New update to My Library has ruined Spotify

[rawroftheworlds]

Plan

Premium

Country

Australia

Device

Samsung Galaxy 8, PC

Operating System

Android Oreo, Windows 10

My issue is with the new Spotify update. I have close to the maximum amount of songs on a single device (about 3,200), all of them carefully sourced & selected. With the new update, I can no longer view my songs listed by Artist, alphabetically. Strangely, they've kept the Albums feature.

So now when I go to my artists, I have an odd selection of some 20 artists, that Spotify has oddly identified as the artists I should have. Some make sense, but some have made the list whom I rarely listen to and have very few songs of. But the algorithm seems to have missed some of my favorite and most listened to artists - both in song count and amount of listens.

One workaround I figured would be to simply use the "Add Artists" feature at the bottom of the list of Artists. But again, it's trying to be overly intuitive. Screenshot attached. It offers 5 Artists whom songs I do have as Saved, then goes on to "More Artists You Might Like"... are you kidding? Eminem? Ed Sheeran? Lady Gaga? Drake? Justin Timberlake? Why? I've never listened to these artists, or I would imagine any artists whom Spotify identifies as related to these Artists. This is a huge concern for me, because Spotify is trying to tell us EVERYONE should like these artists, when in my personal opinion, these are artists I actually despise. This is Spotify furthering the dumbing down and homogenization of music.

Anyways, back to the workaround: it doesn't work. At the top of my list was Massive Attack, which made sense because I listen to them and have some 20+ songs of theirs. But by adding Massive Attack, Spotify goes all hyper-intuitive and begins suggesting artists whom are similar to Massive Attack. Again, a massive problem for me because I'm not one who listens to a single genre of music.

Even so, going through my artists and adding each one manually is really problematic, because it would require constant updates. And further, it takes me to the main artist page, meaning I see the Latest Release, Popular 5 songs, Fans Also Like, Albums, etc. It no longer takes me to the songs I have saved of that artist.

I don't want to, and never have given Apple a single cent. But with this update, I may have to. I know people rant, are over-the-top, over-emotional, but hopefully with the way I've written this, I've been able to articulate that this type of update completely destroys one's experience of Spotify.

[rawroftheworlds]

So I've discovered why the artists appear under Your Library-> Music->Artists - if I go to each one, it appears that I follow them. If I unfollow, they disappear from my list and vice-versa.

[rawroftheworlds]

This gives you an idea of the variety of artists and genres I listen to. And at least I can navigate through My Library on my Desktop client... for now!

[billycox2321]

Two things: 1. All algorithms that try to predict the range of human preferences fail miserably. Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, Google... they're all terrible at it. Laughably terrible. 

2. Specifically, this Spotify update is going to make me switch to something else, Amazon, Apple,  idk. It's not just that they removed my artist list. But now, even if I go through with the mind numbing, tedious task of liking all the artists and then going to a particular artist, Spotify doesn't show the songs I HAVE CHOSEN for this artist, they show the most popular songs, basically what you'd see if you just looked at an artist you didn't know. It's definitely not what I want and will move on if not fixed in the next few weeks.

[meluco]

This update has completely ruined the experience of using spotify. So many years building up my library which is in fact my music collection... so upset! And the worse is that I cannot understand what is the point on this change. I find it completely nonsense. App is very simple and options were very limited so why reducing the options in the way you use it. I am currently considering which alternative should I switch to: Amazon, itunes....

[Deadjim]

@meluco I switched to itunes. They still have a decent selection and i refuse to pay to be spat in the face like this. Everyone i know has done the some thing. 

[meluco]

Yesterday I started to try Amazon due to the fact that I already have an amazon premium account. Tried connectivity with my wireless speakers and everything seems to be fine. I will also try itunes. Sincerily I believe it will be the best option. I am still astonished that spotify made this modification... they really do not know how users do use their app?? 🤷🏻‍♂️