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I have never liked this about Spotify... So the solutions outlined by Spotify are... 1) Suck it up. Its how the system works. 2) Use the web player. (Seems t

by bobsy 14y ago

I have never liked this about Spotify... So the solutions outlined by Spotify are... 1) Suck it up. Its how the system works. 2) Use the web player. (Seems to be invite-only beta - US Only) 3) Use offline mode. Unlimited members pay for the service and cannot download tracks so not much use to those. Somewhat kills music discovery. Means you cannot use the radio option. Do social options work in offline mode? Not much point if they do as you would need to go online to play any new tracks. 4) Set cache size really small. (someone reported this doesn't work) Wouldn't this mean a big spike in downloads as none of your songs are cached? Its crappy. I remember when I used to play counter-strike and I would have to shut down Spotify as it would kill my ping and make the game lag terribly. Launching in game radio though would be fine... Asking free members to suck it up is fine. They are using the service for free and get a few ad's. Another cost to service is fine. For paid members though there needs to be an option to drastically tune down the upload rate and even disable it if you are not listening to music yourself. Spotify have been inactive on this issue to date. My hopes are fairly low that they will resolve it any time soon.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
radnor 14y ago
How about setting up a firewall rule so that Spotify can only talk to Spotify's servers? Here's a post from Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/spotify/comments/jdhj6/is_there_a_way_to_disable_spotifys_p2p_traffic/c2bb178 http://www.reddit.com/r/spotify/comments/jdhj6/is_there_a_wa...
- easy_rider 14y ago
  Right. I was just about to say. This is hackers do it. Sniff out the traffic and block really selectively. My concern woud be: Am I violating TOS when i don't share bandwidth?
  - redblacktree 14y ago
    Good point. You can go to jail for that; it makes you a felon.
    - fatkid 14y ago
      @falling, i think this was a joke. or maybe not, you'll have to check - http://uscode.house.gov/download/title_18.shtml http://uscode.house.gov/download/title_18.shtml
    - Falling3 14y ago
      Violating terms of service is not a felony. In fact, it's not even a crime; it's a civil matter.
      - bashinator 14y ago
        Tell that to Aaron Swartz.
        Falling3 14y ago
        Aaron Swartz was charged with fraud and unathorized. Not breaking TOS. The idea that breaking TOS could constitute a crime has been shot down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. http://thefire.org/article/14389.html http://thefire.org/article/14389.html
        Falling3 14y ago
        unauthorized access
        redblacktree 14y ago
        The prosecution was claiming that his breach of the ToS implied Unauthorized Access, which is a felony.
    - belorn 14y ago
      Is that a joke or serious statement? Can't tell thanks to Poe's law.
- SanjayUttam 14y ago
  Admittedly, higher effort and probably not for the non-tech but...android emulator + mobile app would probably work too. Granted I have other qualms with their mobile app. For the premium users, I do wonder if any of the open source spotify clients would alleviate this? http://despotify.sourceforge.net/ http://despotify.sourceforge.net/
duaneb 14y ago
I imagine something like Little Snitch for the mac would work very well.
path411 14y ago
I'm mostly shocked at how I simply was uninformed that spotify was using my connection so. I know over the past few months I've had occasional and even sometimes frequent spikes of latency while gaming. I'm often left confuddled at these spikes as I won't have anything open I would consider requires much bandwith. Also, even though I would have high latency, opening a browser and navigating through sites would work as smoothly as ever. Now I know to look at spotify specifically and I would not be very surprised if my spikes of bad internet activity are a result of spotify leeching my upload. While I think it makes sense for spotify to use p2p in their system, I would have thought there would have been an indication of it in the options with an option to disable such services.
- Bockit 14y ago
  Yeah. And on top of connection quality issues, some companies with bandwidth caps count uploads as well. I haven't really seen what kind of bandwidth would be used but it's something I'm going to check out and possibly warn some people I've recommended it to in the past.
- easy_rider 14y ago
  I agree. I've been promoting spotify in word of mouth to my Friends. My co-workers all use it, which means a good chunk of our upstream bandwidth is swallowed by spotify? In any case they're being completely shady about it. I.e. not making any effort to define Spotify as a P2P service. Understandable in a marketing sense. Ethically questionable and actually upset since well. I pay a monthly fee and all..
- Lockyy 14y ago
  I am purely annoyed that I didn't know that it did this, I can't say whether this is my fault for being ignorant or theirs for not informing me but it worries me that I may have been putting unneeded load on networks that aren't mine, like my universities network.
Jhsto 14y ago
Just wanted to point out that the web player is not US only. I'm from Europe and got it working by following this guide: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/11/how-to-test-spotifys-new-web-player http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/11/how-to-test-spotifys-new-...
- allbutlost 14y ago
  Indeed, the web player isn't U.S. only, just that the beta testing currently concentrates on new users from the U.S. It is however possible to gain access - there are many guides online on how to do so.
rgrieselhuber 14y ago
Or use Rdio? I've never been impressed with Spotify. The experience on Rdio has been great for me.
- jbaudanza 14y ago
  I switched from Spotify to Rdio recently. As someone that likes to hack on music projects, I'm really impressed with the Rdio API. I especially like their integration with Echonest, which gives you a deep "beat-by-beat" analysis of every track on Rdio.
- dguaraglia 14y ago
  I'll be honest, I tried Rdio and didn't get where the "music discovery" part comes in. In the month I used it I was only suggested completely unrelated, but obviously 'featured' albums (on their "frontpage" so it wasn't even on my face.) All in all, I just didn't find the service that interesting unless you consider the technological angle.
  - rgrieselhuber 14y ago
    Music discovery does suck on Rdio, granted. I find myself using other services for that. But for daily listening, the experience is much cleaner than Spotify's is, IMO.
    - avree 14y ago
      I like the Stations on Rdio, actually. I've found some cool artists through the Echo Nest-powered discovery stuff they have.
    - dguaraglia 14y ago
      Yep, that's true. I had a bunch of issues with their 'native' OS X app though. Every now and then the embedded browser (I think that's what they do anyway) would go nuts and eat my whole CPU. Also, the streaming quality didn't sound that great. I regularly use Grooveshark, and the quality of the songs over there was much better. All in all, I guess it might work for some people. It just didn't make the cut for me. For that matter, neither did Spotify or Pandora. I guess I'm just not the target audience for that kind of service in general.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

