7 ms·

I always felt that streaming services had untapped potential in "playing" with content. Previously, a trivia game would need specific rights to use movie clips,

I always felt that streaming services had untapped potential in "playing" with content. Previously, a trivia game would need specific rights to use movie clips, but if the user has an HBO Max subscription and already could access all of those films, there isn't much harm in using clips (other than unrealized licensing fees). In the same way, I hope Spotify is thinking of every way people may hear music. Not just active listening but trivia (like Heardle), radio shows, amateur documentaries, etc. The underlying technology is already there. I'm sure designers have many more ideas, but there is always the looming threat of Cease & Desist.

nwsm 4y ago
The problem many complain about though is that this shifts the point of the Spotify product. Those who want a clean interface for listening to music, often specifically out of one's library of "liked" albums and playlists, now deal with a UI encumbered with podcasts, social features, and I guess now games. At some point soon there will be room for a "just your music" streaming service.
- saghm 4y ago
  Ideally they could make each of these separate apps. There's no technical reason why multiple apps couldn't be published by Spotify that all use the same IP.
  - gardenhedge 4y ago
    If they do this they will not have the same uptake on those apps as the main one. Eventually someone will have the bright idea to merge them.
    - saghm 4y ago
      Gmail, Drive, and Calendar all probably share a decent amount of backend data despite them all sharing some backend data as part of the G Suite, and the main Facebook app has almost a superset of the data in Messenger app (the only thing I can think of that might be missing is the "stories" stuff in Messenger, but I also don''t really know anyone who uses that). While Spotify doesn't have anti-trust concerns like Facebook and Google (at least right now), I'm a bit skeptical that there's any worries about having a combined G Suite app or merging Messenger back into Facebook proper being that much of a monopoly concern given how entwined they already are in the browser.
- blowski 4y ago
  I quit Spotify a few months back for this reason.
  - batiudrami 4y ago
    Apple Music is better but still overrun with computer generated playlists. I wish I could turn them all off, or have them all contained within a “radio” tab, and not all over the “listen now”, “browse” and even artist pages.
- skrtskrt 4y ago
  I've used Spotify for ~9 years years exclusively for music streaming and I guess I get a podcast suggestion on the homepage every once in awhile but I just ignore it and move on. You can permanently hide the "friend" view in settings, no one I know has used it since college. Aside from moving some small things around so they take 2 taps instead of 3 or 4, their UI has barely changed at all. It has a working Linux client. It has boundless capability to help you discover new music. I don't know why people on here act like Spotify is an abomination, you can still just buy and own your music if you insist. Literally the only thing I would change is for them to pay the artists more. And I'd happily pay triple the price to make that happen.
  - blowski 4y ago
    Frustrations with Spotify: 1. I used to actively look forward to my weekly recommendations. By the end, they were recommending music that was already in my most played. And lots of generic indie folk crap that all sounded the same. I didn't seem to be able to convince it that I didn't like it. 2. I'd search for specific albums by specific artists and get guided instead to playlists. 3. Forcing it to play an album in the original order was strangely difficult when playing on a smart speaker. 4. Downloaded music wouldn't play on a device with poor internet. Sat on a train enough times unable to listen to music that I used VLC instead. 5. It sometimes took 20-30 seconds (and even a restart of the app) to get it to play a track. On a newish iPad (same on iPhone) and decent internet. Spotify's whole mission seems now to be less about appealing to music lovers, and more about generating a constant background noise.
    - skrtskrt 4y ago
      > I used to actively look forward to my weekly recommendations. By the end, they were recommending music that was already in my most played. And lots of generic indie folk crap that all sounded the same. I didn't seem to be able to convince it that I didn't like it. This is the way of the Discover Weekly, it recommends music that is sonically similar to what you listen to most. Eventually you run out of music that is actually good that is sonically similar to what you already listen to. You can also do * song/album/artist radio on any song/album/artist you hear, which will be matched to that song/album/artist and not your personal pref. * release radar - new song release weekly by your favorite artists or similar artists * automatic mix playlists with a friend that bring in their music preferences * daily mixes - 90% songs you like and already listen to, separated by genres, with a handful of new ones mixed in ... and that's just a small percentage of what is or can be automatically generated by Spotify. There are endless user-created playlists to explore. > I'd search for specific albums by specific artists and get guided instead to playlists. The search can be filtered by whether you want songs, albums, artists, playlists, podcasts, or profiles. It's the top, most obvious option on search, right below the search bar. Their search has also improved massively in the last few years to where you don't need to filter and can just type the song name and artist/album name in the same search to filter out all the similarly named songs by other artists - it no longer indexes the search on just a single attribute. The rest sound like device issues. Never encountered them across Androids, iPhones, Ipads, Macbooks, Linux laptops, etc.
- candiddevmike 4y ago
  They keep adding more shit so they can "justify" subscription increases. I'm a Spotify user and look forward to paying for Heardle and never using it (because why offer a cheaper, non-heardle tier?)
jlarocco 4y ago
No thanks. I’m already annoyed that UI on iPhone is too “busy” and there’s no way to turn off the lyrics display. If they want to add extra crap, they should put it in a new app. Even more so now that libspotify is gone.
- stingraycharles 4y ago
  As we’re adding single data points, I like to submit that I’m fairly interested in seeing what this has to offer. Just today I was pleasantly surprised I was seeing some music videos while playing Spotify content and I actually appreciated watching them while exercising, because frankly, there’s no other way I would ever watch a music video any other way nowadays.
  - schnevets 4y ago
    Giving artists control of that visual element has to be an intentional way to make the music "stickier". Physical albums had artwork and literature to help a listener get to know an artist. Showing lyrics, music videos, visuals, and other elements may not matter to some listeners, but it definitely is not a mere annoyance.
Benjaminsen 4y ago
The main reason we don’t see a lot innovation in this space from the streaming services, is that using the music inside an interactive experience such as a game requires a different license. It would be fairly simple to make a tap/swipe/press game with a similar experience to rock-band, automatically for all music on a service. But having looked into this, together with a few major music services, the license cost made it almost impossible in practice.

