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I'm beyond mystified as to what Spotify is tying to do with their recent UI, it's messy, it's unusable and reduces the value of the service by a lot. I'm still

I'm beyond mystified as to what Spotify is tying to do with their recent UI, it's messy, it's unusable and reduces the value of the service by a lot. I'm still a subscriber because it's cheap and an easy way to listen to music but I hate the fact that I no longer discover music like I used to on Spotify.

hylaride 4y ago
I'm an Apple music subscriber and I feel discovery is poor there, too. Back in the day iTunes genius was phenomenally good at recommending music. I spent a fortune in the iTunes music store. My guess is they let it stagnate because with cloud music there's no financial incentive to make music discovery good as they get the monthly revenue either way.
- nobleach 4y ago
  Way back in the day, The Pirate Bay was my discovery tool. They recommended other bands that were perfect for my tastes. I haven't even looked at that place in like 10 years or something. On the legal/legitimate front, Pandora has the BEST discovery algo I've ever seen. I can put in one artist and listen for hours. (I just have to thumbs-down Coldplay a lot) I've also found a lot of great music there. The bum thing is, some of it is not available on Spotify.
pelagicAustral 4y ago
My guess is that designers are still getting paid, so, 'bring me something fresh!', its the same mess everywhere. Soon as you get a functional UI, designers will iterate infinitely until it becomes borderline unusable.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  Its objective is to generate "growth & engagement" to justify those designers/marketers' salaries as opposed to being a tool to pay for & listen to music.
ryneandal 4y ago
> I hate the fact that I no longer discover music like I used to on Spotify I concur with this. In my experience, ~3-5 years ago was like the golden age of music discovery for me regarding Spotify. These days my Discover Weekly is mostly a complete waste of my time. Family Mix was incredible as well, I'm disappointed it was discontinued.
- mbesto 4y ago
  > These days my Discover Weekly is mostly a complete waste of my time. OTOH, Release Radar is my go to.
  - ezekg 4y ago
    Yet it still forgets to surface new releases from artists I actually follow. Instead, it has pretty much become another Discover Weekly.
- Deukhoofd 4y ago
  It's a bit hidden, but Search --> Made for You is an absolute gem to me. The mixes generated there do often turn up new music for me.
  - ryneandal 4y ago
    Oh interesting, they have genre/artist/decade mixes there... I've used the daily mixes and soundtrack to your day, both with middling success. I'll give the others in that section a try though, thanks!
scruple 4y ago
I keep the subscription because I use it to play music for my kids (which is a use-case I haven't found a suitable replacement for). If it was just my wife and I, I'd have dropped it at least a year ago. The Android app struggles with switching off of WiFi to cellular and vice versa -- I have to force stop the app and restart it regularly, I mean honestly it's almost every single day. It's really annoying. The UX is also atrocious. The UI will frequently load with stale state but it takes seconds for it to update. I'll go to tap some album or playlist and it'll get re-shuffled and I'll have tapped something entirely different. It's honestly pathetic. I try not to view the tech world through rose-tinted goggles but it seems to me that the only thing that keeps this company alive is the fact that they're streaming. Same with Netflix, honestly. And Netflix has been having their lunch eaten for the last decade. I suspect Spotify will go through the same experience.
pc2g4d 4y ago
Really, really hate the "podcast invasion". If I could click a button to make all podcasts disappear from Spotify forever, I would. I still listen on Spotify a lot---I have extensive playlists built up there over a decade. I keep thinking I should find a way out, though. Indie Shuffle and Funk Whale have been good discovery tools for me lately.
- sbarre 4y ago
  Yep.. This is a classic example of how many subscription services have embraced user-hostile design, and focus on trying to force the behaviour they want, rather than adapt to the behaviour a paying customer wants. I will never use Spotify for podcasts. Nothing against them having podcasts, but I have other ways to consume them. I would love to turn all that shit off in the UI, the same way I can turn off Radio and other things in iTunes. But no, Spotify will forever push that shit on me - a paying customer - because they hope I will eventually relent under pressure and start using it, or something. And that disrespect for their customers really sucks.

