I'm a fan of YouTube music's algorithm. I don't even have playlists. I just like songs that I enjoy, and whenever I need music I click something in the homepage and enjoy old and new songs that YouTube thinks I will like.

That’s why I disable all of Spotify’s smart playlist and auto play features. When my playlist/album ends I want to select something new, not be spoon fed whatever everyone else is listening to!

Same for me, I could never understand the hype around their suggestions. Even random playlists like „coffee house music“ (which I exclusively turn on when friends are over) seem to be personalised to me - so much so that they pretty much immediately veer off into heavy rock or other stuff that I may have come across, but that definitely isn’t good as a chill backdrop.

And even the much-praised weekly playlist is hit or miss - sometimes it’s weeks with abhorring stuff, then for once I get a good one with two to three songs I actually like.

Well, it does have some nice features. It autocreates playlists of my girlfriends and my music. And playlists of different genres I listen to. And playlists by release year of genres that I like. And playlists of songs I used to listen to some years ago.

Totally separate from the "song radio" playlists what you probably mean

No, I mean the regular old playlists, like, road trip indie, the shower playlist, late night jazz, what have you. The stuff with cover images and descriptions that looks totally curated. Those are at least enriched with music you listen to, if not downright generated individually.

And it’s awful. Like I’m stuck in an echo chamber. I want to find new music!

I find YouTube Musics Discover Mix good for music discovery, I guess with the downside that you need to actively use YT Music a bit to feed the algorithm. Spotify has a tendency to suggest stuff that is overwhelmingly popular but YT Music isn't afraid to throw in something a lot more obscure that the overlaps with the artists or genres you listen to.

I found so many great new Songs (ProgMetal and similar) through Spotify, but the quality of recommended Songs really deckined gor me in the past two years.

If you like Prog Rock and Metal, you may like those two online radios. I've discovered some interesting bands thanks to them:

https://www.progulus.com

https://radioarg.com/tmb/

Spotify has introduced me to many new genres but the algo has gotten worse over time.

Don't get me started on the weekly playlist. Spotify refuses to accept the fact that I don't speak Ukrainian. Yet a big chunk of the Playlist consists out of Ukrainian music. Probably Spotify is not able to differentiate between Ukrainian and Russian, which I listen to a lot

Considering sanctions, Ukrainians are probably the largest Spotify consumers of Russian content right now, and obviously will listen to Ukrainian content too. So their engine probably goes "oh you like Russian stuff, so chances are you're Ukrainian, here's some Ukrainian stuff for you".

Good point, that's probably it

Plexamp. Does the same kind of thing but with your own collection.

Maybe it's the settings I have enabled but typically Plexamp will move from one album to the next. Maybe because I typically play an album at a time?