Hello everyone,
I've just found out the explanation, and I have some bad news to share:
this feature has been removed by the Deezer team and will not return.
I read it on the Deezer forum (I hadn’t noticed that there was one on the site), and there’s a whole topic about it. After reading the 7 pages, it’s clear that Deezer has no intention of going back to the old system for now.
They recommend making playlists, but what stands out from users' feedback is that this solution does not replace the ability to play a search, which allows discovering other versions than the album versions, such as covers or live performances. Indeed, when we create playlists, we generally look for stuff we know, which greatly limits the possibility of enriching our musical culture. Moreover, adding songs one by one to the playlist is particularly tedious, not to mention that creating a playlist for each search will lead to having 50,000 of them by the end of the year: it’s hard to keep track.
Deezer is working on implementing a checkbox system to add multiple songs to the playlist at once; however, this is not ready for deployment yet, so we’ll need to be patient until then.
Additionally, it’s worth knowing that this feature has also been removed for members. So there’s no point in signing up for this, you won’t have continuous play any more than you do now.
Forum users, all members, have suggested to the team to bring this feature back exclusively for members, which would encourage people to sign up without disadvantaging those who are already members. This proposal, undoubtedly the most logical and simplest way to bring smiles back to everyone while allowing Deezer to increase its user base, does not seem to have been accepted by the designers. For now, there is no question of seeing this function return, either for members or for the rest of the common people.
Users have also shared how they are coping, each in their own way, with the problem:
- listening to other people's playlists to continue discovering
- listening to web radio (Even if unfortunately, it doesn’t necessarily match... For example, I searched for the group Imogen Heap: it included Bob Marley and Philippe Katerine... It’s not that I don’t like them, but I don’t see much of a link between the musical styles... The web radio is supposed to play all the tracks corresponding to the searched artist, plus similar artists... "Similar"? Imogen Heap and Bob Marley?... Anyway, let’s move on...)
- others finally said they went to look elsewhere: on Jiwa or Jamendo, for example. The choice is more limited, but from what I understand, you can listen to "repeat" all the tracks of an artist (I haven’t had the time to test it yet, I read the forum in the morning, and I’m at work... Sorry!)
Overall, everyone contested this decision, especially that it was not announced in advance, creating confusion and pushing many users to look for a "bug" (like all of us here...) when there wasn’t one. The lack of communication from Deezer has been widely criticized...
The team defends itself by saying that there’s a blog explaining the decisions made... But in any case, no clear explanation has been provided because "due to competition, the reasons behind this choice cannot be disclosed on the forum" (according to Deezer... well, in essence, it’s not word for word). In short, we won’t know.
The topic has been closed by the team, so you will no longer be able to give your opinion.
For now, we must take our pain with patience; I personally think they will revisit this decision in a few months, at least for members, as the removal of this feature will, in my opinion, greatly penalize the site and significantly reduce its traffic. Time will tell... So let’s wait a few weeks and see...
Finally, the story of the pop-up every three minutes to sign up was also mentioned... But that’s another story.
So, I’ll end this very long post, and I wanted to give you a summary of the 7 pages of discussions, to save you from having to sift through them. That said, it’s worth checking out; there are some great exchanges... And Deezer administrators who don’t always show the necessary tact, sometimes downright condescending even (it depends on the admin, there are some quite nice ones)...
It’s very regrettable for Deezer’s image. The myth is cracking, breaking, and is on the verge of collapsing...
PS: if you find that other forums have raised the same question as us, feel free to copy this long summary and post it. The more people who are aware and realize that the site will no longer be what it was, the more likely Deezer will recognize its mistake and get back on track before it’s too late and we’ve all migrated to the competition. Thank you all for taking the time to read all this...