hylaride 4y ago

I'm an Apple music subscriber and I feel discovery is poor there, too. Back in the day iTunes genius was phenomenally good at recommending music. I spent a fortune in the iTunes music store. My guess is they let it stagnate because with cloud music there's no financial incentive to make music discovery good as they get the monthly revenue either way.

nobleach 4y ago
Way back in the day, The Pirate Bay was my discovery tool. They recommended other bands that were perfect for my tastes. I haven't even looked at that place in like 10 years or something. On the legal/legitimate front, Pandora has the BEST discovery algo I've ever seen. I can put in one artist and listen for hours. (I just have to thumbs-down Coldplay a lot) I've also found a lot of great music there. The bum thing is, some of it is not available on Spotify.

pelagicAustral 4y ago

My guess is that designers are still getting paid, so, 'bring me something fresh!', its the same mess everywhere. Soon as you get a functional UI, designers will iterate infinitely until it becomes borderline unusable.

Nextgrid 4y ago
Its objective is to generate "growth & engagement" to justify those designers/marketers' salaries as opposed to being a tool to pay for & listen to music.

ryneandal 4y ago

> I hate the fact that I no longer discover music like I used to on Spotify I concur with this. In my experience, ~3-5 years ago was like the golden age of music discovery for me regarding Spotify. These days my Discover Weekly is mostly a complete waste of my time. Family Mix was incredible as well, I'm disappointed it was discontinued.

mbesto 4y ago
> These days my Discover Weekly is mostly a complete waste of my time. OTOH, Release Radar is my go to.
- ezekg 4y ago
  Yet it still forgets to surface new releases from artists I actually follow. Instead, it has pretty much become another Discover Weekly.
Deukhoofd 4y ago
It's a bit hidden, but Search --> Made for You is an absolute gem to me. The mixes generated there do often turn up new music for me.
- ryneandal 4y ago
  Oh interesting, they have genre/artist/decade mixes there... I've used the daily mixes and soundtrack to your day, both with middling success. I'll give the others in that section a try though, thanks!

scruple 4y ago

I keep the subscription because I use it to play music for my kids (which is a use-case I haven't found a suitable replacement for). If it was just my wife and I, I'd have dropped it at least a year ago. The Android app struggles with switching off of WiFi to cellular and vice versa -- I have to force stop the app and restart it regularly, I mean honestly it's almost every single day. It's really annoying. The UX is also atrocious. The UI will frequently load with stale state but it takes seconds for it to update. I'll go to tap some album or playlist and it'll get re-shuffled and I'll have tapped something entirely different. It's honestly pathetic. I try not to view the tech world through rose-tinted goggles but it seems to me that the only thing that keeps this company alive is the fact that they're streaming. Same with Netflix, honestly. And Netflix has been having their lunch eaten for the last decade. I suspect Spotify will go through the same experience.

pc2g4d 4y ago

Really, really hate the "podcast invasion". If I could click a button to make all podcasts disappear from Spotify forever, I would. I still listen on Spotify a lot---I have extensive playlists built up there over a decade. I keep thinking I should find a way out, though. Indie Shuffle and Funk Whale have been good discovery tools for me lately.

sbarre 4y ago
Yep.. This is a classic example of how many subscription services have embraced user-hostile design, and focus on trying to force the behaviour they want, rather than adapt to the behaviour a paying customer wants. I will never use Spotify for podcasts. Nothing against them having podcasts, but I have other ways to consume them. I would love to turn all that shit off in the UI, the same way I can turn off Radio and other things in iTunes. But no, Spotify will forever push that shit on me - a paying customer - because they hope I will eventually relent under pressure and start using it, or something. And that disrespect for their customers really sucks.