by bobsy 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

radnor 14y ago

How about setting up a firewall rule so that Spotify can only talk to Spotify's servers? Here's a post from Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/spotify/comments/jdhj6/is_there_a_way_to_disable_spotifys_p2p_traffic/c2bb178 http://www.reddit.com/r/spotify/comments/jdhj6/is_there_a_wa...

easy_rider 14y ago
Right. I was just about to say. This is hackers do it. Sniff out the traffic and block really selectively. My concern woud be: Am I violating TOS when i don't share bandwidth?
- redblacktree 14y ago
  Good point. You can go to jail for that; it makes you a felon.
  - fatkid 14y ago
    @falling, i think this was a joke. or maybe not, you'll have to check - http://uscode.house.gov/download/title_18.shtml http://uscode.house.gov/download/title_18.shtml
  - Falling3 14y ago
    Violating terms of service is not a felony. In fact, it's not even a crime; it's a civil matter.
    - bashinator 14y ago
      Tell that to Aaron Swartz.
      - Falling3 14y ago
        Aaron Swartz was charged with fraud and unathorized. Not breaking TOS. The idea that breaking TOS could constitute a crime has been shot down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. http://thefire.org/article/14389.html http://thefire.org/article/14389.html
        Falling3 14y ago
        unauthorized access
        redblacktree 14y ago
        The prosecution was claiming that his breach of the ToS implied Unauthorized Access, which is a felony.
  - belorn 14y ago
    Is that a joke or serious statement? Can't tell thanks to Poe's law.
SanjayUttam 14y ago
Admittedly, higher effort and probably not for the non-tech but...android emulator + mobile app would probably work too. Granted I have other qualms with their mobile app. For the premium users, I do wonder if any of the open source spotify clients would alleviate this? http://despotify.sourceforge.net/ http://despotify.sourceforge.net/

duaneb 14y ago

I imagine something like Little Snitch for the mac would work very well.