nwsm 4y ago

The problem many complain about though is that this shifts the point of the Spotify product. Those who want a clean interface for listening to music, often specifically out of one's library of "liked" albums and playlists, now deal with a UI encumbered with podcasts, social features, and I guess now games. At some point soon there will be room for a "just your music" streaming service.

saghm 4y ago
Ideally they could make each of these separate apps. There's no technical reason why multiple apps couldn't be published by Spotify that all use the same IP.
- gardenhedge 4y ago
  If they do this they will not have the same uptake on those apps as the main one. Eventually someone will have the bright idea to merge them.
  - saghm 4y ago
    Gmail, Drive, and Calendar all probably share a decent amount of backend data despite them all sharing some backend data as part of the G Suite, and the main Facebook app has almost a superset of the data in Messenger app (the only thing I can think of that might be missing is the "stories" stuff in Messenger, but I also don''t really know anyone who uses that). While Spotify doesn't have anti-trust concerns like Facebook and Google (at least right now), I'm a bit skeptical that there's any worries about having a combined G Suite app or merging Messenger back into Facebook proper being that much of a monopoly concern given how entwined they already are in the browser.
blowski 4y ago
I quit Spotify a few months back for this reason.
- batiudrami 4y ago
  Apple Music is better but still overrun with computer generated playlists. I wish I could turn them all off, or have them all contained within a “radio” tab, and not all over the “listen now”, “browse” and even artist pages.
skrtskrt 4y ago
I've used Spotify for ~9 years years exclusively for music streaming and I guess I get a podcast suggestion on the homepage every once in awhile but I just ignore it and move on. You can permanently hide the "friend" view in settings, no one I know has used it since college. Aside from moving some small things around so they take 2 taps instead of 3 or 4, their UI has barely changed at all. It has a working Linux client. It has boundless capability to help you discover new music. I don't know why people on here act like Spotify is an abomination, you can still just buy and own your music if you insist. Literally the only thing I would change is for them to pay the artists more. And I'd happily pay triple the price to make that happen.
- blowski 4y ago
  Frustrations with Spotify: 1. I used to actively look forward to my weekly recommendations. By the end, they were recommending music that was already in my most played. And lots of generic indie folk crap that all sounded the same. I didn't seem to be able to convince it that I didn't like it. 2. I'd search for specific albums by specific artists and get guided instead to playlists. 3. Forcing it to play an album in the original order was strangely difficult when playing on a smart speaker. 4. Downloaded music wouldn't play on a device with poor internet. Sat on a train enough times unable to listen to music that I used VLC instead. 5. It sometimes took 20-30 seconds (and even a restart of the app) to get it to play a track. On a newish iPad (same on iPhone) and decent internet. Spotify's whole mission seems now to be less about appealing to music lovers, and more about generating a constant background noise.
  - skrtskrt 4y ago
    > I used to actively look forward to my weekly recommendations. By the end, they were recommending music that was already in my most played. And lots of generic indie folk crap that all sounded the same. I didn't seem to be able to convince it that I didn't like it. This is the way of the Discover Weekly, it recommends music that is sonically similar to what you listen to most. Eventually you run out of music that is actually good that is sonically similar to what you already listen to. You can also do * song/album/artist radio on any song/album/artist you hear, which will be matched to that song/album/artist and not your personal pref. * release radar - new song release weekly by your favorite artists or similar artists * automatic mix playlists with a friend that bring in their music preferences * daily mixes - 90% songs you like and already listen to, separated by genres, with a handful of new ones mixed in ... and that's just a small percentage of what is or can be automatically generated by Spotify. There are endless user-created playlists to explore. > I'd search for specific albums by specific artists and get guided instead to playlists. The search can be filtered by whether you want songs, albums, artists, playlists, podcasts, or profiles. It's the top, most obvious option on search, right below the search bar. Their search has also improved massively in the last few years to where you don't need to filter and can just type the song name and artist/album name in the same search to filter out all the similarly named songs by other artists - it no longer indexes the search on just a single attribute. The rest sound like device issues. Never encountered them across Androids, iPhones, Ipads, Macbooks, Linux laptops, etc.
candiddevmike 4y ago
They keep adding more shit so they can "justify" subscription increases. I'm a Spotify user and look forward to paying for Heardle and never using it (because why offer a cheaper, non-heardle tier?)

jlarocco 4y ago

No thanks. I’m already annoyed that UI on iPhone is too “busy” and there’s no way to turn off the lyrics display. If they want to add extra crap, they should put it in a new app. Even more so now that libspotify is gone.

stingraycharles 4y ago
As we’re adding single data points, I like to submit that I’m fairly interested in seeing what this has to offer. Just today I was pleasantly surprised I was seeing some music videos while playing Spotify content and I actually appreciated watching them while exercising, because frankly, there’s no other way I would ever watch a music video any other way nowadays.
- schnevets 4y ago
  Giving artists control of that visual element has to be an intentional way to make the music "stickier". Physical albums had artwork and literature to help a listener get to know an artist. Showing lyrics, music videos, visuals, and other elements may not matter to some listeners, but it definitely is not a mere annoyance.

Benjaminsen 4y ago

The main reason we don’t see a lot innovation in this space from the streaming services, is that using the music inside an interactive experience such as a game requires a different license. It would be fairly simple to make a tap/swipe/press game with a similar experience to rock-band, automatically for all music on a service. But having looked into this, together with a few major music services, the license cost made it almost impossible in practice.