Flow should not recommend songs which are not based on my Favourites

Hi there, but you can use shuffle my music instead of flow… Flow is based on your favourites and playlists as they help the feature's algorithms find similar tracks and finally it can pick up what is also the most listened on Deezer. We won't be able to go ahead with this suggestion at the moment, but thanks for the feedback, we'll keep passing them to the right team!

Hi @Rafael. I don’t think you understood what I was asking for.

Songs I have played that have never been added to my Favourites nor any playlist are being used to recommend me songs in Flow.

This is an issue because a) my account recently had an issue where someone else was playing songs in my account and b) sometimes I play a song out of interest but don’t like it.

”Recently played” or “frequently played” songs shouldn’t influence my Flow if they’re not in my library. 

This is definitely not what I’m trying to do. I’m wanting to play Flow. I’m making a suggestion to the Flow recommendation model. 

Thanks for clarifying @teqteq. I'll speak to Raf about this one, it's an interesting topic because Flow is very personable, other users may prefer a mix including music discovery too. So it should be open for more votes, and our team to review this at a later stage 

Hello, my friends. 
Flow is AI and based on favorites and my playlists, it’s OK.
I like many different genres - rock, pop, electronic, techno etc.

I suggest to add to Flow some filters for choose - "what i want to hear".

For example, need add options:
New song, it’s mean new songs for ME, exclude songs from playlists or favorites - best way NEVER HEARD at DEEZER.
Also souds good a choose - what’s NEW - popular tracks or hidden of eyes (rare tracks).
Add options for choose - basic Genre or few, for example - Rock - all track base this genre, NOT any other genres.

@Serg.HardPepper good idea but you should add it to a separate thread so it can get voted on! It looks like they’re already working on your idea though (new feature “Change Mood” in the beta version). But best not to discuss that further in this thread which is about something else.

Here’s another example of a song named “Logout” that I don’t know but played a few times when my account was hijacked

No way! Flow is THE reason to subscribe to Deezer over any other service. What I hate about other services’ ‘discovery’ channels is precisely that: that we only like one type of music & know what type of music we want to hear today. I love Flow’s ability to just play music of any kind, without me restricting it. I love going from The Corrs to Rachmaninov to Tool to James Morrison in one playlist, and for me it gets the mix between randomness, educated suggestions & my favourites right more of the time than any other music service. If they did anything other than refine how Flow is today, I’d have no reason to prefer Deezer over any other. They already do the ‘Inspired By’ so you can limit it if you want (which my wife does as she does listen to a much smaller variety than I do). 

Read what I said again. Totally off point. 

I do think Flow is good how it is, playing favourites and songs you've been listening to. But I understand the original post about having suggestions you weren't wanting to be played. 

For example, at Christmas. You could have family members or friends over and be playing requests for people. Only to have those songs you don't like at all, suddenly being suggested in your flow. 

Maybe Deezer could benefit from an incognito mode like in Chrome? Which could be difficult to implement. Another option could be to clear track history or listening preferences for say the past 24 hours or 7 days? 

I'm stealing ideas from the trusty web browser. 😊

Hi there @Saraceno @teqteq @Viewtiful Bob 

Interesting discussion here. It's clear that the idea above is about Flow continuing the way it is, but not considering recently played music - but only favourites.

I guess the incognito mode is an idea. For when you don't want Flow to get involved with the songs you're just listening. Or in your case @teqteq, if the account has been compromised. We get it and the topic is the best tool for our product managers and developers to understand better how the service can be improved.

So even if there's a bit of confusion, that helps to get down to specifics 

I like flow the way it is but do see @teqteq point - and agree an “incognito” mode would be good for when you’re playing songs for family or a party etc.

I realise my wording was a bit misleading (though I recognise some have understood clearly - just clarifying).

Flow recommendations should only be based on tracks that Deezer knows I like (eg tracks in Favourites or Playlists). I don’t think it should be based on songs that I play but don’t indicate that I like (eg Christmas songs, my niece’s Thai pop music, that time I thought “OK I’ll see what all the fuss is about with this new Kanye album”, etc).

Or at the least these choices should rank very low and have minimal influence. But they seem to carry the same weight as a Favourite.