path411 14y ago

I'm mostly shocked at how I simply was uninformed that spotify was using my connection so. I know over the past few months I've had occasional and even sometimes frequent spikes of latency while gaming. I'm often left confuddled at these spikes as I won't have anything open I would consider requires much bandwith. Also, even though I would have high latency, opening a browser and navigating through sites would work as smoothly as ever. Now I know to look at spotify specifically and I would not be very surprised if my spikes of bad internet activity are a result of spotify leeching my upload. While I think it makes sense for spotify to use p2p in their system, I would have thought there would have been an indication of it in the options with an option to disable such services.

Bockit 14y ago
Yeah. And on top of connection quality issues, some companies with bandwidth caps count uploads as well. I haven't really seen what kind of bandwidth would be used but it's something I'm going to check out and possibly warn some people I've recommended it to in the past.
easy_rider 14y ago
I agree. I've been promoting spotify in word of mouth to my Friends. My co-workers all use it, which means a good chunk of our upstream bandwidth is swallowed by spotify? In any case they're being completely shady about it. I.e. not making any effort to define Spotify as a P2P service. Understandable in a marketing sense. Ethically questionable and actually upset since well. I pay a monthly fee and all..
Lockyy 14y ago
I am purely annoyed that I didn't know that it did this, I can't say whether this is my fault for being ignorant or theirs for not informing me but it worries me that I may have been putting unneeded load on networks that aren't mine, like my universities network.

Jhsto 14y ago

Just wanted to point out that the web player is not US only. I'm from Europe and got it working by following this guide: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/11/how-to-test-spotifys-new-web-player http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/11/how-to-test-spotifys-new-...

allbutlost 14y ago
Indeed, the web player isn't U.S. only, just that the beta testing currently concentrates on new users from the U.S. It is however possible to gain access - there are many guides online on how to do so.

rgrieselhuber 14y ago

Or use Rdio? I've never been impressed with Spotify. The experience on Rdio has been great for me.

jbaudanza 14y ago
I switched from Spotify to Rdio recently. As someone that likes to hack on music projects, I'm really impressed with the Rdio API. I especially like their integration with Echonest, which gives you a deep "beat-by-beat" analysis of every track on Rdio.
dguaraglia 14y ago
I'll be honest, I tried Rdio and didn't get where the "music discovery" part comes in. In the month I used it I was only suggested completely unrelated, but obviously 'featured' albums (on their "frontpage" so it wasn't even on my face.) All in all, I just didn't find the service that interesting unless you consider the technological angle.
- rgrieselhuber 14y ago
  Music discovery does suck on Rdio, granted. I find myself using other services for that. But for daily listening, the experience is much cleaner than Spotify's is, IMO.
  - avree 14y ago
    I like the Stations on Rdio, actually. I've found some cool artists through the Echo Nest-powered discovery stuff they have.
  - dguaraglia 14y ago
    Yep, that's true. I had a bunch of issues with their 'native' OS X app though. Every now and then the embedded browser (I think that's what they do anyway) would go nuts and eat my whole CPU. Also, the streaming quality didn't sound that great. I regularly use Grooveshark, and the quality of the songs over there was much better. All in all, I guess it might work for some people. It just didn't make the cut for me. For that matter, neither did Spotify or Pandora. I guess I'm just not the target audience for that kind of service in general.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]