracks from the list ‘Favorite songs’ list into the ‘Excluded tracks’ list.

FLOW then adapts very quickly. :white_check_mark:

 

It feels like FLOW only plays my favorites and nothing new...

Yes, FLOW sometimes has a bad day and makes it very easy for itself. :scream:

In most cases, however, the ratio should be: One or two new tracks on a favorite.

→ These are empirical values of the thread author. :relaxed:

 

Want to know more about FLOW? Read about its evolution here 👇

 

 

#OriginallyMadeInGermany | de.deezercommunity.com


21 replies

What’s the ratio of favourites to new tracks on Flow? Is it about 50/50?

I’ve not used Flow a lot so far, but when I have it was pretty good. 

Is it about 50/50?

Hi @Logan_A 

Out of 100 songs i have around 50 favorites and around 40 new and good songs. The rest is crap. For me the ratio is okay, although the favorites could be a little less.

My database consists of 50 runs since April 2021.

Thanks @dee_dirk . That’s a pretty good percentage then if only about 10% are bad. 

I love all the tips you’ve been doing this weekend, thanks for the time you’ve put in to help people enjoy Deezer to the max. 

 

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Great tips @dee_dirk :clap_tone2:

I'd also put some emphasis on skipping tracks. Skipping is also a good input to tame your little Flow to become a real beast! (quite confusing statement here)

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@Rudi ,

Yes, skipped tracks should go to the very end of possible playlist of the flow. I mean, that it not as disliked, but it should be as “I don't want ti listen it".

You should understand that while listening music, people, usually, doing something else, and it is not always possible to tap the screen for liking or disliking songs. I skipp the songs from my BT devices. While the phone is in the pocket.

In the German community, the question was asked whether flow is already being influenced simply by adding a playlist.

 

If you put a Bible on the shelf, that doesn't mean that you know all the verses by heart.

It's the same with playlists and flow. Just saving a playlist (= Bible on the shelf) does not affect the flow (= knowing verses by heart).

If you add a playlist to your favorites, you will also hear the individual tracks. And Flow already knows what the user basically likes.

Example:

‘Hot New Rock’ mainly contains songs from the genres ‘New Rock’ and ‘Rock’ → This is registered when the songs are played.

If you listen to a song in its entirety, there is a small plus point.
If you skip a title, there is a small minus point.

If you listen to a song in its entirety and click on the heart, the plus point is weighted higher.
If you listen to a song and click on Dislike, you will immediately jump to the next track = minus point is weighted higher.

If you still listen to the songs from the ‘Hot New Rock’ playlist for several days, Flow will then serve you mostly material from the rock genres.

I seriously dislike how most of the tracks flow plays, are ones I already know.

 

MY flow seems to basically be all songs in my library played on shuffle, with rarely anything new. This normal?  Thanks in advance.

Hey @prx1213 

How satisfied are you with the flow cards?

  • Monday discovery
  • Friday releases
  • Sunday chill
  • daily Mixes

Interacting with these lists makes your flow dance later. :slight_smile:

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I think flow is repetitive, thing that I don’t like is that any new music you play, it will end up to your flow. Sometimes you need to listen to that music once in a blue moon, I wish there was a feature like YT music where you select the mood, then it breaks down to different mixes. 

I think flow is repetitive, thing that I don’t like is that any new music you play, it will end up to your flow. Sometimes you need to listen to that music once in a blue moon, I wish there was a feature like YT music where you select the mood, then it breaks down to different mixes. 

agreed. I am very close to opting for TIDAL for the hifi, and the reccomendations are tons better. BUT. If deezer let you save lyrics offline, that'd win me over.

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Why would you need offline lyrics? You can google any lyrics if needed. 

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The only reason I don't like and listen to Flow is because Flow only plays what I've listened to in the last 14 days. I have in favorites over 1600 tracks but Flow takes this completely out of consideration and only plays the style I've been listening to lately. And that includes the styles in the circle, which I think are similar, which are totally pointlessly chosen.

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I've tried to do almost everything possible, but Flow, Monday Discoveries en Sunday Chill aren't playlists that I would listen to. 

 

Flow plays my favorites again and again, sometimes a "new" song.

And the moods are terrible. The moods offer songs that I would never listen to. 

 

Sunday Chill plays is a mix of songs that I would like and songs that I would never listen to.

 

Same goes for the Monday Discoveries. Of all the songs, I would never listen to them. And I mean never. 

 

I've got 145 favorite songs, 102 favorite artists and 133 albums.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

The 100% and the Daily are perfect. Nothing wrong with those playlists. 

Userlevel 6

I’m finding a big improvement in Flow the last week or so. Previously, there wasn’t much of a distinction between the different moods, but now ‘Chill’ really is chill and it’s been perfect this morning. I’m seeing similar improvements in other moods as well. I hope it continues… 🤞 Are others finding it better too?

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Now one month later The Chill Playlist and The Monday Discoveries are still very off. 

I listen to metal and hard rock (Nightwish for example} and what do I get? Bonny Raith, Dire Straits and Aretha Franklin.

I still don't get it. 

After a while of not using it, I'm using my Flow (Standard/Classic) more heavily again.

Here I noticed the following:
My flow on the computer (web version) is completely different than my flow on the iPhone.

On the computer I mainly listen to Electro, Techno and Goa stuff → that's exactly what the web flow gives me.

In the car, I mostly listen to Chill and House with my iPhone... → iOS-Flow mainly serves me Chill and House music.

 

Thesis/Question:

Could it be that Flow is also based on the music heard on the respective devices?

Maybe someone can confirm or refute that.

If that can really be confirmed, that would be absolutely COOL.

 

And something else I noticed:

Songcatcher seems to feed the flow directly. Because: Although I only briefly played the songs found via Songcatcher and put them in a playlist for later, other songs by the artist are served to me shortly afterwards. I also find it very charming.

I don't want flow! How can I get rid of flow?

@mcbrt.42 

You could just ignore flow.

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@dee_dirk 

Hey I was thinking. Maybe just have a way to tell flow that the song was a good recommendation, but not necessarily add it to my my favorites. My flow is getting better but I dont want to use up all my favorite songs space. Maybe a “good recommendation” option to add.Just an idea

@Spookhouse 

The idea is good. The same would also be considered or useful for songs that are not suitable at the moment. Maybe you like the music, but it just doesn't fit the mood. A dislike would then be too hard.

I'm thinking about whether and how I can visualize it. As you know, pictures say more than 1000 words and the Flow team then knows immediately what is meant/desired.

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@dee_dirk 

I'm thinking something simple like a smiley face here. Also a separate idea was being able to throw song to a music dump. The use case would be when I like the song but I can't find the playlist at the moment so I throw it in the folder so I can find an appropriate playlist later

 

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