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Spotify's mobile app finally goes free
- tonylemesmer 13y agoExcept that what I think of as "Spotify" is the ability to pick a tune from their enormous library and play it with some ads thrown in. What is actually free, today is the ability to play random songs. Basically no different to other streaming services. Massively caveated mobile experience which is not immediately obvious in the announcement. I installed the Android mobile app. It took me about 10 minutes to work this out at which point I uninstalled it again. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
- dchuk 13y agoThe smartphone app, however, doesn't work exactly like the PC service. Users can access their playlists and music albums, but they have to scroll through their lists randomly using a "Shuffle Play" button. Users can't pick the exact song they want to play right away, and will have to shuffle through their playlists. I pay for Spotify specifically for the mobile app (the ads didn't bother me) and I do not want these changes. I can't tell from the article, but will this pricing change have any effect on the way I currently use the app? I want direct access to songs on my phone, not a Pandora-like system...otherwise I would just pay less and switch back to Pandora...
- nixy 13y agoI'm pretty sure these shuffle restrictions apply to users of the free service only.
- rohansingh 13y agoYour functionality is unchanged. Free users who previously had no or limited mobile functionality have more functionality.
- roguelynn 13y agoSpotify employee here - it's only for free tier. Your service doesn't change.
- ashray 13y agoHey I just switched over from rDio to spotify. The reasons are that spotify lets you sync different songs/playlists to different devices and rDio does not. Spotify has a better library than rDio. However, why can I not browse/sync my 'Collection' on spotify's ios apps? Is this feature on the cards ? (I guess having a 'Collection' just on the desktop app makes little sense...) Would love it if you could answer!! Thanks for a great service!
- publicfig 13y agoSpotify will offer a Collection service in the future. It was announced about a year ago, and beta applications just closed for it. I'm hoping we're going to see it sooner rather than later because it's a must-have feature for me.
- roguelynn 13y agoHey ashray - pretty much what publicfig said. If you'd like, sign up for the beta testing of "Collection" across multiple platforms: http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Announcements/Collection-beta-testers-wanted/td-p/562686 http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Announcements/Collec...
- atestu 13y agoThank you for your interest. We're no longer accepting applications.
- publicfig 13y agoAnd here's a link to follow for any information on the beta testing program: http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Announcements/Beta-testing-Spotify/m-p/565906 http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Announcements/Beta-t...
- spurgu 13y agoThis seems like a surprisingly dumb move. Making a virtual Ipod Shuffle will only serve to annoy users. Which on the other hand is their business model, but I think users will rather uninstall than upgrade to premium because of this.
- deathcakes 13y agoAgreed - I say this as a premium subscriber and have vast experience of the awfulness that is their paid for app, be it on android or ios.
- gizzlon 13y agoReally? I'm quite happy with it.. I've been a subscriber for years, definitely worth the $10 if you listen to a lot of music. For me it's more like $14, but everything is more expensive in Scandinavia :(
- cheshire137 13y agoI switched from Spotify to Rdio specifically because of the crappiness of the iOS Spotify app. This was in the past couple of months, too. I wrote about it, if you want more details: http://www.3till7.net/2013/10/07/why-i-switched-from-spotify-to-rdio/ http://www.3till7.net/2013/10/07/why-i-switched-from-spotify...
- nodata 13y agoThe vast awfulness of their app? Are you using the current version? I think it's pretty good! What don't you like about it?
- deathcakes 13y agoFor one you can't sort playlists. At all. So I have a shared playlist with a few friends, and since its being going for a while, if I want to listen to the new stuff on it I have to spend a good minute scrolling down - not optimal. Adding stuff to playlists is annoying, could do with a bit of help. The search on the ipad app is a mess; I appreciate the thinking behind being able to follow your search history and go back a bit, but if I hit the search button I want to search for a song, not search through my history! Generally just little niggles, I can't complain about the overall service.
- plg 13y agoSpotify is currently not available in your country. (canada) boo
- sivetic 13y agoI've tried rdio for a couple weeks (free trial), and have been very happy with it so far.
- shawnc 13y agoRdio, in my mind, is far superior in a lot of ways anyway. I had a friend paying for a Spotify for me a few years ago, and switched to Rdio because I liked it better (and not because it was available in Canada too).
