Release Notes - Version 2.4

🎵 Major Improvements to Music Recommendation Engine

Problem Solved: Recommendations were showing too many tracks from the same artists (e.g., multiple Olivia Dean tracks)
Solution: New artist diversity algorithm ensures recommendations come from 20+ different artists
How it works:
- Groups tracks by artist before selection
- Takes top track from each unique artist (up to 20 artists)
- Fills pool with remaining top-scored tracks (up to 30 total)
- Randomly selects from this diverse pool
Result: More variety in recommendations, including classic artists like Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and other soul/R&B legends

Multi-genre support: Now searches using 1, 2, or 3 genres simultaneously for more accurate matching
Random genre selection: Varied search strategies for diverse results:
- 40% chance: Uses all available genre combinations
- 30% chance: Uses 2 strategies (single + multi-genre)
- 30% chance: Uses 1 strategy (randomly selected)
Prioritized search order: Multi-genre searches are tried first when multiple genres are detected
Shuffled strategies: Selected strategies are randomly shuffled for additional variety

New scoring weights:
- 85%: Genre relevance (increased from 65% - now the primary factor)
- 7.5%: Popularity (reduced from 30% - quality filter only)
- 7.5%: Tempo relevance (bonus only, increased from 5%)
Better prioritizes tracks that match detected genres over pure popularity
Genre matching checks track names and artist names for genre keywords

Tempo keyword mapping: BPM ranges now map to relevant keywords:
- < 70 BPM: slow, ballad, ambient, calm, peaceful
- 70-90 BPM: chill, mellow, downtempo, laid-back
- 90-110 BPM: moderate, steady, groovy
- 110-130 BPM: upbeat, lively, energetic
- 130-150 BPM: fast, energetic, intense
- 150+ BPM: fast, intense, aggressive, high-energy
Sparse tempo usage: Tempo keywords used intermittently in searches to avoid over-reliance
Tempo scoring: Small bonus (7.5%) for tracks with tempo-related terms in names (no penalty if missing)
BPM number detection: Bonus for tracks with actual BPM numbers in track names (e.g., "120 BPM")

Removed deprecated APIs:
- Spotify Recommendations API (deprecated in late 2024)
- Spotify Audio Features API (deprecated)
Improved error handling: Better fallback strategies when APIs are unavailable
Search-based approach: Now relies exclusively on Spotify's Search API with genre filters for more reliable results
Better error messages: More informative logging when Spotify API calls fail

Expanded genre support: Better mapping of mood-based genres:
- romantic → r-n-b
- aggressive → metal
- lo-fi → chill
Valid genre validation: Only uses Spotify's valid genre seeds for search filters
Fallback handling: Safe defaults when no valid genres are detected

Fixed search stopping early when first strategy found 50 tracks (now tries all strategies)
Fixed "chill chill" duplicate tempo keyword issue in search queries
Improved handling of genre combinations in search queries
Better error messages when Spotify API calls fail
Fixed popularity threshold fallback logic

Refactored search strategy system for better maintainability
Added tempo keyword generation based on BPM ranges
Improved track scoring with genre keyword matching
Enhanced logging for debugging search strategies
Added artist diversity algorithm to all search functions (primary, fallback, playlist)
Improved track deduplication across multiple search strategies

The extension now works entirely with Spotify's Search API (no deprecated endpoints)
Genre matching is now the primary factor in track selection (85% weight)
Tempo is used as a bonus factor only, since tempo keywords in track names are inconsistent
Artist diversity ensures you won't see the same artist repeatedly in recommendations
Popularity threshold still provides quality filtering, but is no longer the dominant factor