Im certainly not suggesting Flow should in any way reduce the variety of music. Only that recommendations should stem from songs you like, perhaps with a little extension into unknown territory to both open my eyes to new styles and improve algorithm tuning.

Believe me, if you saw my catalogue you’d realise I’m not trying to limit variety at all (230 playlists and counting, mostly split by sub-genre).

@Rudi can you change the title of this Idea to “Flow recommendations shouldn’t be based on recently played songs that I haven’t added to my library”?

I guess perhaps the perspective I’m missing is those that often play music and don’t necessarily add an album or song to Favourites. I’m the polar opposite - everything gets added to a Favourite and Playlist.

Maybe the album can recognise these 2 different styles and base the weighting of Favourites on the number of Favourites and Playlists the user has (if Favourites<Recently Played, weight Recently Played. If Favourites>Recently Played, weight Favourites, but more of a sliding-scale ratio-based weighting). 

I sort of agree with @teqteq comments regarding it should only suggest based on tracks, albums or playlists that I’ve added to Favourites section - not that I just choose to play e.g. I also like to try new albums but afterwards thinks “nah - not for me” - I don’t want that influencing my Flow and Recommendations.

Hi @teqteq, hi @Rob Igo thanks for your thoughts on that - I got it and just changed the title accordingly  

As far as I know that is already the case: the Flow algorithm is only based on favourite tracks, albums and artists and is not even based on songs in a playlist (which are not marked with a heart) and not based on recently played songs which are not in favourites. This could have been just by chance because the song Logout might have been in a pool of songs related to one of your favourite tracks.

However, I am gonna double-check with the Flow team next week. 

HI @Pia.Deezer 

thanks for explaining and yes please double check with the Flow team it would be great to know 100% if Flow is only based on anything in Favourites etc. :) 

This cannot be correct.

I’m in my trial period and therefore have a relatively fresh account. I clicked on a “chill” playlist because I thought it would be like those instrumental chillhop stations, but it was more like downtempo pop and hip-hop (with vocals). I don’t like either of those genres so I stopped the playlist pretty quickly after a couple skips.

My favorite albums and artists are entirely metal, soundtrack, and jazz so far, but I cannot get rid of pop and hip-hop artists from my flow. It pushes me away from using the feature at all.

Hi @tjgavlick please bear in mind that we are talking about FLOW here and not the playlist Chill.

You can simply click on the small angry face » click on change mood » then you have plenty of options to play Metal and Jazz 

Hi @teqteq, hi @Rob Igo your recently played tracks are only a “last resort” fallback for FLOW recommendations - when the FLOW algorithm runs out of ideas. This only happens when you have listened to your Flow for several hours...BUT when you have listened to a song or album A LOT it will influence the Flow, even if not explicitly added to your library.

However, this can be changed easily - here are the best tips for a smooth FLOW and interesting new discoveries 

• You can always click on "Add to Favourite Songs" (the small heart) or small angry-face » "Don’t recommend this track” or “Don’t recommend this artist”. These three reactions have a much stronger positive effect on your FLOW than simply skipping to the next track
• You also have the option to click on the small angry-face and change the mood completely in case you do not like the genre or vibe at all 
• The more you listen to your FLOW and the more you click - the better your Flow algorithm 
• The best way to improve your FLOW is to mark hundreds of songs AND artists with a small heart 
• Delete songs from your favourites that you don't want to hear right now (save the song only in a playlist instead)
• Click away the small heart of everything that belongs to a music genre that you otherwise don't like at all (save the song only in a playlist instead)

Please bear in mind that your FLOW is 50% favourites and 50% discovery - to balance out preferences of different users around the world. If you prefer to only listen to your Favourites instead simply listen to Shuffle My Music. If you prefer to discover more new music instead simply click on the Discover playlist next to your FLOW. You can also browse through the New releases to find new music. Enjoy!

Most certainly @tjgavlick. That's what our devs tell us about Flow. It tends to improve with more input  isn't it, @Noam Asulin 

Hi I have a quick question to @Pia.Deezer  and @Rudi 

You mentioned “If you prefer to only listen to your Favourites instead simply listen to Shuffle My Music.” I’m guessing this shuffles anything under the “Favourites” section (e.g. from Albums, Playlists etc.)?   If you can confirm so everyone is clear etc. :)