Making Spotify Worse

[HopelessUser]

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Pixel 3 XL

Operating System

Newest Android

My Question or Issue

It feels like this latest update has totally borked the interface. In the past app updates have been subtle and reasonable to adjust to. This latest one seems to have simply eliminated features and changed the way music is accessed.

Does anyone else feel the same way? I typically browse music by artist after saving to my library. Now, apparently, all of those songs were just lumped into a playlist?

It's comical because in my library under artists it shows "recommended artists" but it's just a list of artists I already saved to my library?

Am I missing something???

[user-removed]

@HopelessUser, the way is seems to work for me is, like you said, the artist tab lists the artists of the tracks that you have saved or liked. They are listed under recommended if you are not "Following" them. Any artist that you follow will appear at the top of the list then the "recommended" is below that. Generally, the artists that you have tracks saved will show up here. Then you can select that artist and look though and play the tracks you saved from them or shuffle all tracks that you saved by that artist.

So, if the way you use Spotify is typically browse by artist, then the artist tab is where you would go. The downside to separating artists that you "follow" vs the ones that you don't (just have tracks save by that artist) is that when you sort alphabetically, it'll sort the "followed" artist first and then the not followed or "recommended" below the "followed." I think that sucks, however there is a search filter so you can search for "Pet" and get a list of all artists in your library that have "Pet" in their name (Peter Frampton, Pet Shop Boys, etc.).

[HopelessUser]

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@user-removed wrote:

@HopelessUser, the way is seems to work for me is, like you said, the artist tab lists the artists of the tracks that you have saved or liked. They are listed under recommended if you are not "Following" them. Any artist that you follow will appear at the top of the list then the "recommended" is below that. Generally, the artists that you have tracks saved will show up here. Then you can select that artist and look though and play the tracks you saved from them or shuffle all tracks that you saved by that artist.

So, if the way you use Spotify is typically browse by artist, then the artist tab is where you would go. The downside to separating artists that you "follow" vs the ones that you don't (just have tracks save by that artist) is that when you sort alphabetically, it'll sort the "followed" artist first and then the not followed or "recommended" below the "followed." I think that sucks, however there is a search filter so you can search for "Pet" and get a list of all artists in your library that have "Pet" in their name (Peter Frampton, Pet Shop Boys, etc.).

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I think I understand the way it functions... I just don't understand why the devs chose to take it that direction.

For me, one of the most powerful aspects of Spotify is its ability to recommend new music. Sometimes I forget the names after liking them, sometimes they're in a different language, etc. So those songs I liked are now burried in a playlist or in a different part of the app. 

This update is kind of the equivalent of hiding someones CD collection from them and saying "they're still all there... you just need to remember every one and tell me which one you want to play."

I like to browse and re-discover things I haven't heard in a while. 

[user-removed]

I don't recall how exactly it used to look. I sort of remember, but I have been experiemnting with Deezer and Pandora for awhile trying to find the "one." No obvious winner yet. So various user interfaces are swimming in my head.

Your original post said that you typically browse by artist. How is this not working now in the new artist tab? Or more to the point, how did it work before? If I sound like a fan, it's only because I don't hate it and that I was impartial to the old interface anyway (again, I've been investigating the competition). I mostly use it within Android Auto as 85% of my listening is from within my car.

[rockjocky]

@jobadu, I seem to use Spotify's interface almsot exactly like @HopelessUser (I would imagine most people do) and while, like you, I think this new way of presenting the library is pretty aweful, what frustrates me most is that the artists who I don't follow seem to sort in random order.  Why have a filter to sort by artist if it doesn't sore all artists?

I'm curious if you've found a way arount this odd sorting? When I'm not exploring new music with Spotify's (admitedly excellent) AI curated lists, I'm browsing my library so this change really kills me.

Some of what Spotify chooses to do really just confuses me.  This change is the latest but stuff like inserting a music choice in the middle of the now-playing queue when you add to the queue or not allowing browsing your library by genre just confounds me.  <shrug>

[user-removed]

@rockyjock, from what I can tell, you can sort either by artist or by recently added. When by artist, it's alphabetically by acending order only. And seems to sort alphabetically only the artist you've "liked." The "recommend" artists seem to stay sorted by recently added (I assume).

[bw2]

The absolute worst update in the history of apps.

Anyone that thinks sorting music by genre is not useful, should not be running the product release of a music app. BRUTAL.

The whole thing is NOT untuitive and is based around Spotify meeting their internal goals around increasing Podcast traffic.

[user-removed]

@bw2, No doubt they're pushing the podcast thing. But how are you sorting by genre as you described? Not that I want to do so. Just curious. I can sort by album, artist, playlist, tracks, or by recently added. I see nothing anywhere regarding genre except the dayliy mixes and in the search tab.