I've been dragged to recommendations, kicking and screaming


As a Tidal subscriber, every time I log in new hip hop artists are recommended to me.  Hilarious as I never listen to them, but lately I've been letting Roon play on and I'm discovering new artists and music I would not otherwise.

What's your experience been with online streaming and automated recommendation systems?
erik_squires
Not the same, but kinda is when it comes to discovering new music. 
I stream Radio Paradise - The World Music channel - And wow, so much new, and so many varied musical styles/voices.

Random, for sure, but I love being exposed to music I would never discover through an algorithm...
I love the Tidal app but the UX is horrible. They shove hip hop down your throat and don't let you organize your collection. But when I let their song radio play at the end of an album, it usually leads to some nice discoveries. I use Roon as my front end partly to avoid having to interact with Tidal other than having it feed my Lumin streamer. 
On Tidal, I've discovered several things I like due to having the autoplay option selected. Autoplay seems to be linked to the last track of an album and it makes a mix of tracks from related artists plus the artist whose album you were playing. I've saved several of these mixes as playlists for later enjoyment and examination. Often, if I like a song I haven't heard while listening to a mix, I'll click on the album title and save it as a favorite for checking out later. Its been a good way to find artists I've never heard.


The explore button is something I use almost daily to check out new albums in the categories/genres I enjoy. I wish there was a way to access all albums in a genre, say alphabetically, and be able to page through them. This would be another way to find artists unknown to me. Perhaps the sheer size of their catalog creates an issue with doing this.