- cbhl 13y agoUnfortunately, Rdio's Canada library is different (and from what I can tell, smaller) than the US one.
- shawnc 13y agoTrue, tho I haven't, myself, been able to reach a point where it bothers me. So far, my biggest annoyance was The Neverending Story soundtrack became unavailable (my daughter loves it). And I have very broad taste in music.
- sorahn 13y agoThe only feature I want is to be able to queue specific songs and then have it resume playing a radio station.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- yugolarp 13y agoI like Spotify, but the radio feature leaves something to be desired. My buddy recently released an an android app called "SSradio for Spotify" (http://www.ssradio.me http://www.ssradio.me). It uses libspotify to re-create SiriusXM like channels over Spotify. Libspotify was restricted to premium subscribers only (probably still is). But his app was the reason I'm sticking with Spotify. Its like having a sub to Spotify and Sirius. Best part, libspotify restricts people from displaying ads or charging money..so its free :)
- jscheel 13y agoThe expectation of spotify, mobile or desktop, is that I can select the songs I want to listen to. This feels like an unexpected behavior to me. That said, I'm sure they have tested the crap out of this to make sure they aren't going to leave a bad taste in users' mouths.
- dom96 13y agoI just installed the spotify app on my phone (it's pretty big by the way ~20mb, I wonder why that is) and this latest change doesn't seem to be in effect for me. Is it not rolled out in the UK yet? Personally what I would like to see is the ability for Unlimited users to use the mobile app.
- cbhl 13y agoI wouldn't be surprised if it's US-only due to music licensing agreements. (Getting rights in different countries often requires negotiating with different labels...)
- jjdro 13y agoNo selecting individual tracks? I'll show those jerks at Spotify with my ten thousand single song playlists. Thanks for adding search filtering on mobile too.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jjdro 13y agoNo selecting individual tracks? I'll show those jerks at Spotify with my ten thousand single song playlists. Thanks for adding search filtering on mobile too.
- RealGeek 13y agoOn mobile, you can listen to artists, albums and playlists in shuffle mode. Or choose a ready-made playlist to suit your mood. Even though I have a Spotify premium subscription, this is what I do 99% of the time. Thanks, I will be cancelling my premium subscription today.
- Flimm 13y agoYou're not annoyed by the ads?
- Killswitch 13y agoNah, just like listening to the radio.
- RealGeek 13y agoNot much, because I primarily use Spotify in car. I am sure the ads would be annoying if I am listening with earphones.
- untog 13y agoSurely there's one significantly bigger catch - only paying members can save playlists offline.
- valevk 13y agoGoogle Music is pushing into more countries. The only logical consequence. I switched from Spotify to Google, because: 1) Found a few albums, that disappeared from Spotify a few months ago. 2) 7,99 € vs. 9,99 € 3) Google Music allowed me to shuffle all of my music 4) The app is way better. I can always stop the player from the notification bar (on spotify that was a sometimes pain in the ass ) 5) When listening to music on Spotify and someone calls, it wasn't possible to adjust the volume, resulting in your ears getting voice-bombed by the caller
- darrenkopp 13y agoI just wish google music had a desktop client (or support in chrome) to hook into operating system keyboard shortcuts like play, pause, forward, next, etc.
- soundandfeury 13y agoI've been using sway.fm chrome extension and it seems pretty decent: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/swayfm-unified-music-medi/icckhjgjjompfgoiidainoapgjepncej https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/swayfm-unified-mus...
- cheshire137 13y agoI just found Sway.fm for Chrome last night, and it's been awesome for playing SoundCloud.
- valevk 13y agoAh, yes forgot about this. Play music doesn't allow you to save your music for offline listening on your laptop (windows/osx). Which sucka, but wasn't a problem for me, because I always listen on my phone/tablet,
- cheshire137 13y agoLed Zeppelin exclusive to Spotify? Then I won't listen to Led Zeppelin. I hate this exclusive access shit. It doesn't make me pay for the service that has the rights, it makes me avoid the product altogether. Rdio is doing just fine for me.
- andrewflnr 13y agoIs it the rights holders who specify the weird distinction between "tablets" and "smartphones"? Otherwise, I can't understand that.