The New Update Simplifies the UI at the cost of User Experience

[michaelhenley]

IMPORTANT EDIT:

If you yourself have this update, I highly recommend going to this link and upvoting this idea. This new update that I have experienced is a testing roll out that you cannot opt out of and will affect your overall ability to navigate the service. Read on below.

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Macbook Pro (Late 2013)

Operating System

macOS Mojave

My Question or Issue

I have been a Spotify user for a number of years, and I can't believe how much this new update currently hurts the user experience. I am all for having a UI that better connects with the mobile platform, but I am now able to do and see MORE on my phone than I am on my laptop. One of the most basic functions that allows for fast adding and removing of songs on Spotify, SHIFT CLICKING, is seemingly gone with this most recent update. Along with this, songs on Artist's pages no longer show total plays, completely removing any sense of analytics for an artist or fan. I am all for having a more simplified page, but now I feel like the difference between Premium and Basic users is almost entirely eradicated since I can't easily make playlists, add or remove songs, or look at what songs are trending for an artist. I have attached a screenshot of the new Artist page as further proof (in case anyone doesn't have this update).

I'm seriously wondering what Spotify intends to do with further updates, because if this is the new direction (removing more useful info for fans and artists) I am seriously considering switching platforms. 

EDIT:
On further diving into the UI, I now see that there isn't even a way to sort songs by Album, Song Title or Artist anymore. What's the point of premium vs. basic if the whole point of Premium is to be able to organize and find your music faster?

[garrettlucero]

I haven’t received this update yet, but just want to agree with you and second that this is an awful change.

Please don’t switch to this UI Spotify!

They literally keep taking away features and it’s making Spotify less and less useful and intuitive, especially for Premium members who are literally paying for features to be taken away. It’s ridiculous.

I hope they fix this!

[tsunami650]

To make it worse, Spotify immediately followed that update up with a much worse one that seems to break all the localization strings (i.e. all the copy that would show up in whichever local language the player is using).  Now I just see the label identifiers everywhere instead of button labels, for example adding a song to your playlist from the recommendations? The button is labelled 'PLAYLIST.EXTENDER.BUTTON.ADD' now.  Even the copyright and 'about' text is gone in the version I got stuck with (1.1.32.618.gda5638a6). I went back to a previous version of the app, but within a few hours all of it's search functions were rendered inoperable, so if I want to search for anything I'm stuck for now with this amazing example of quality assurance in software.

[Elena]

Hey folks!

Thanks for taking the time to report this to us.

The version you're on right now is part of a test Spotify is running.

We're always testing new things in order to improve the user experience or gather feedback on different features, you can learn more about that here. 

We'll make sure that your feedback reaches the right people here.

Currently, it's not possible to opt-out of this but if you're not happy with the new experience we'd recommend adding a +VOTE here to show your support for the idea of a toggle between the versions.

We hope this info helps. We'll be here if you have any other questions.

[user-removed]

Never have I seen such disregard of loyal users by a company.

Taking away popular features and labelling it "better?" Forcing them to be part of a test they never asked for?

While I am still fortunate to have to old version, if I am ever selected for testing this abomination I will cancel my subscription immediately.

[michaelhenley]

So, I'm going to actually do the opposite here and say no, I'm not going to accept this as a solution (based on the reply of k_torster, who is totally right). Even Facebook, when they were testing their new UI, IMMEDIATELY had an option to opt out, which some did and some didn't based on how they were navigating the platform, and that's for a free service. For something paid like Spotify to force users into testing new features without making them aware or offering ways to revert to the last update (which you can do with almost any OS that has ever existed) is a complete disregard for customer's trust. Until there is more transparency and options for users, I won't mark this as solved.

I will be adding an edit to the original so people can vote, but that's not a solution. Most users don't use the community page (the page you link only has 281 votes because I didn't even know the page existed due to the site itself being hard to navigate). All this seems to do is create a space where frustrated users can complain to one another, it doesn't actually solve UI issues or overall experience issues.

[voltre]

The removal of the number of listens by track has seriously impacted the way I use spotify to browse and find popular tracks by unfamiliar artists. Open up an album now and there is no way to discern which tracks are the most appreciated by fans of that artist. The alternative now is to use another platform, youtube say, to work out which tracks are most popular. Frankly I'm finding I might as well just stay on youtube and I'm wondering why I pay for spotify. But the issue is, why make this change in the first place and not give your paying customer the chance to opt out?  What is the intention here?  

[feenyx]

Not all ideas are created equal.  

I wanted to report my disgust with the new "Web player" redesign of the desktop app but couldn't find anywhere useful to complain about it, so here goes.  

It's horrible.  It's atrocious.  

I don't know what you think it does better, but "Finding and sorting your music faster"  (you know, your mission statement of sorts) is decidedly NOT the case in this latest update.  

Can I have the old one back please?

[CarlosE]

Hey @feenyx,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community.

We're sorry to hear that your experience with the New Desktop app hasn't been as expected. We encourage you to head to this thread and leave your feedback there. This is being monitored by the right teams as we really value your feedback and it is important for us to keep improving the app and the overall experience.

If you have any questions or need anything else, we'll be right here.

Cheers!

[feenyx]

Thanks for the tip, I've added a comment to that thread as well! 🙂

[CarlosE]

Hey @feenyx,

We're always happy to help.

If you need a hand with anything else, we're always a post away.

Have a good one 🙂

[zusman12]

It's great to explore new things. Only this is something that not the users should do but you yourself should do. What kind of method is this to force users who pay for the service to be experimental rabbits? That sounds like a joke. If I want them to experiment with me instead of paying the developers to do the work I will cancel the subscription and go back to YouTube. The only reason Spotify was successful was the good user experience that YouTube and others did not provide. But now that YouTube has launched a premium designed for users who are interested in a user funeral (rather than an advertising and targeting experience), Apple Music is stepping up with an emphasis on user experience and more companies are popping up, so is Spotify sure it can **bleep** its paying users?