In this article on Spotify Radio, we are going to show you how to:

• Listen to pre-built stations.
• Tell Spotify about your likes and dislikes.
• Create your own custom stations.
• Add individual songs to your personal Spotify music library.

You can access the radio feature via the Spotify desktop software and mobile app, but in this guide we are going to use the Web player.

Accessing the Spotify Web Player

If you've not used the Spotify Web Player before then follow this short tutorial.

1. To access the Spotify Web Player, use your favorite Internet browser and go to https://play.spotify.com/
2. Assuming you already have a Spotify account, click the Log in here link.
3. Enter your username / password and click the Login button.

Incidentally, if you don't have an account you can quickly sign up with an email address or your Facebook account (if you have one).

Switching to Spotify Radio And Listening to Pre-built Stations

To get started on Spotify Radio it's a good idea to first use the pre-built stations before moving on to create your own. There's two sections to use called: Recommended Stations and Genre Stations which both have pre-programmed stations.

1. Click on the Radio link located in the left-hand pane.
2. To listen to a station based on the type of music you have previously been listening to, scroll the screen down to the Recommended Stations section. Here you'll be able to click on an album cover to start listening to that station. To see more recommendations, click the arrows on the right-hand side of the screen.

1. To listen to a genre-specific station, scroll the screen down (to the Genre Stations section) to choose a genre.
2. When you click on a station you'll notice that the screen will automatically scroll back to the top as the station starts to play. If you like the track that is currently playing, click the thumbs up button. If you don't like it then click the thumbs down. This will help Spotify learn about your tastes in music and fine-tune its recommendations in the future.
3. You can also skip tracks in Spotify Radio by clicking the forward arrow (to the right of the large album artwork on the main screen). Notice that there's no back button so make sure you want to advance to the next song.
4. If you want to save a track to your songs list, hover your mouse over the large album artwork on the main screen and click the + icon. You will now be able to play this song by going to Your Music > Songs.

 

Creating Radio Stations Based on Your Favorite Artists And Bands

To get started with creating artist-based stations using Spotify Radio follow the steps below:

1. Click the Create New Station button in the top right-hand corner of the main screen.
   
2. Type in the name of an artist or band you want to create a station from. As you type you will notice that several sections  (tracks, artists, albums, etc.) will auto-update. Once you have typed in the name of your chosen artist/band, click on its link.
   
3. You can now listen to your custom made station just like the pre-built ones (covered in the previous section of this guide). To skip tracks you can either use the player in the right-hand pane or the button on the main screen (to the right of the large album artwork).
   
4. To improve your custom-made station use the thumbs up/down system to help Spotify learn about what to serve up in the future.
   
5. If you really like a track you can add it to your personal music library by hovering your mouse over the album art on the main screen and clicking the + icon.