Similar Artists

Similar Artists

Similar Artists turns an Artist block into a radio-style playlist: the artist you chose plus artists like them, using only music you own.

How to use it

1. Start a block with Artist and type the artist.
2. Click + Add condition and choose Similar Artist. It's only offered on Artist blocks.
3. Pick a depth, a source and, if you like, a seed share.

Depth

Depth	Adds the closest
Close	5 similar artists
Medium	15 similar artists
Wide	40 similar artists

Only artists in your library count. If the closest similar artist isn't in your library, naviList skips it and moves on to the next, so Medium means the 15 nearest artists you actually own.

Source

ListenBrainz is the default. It needs no key. Last.fm is the alternative and needs an API key, set on the Settings page. You can choose per block.

If you choose Last.fm without a key, naviList uses ListenBrainz instead.

ListenBrainz can fail, return nothing, or know artists you don't own. When that happens and you have a Last.fm key set, naviList tries Last.fm for that artist instead. If you have no Last.fm key, you get just the artist you named.

The two sources score similarity differently, so naviList ranks by closeness and takes the top artists, instead of using a score cutoff. Results are cached per artist and per source, so repeat builds don't hit the network.

Seed share

Seed sets how much of the block goes to the artist you named. Leave it blank for an even split with the similar artists. Set it to 30 and the named artist gets 30% of the block.

Combining with other rules

Similar Artist is a condition on the block, so everything else still applies. Artist = Tool, Similar Artist = Medium and Decade is 1990s gives Tool and similar artists, but only 90s tracks.

Tips

• Similar artists come from listening data, so well known artists get better results than obscure ones.
• If a block has fewer tracks than you expect, check the count shown on the block. It may be that few of the similar artists are in your library.
• ListenBrainz looks artists up by their MusicBrainz ID. naviList collects those in the background. See Background Jobs.