It never searched for "a similar artist". It searched for exactly the same artist. Mine's working fine here with 3a7 I think since I do use it a little bit. If I get keen and try a queue a large number 3a7 tends to hang at the end of the current song sometimes though.

Sure your remote is working on the artist button (I think it's the 2 button)? It should pop up with a message depending on whether or not it found a match.