Where is the album column in playlists? Why was it taken out?

[billsech]

Plan

Free/Premium

Country

USA

Device

Windows 10 PC

Operating System

Windows 10 Home

My Question or Issue

What happened to the album column in playlists? It was there until the latest update of the Spotify Desktop App for Windows of 10/29 19. I find that extremely irritating and disappointing. Why take away good features for the paying consumer? How about bringing it back?

[OneByBoo]

Hi there @billsech,

thanks for posting !

As a PC and Microsoft Windows user i'm also using the desktop app the same way.

I just checked my app and the "Album" colum is still there.

Can you please send me a screenshot of what you see in your account?

In addition, if you could provide me with your Spotify version number it'll be great.

Thanks a lot for your cooperation 🙂

[billsech]

Hello,
Here are two screenshots. One showing a playlist in my windows app with my
premium spotify account open. There is no album column like there use to be
before this pc app updated to the version shown in the other screenshot.
There is no sideways scrolling bar for the playlist indicating content
hidden to the right. That is the whole width of the playlist. I could find
no way to add or subtract columns. So it appears I've lost the album
column. It makes sorting a playlist so much better. Thank You.

[Datmix]

Hi there @billsech,

I stumbled upon your question as I had the same problem. After "years" of searching, I found a rather odd solution, which hopefully will work for you aswell.
So, see that unnecessary "see what your friends are playing" screen to the right of the app? I always found it dumb and taking way to much space.

Go to: settings ->view-> show friend activity-> uncheck (my spotify language isn't english, you should find it though)
And there it is, no friend bar, instead the "lost" album column appears. Weird, right? Thanks spotify for being so user-friendly!

I really hope that this solves your problem aswell!

[OneByBoo]

Hi @billsech,

thanks for keeping me in the loop !

I've checked your Spotify and mine as well, it seems like yours is a bit older than mine.

What i'd like you to do is to perform a clean reinstall of your app following the steps provided on this Spotify Answer.

This way, it will assure you're using the latest version of the app and might fix it.

Let me know how it goes 🙂

[spidey119]

Thanks Datmix for the solution. Its absolutely ridiculous that for Spotify to be usable paying customers need to use these weird tricks. I'm seriously considering taking my business elsewhere. We should be able to customize which columns we want to see in the playlist, and we should be able to have a "Sort playlist" option like they have in the mobile app where we choose the column we want to sort.

[Eni]

Hey @spidey119, 

Thanks for reaching out about this. 

No worries, you can sort and filter your playlists in the desktop app as well following the steps here. 

On another note, if you think other users would enjoy having the option to customize the columns in the playlists, we'd recommend taking a look in the Idea Exchange, where you can submit your own. There users can vote and comment on your ideas.

Also, you can read more about how your feedback reaches Spotify here.

If you need help with anything else, just let us know. 

[MattSuda]

Good news!

There is now a new Compact Mode for track lists (playlists and album pages) in the desktop app and Web Player

The drop down menu now has "Sort by" and "View as" options. To turn on compact mode, open up the drop down menu at the top right of a playlist or album page and click on "Compact" under "View as".

On Playlist pages, it removes the album art, and breaks out "Title" and "Artist" into their own separate columns again. This view is similar to before the redesign that added album art into playlists a few years ago.

On Album pages, it moves the artist and featured artists from below each track title, to a new "Artist" column to the right of the "Title" column.

When you turn on Compact Mode, it will be remembered and stay on when you are viewing both playlists and album pages. You can switch back to the regular "List" view at any time.

The new Compact Mode for track lists is rolling out in the desktop app and Web Player right now so you should be seeing it soon. This has been a highly requested feature since the redesign came out a few years ago.