4 ms·

I have the same issues with all of these services. But I'm wondering if it's some kind "expert mode" issue which is only a problem for a small advanced-user min

I have the same issues with all of these services. But I'm wondering if it's some kind "expert mode" issue which is only a problem for a small advanced-user minority - many of whom will be reading HN. Do most users want to be told what to consume? Circumstantially I'd guess so, because otherwise it's a lot of effort to add friction for no reason. But I don't know. Possibly Spotify and Netflix do. Or possibly not. Perhaps they're just dysfunctional?

spaniard89277 4y ago
I can see regular people struggling with Netflix when I'm at some elses home. I don't have a huge sample size though. For me is that I just refuse to pay because I know they can just do a regular interface but they want to trick you into some stuff with their UI. I just don't feel in the mood of paying for being treated as laboratory mice.
kroltan 4y ago
A better question is can most users be inconvenienced into preferring to be told what to consume? As a sibling commenter says, these issues are not an "expert mode" problem, you can see regular people facing them too. But they usually give up and eventually comply, watching something else. The frustration is still there, but we bitch about it and try something else, while a bunch of people just go watch Trending Show #229. (I realize it might sound harsh/pretentious/"sheeple", but it genuinely happened to me last month. I wanted to watch Truman Show with my nephew at my sister's house, and it was a genuine clown show to try to find a service that would play it. Netflix didn't have it, their ISP's service didn't have it, it was available on Apple TV but we couldn't get the device to work because it required an update and we didn't have a computer at hand to be able to pair it or whatever, I was there so we even tried casting from a piracy app in my phone, but their Smart TV only accepted some weird proprietary method that was not available on my phone, so we ended up watching El Camino, a terribly mediocre Breaking Bad spinoff, my nephew was bored halfway through and went to play Fortnite instead)
solarkraft 4y ago
> Do most users want to be told what to consume? I like "lean-back listening" and that's the whole reason I'm still sticking with Spotify. They (almost) always have something to accompany my mood both out of songs I already like and new ones I often also like (yay!). The drift in mood is minimal. I can listen to calm piano music for a whole night while Apple music can shift over to loud metal within only a few songs (what a joke). It may be getting worse, though. Especially a few songs keep playing over and over, sometimes despite me explicitly blocking them. Both a lot of new or familiar songs often show up at times at which I want just the other - and of course you can't choose (what a joke! The algorithm is great, just badly tuned, let me change it!).

spaniard89277 4y ago

I can see regular people struggling with Netflix when I'm at some elses home. I don't have a huge sample size though. For me is that I just refuse to pay because I know they can just do a regular interface but they want to trick you into some stuff with their UI. I just don't feel in the mood of paying for being treated as laboratory mice.

kroltan 4y ago

A better question is can most users be inconvenienced into preferring to be told what to consume? As a sibling commenter says, these issues are not an "expert mode" problem, you can see regular people facing them too. But they usually give up and eventually comply, watching something else. The frustration is still there, but we bitch about it and try something else, while a bunch of people just go watch Trending Show #229. (I realize it might sound harsh/pretentious/"sheeple", but it genuinely happened to me last month. I wanted to watch Truman Show with my nephew at my sister's house, and it was a genuine clown show to try to find a service that would play it. Netflix didn't have it, their ISP's service didn't have it, it was available on Apple TV but we couldn't get the device to work because it required an update and we didn't have a computer at hand to be able to pair it or whatever, I was there so we even tried casting from a piracy app in my phone, but their Smart TV only accepted some weird proprietary method that was not available on my phone, so we ended up watching El Camino, a terribly mediocre Breaking Bad spinoff, my nephew was bored halfway through and went to play Fortnite instead)

solarkraft 4y ago

> Do most users want to be told what to consume? I like "lean-back listening" and that's the whole reason I'm still sticking with Spotify. They (almost) always have something to accompany my mood both out of songs I already like and new ones I often also like (yay!). The drift in mood is minimal. I can listen to calm piano music for a whole night while Apple music can shift over to loud metal within only a few songs (what a joke). It may be getting worse, though. Especially a few songs keep playing over and over, sometimes despite me explicitly blocking them. Both a lot of new or familiar songs often show up at times at which I want just the other - and of course you can't choose (what a joke! The algorithm is great, just badly tuned, let me change it!).