Windows Phone - Serveral Problems - About To Cancel Subscription

[juanmaferrari]

Hi, my name is Juan and I subscribed a couple of mounth ago after determining that this service is better than other on the market but as I started using it serveral problems appeared that make me wanna go back and rethink my decision.

I have a Samsung Ativ I with Windows Phone 8.1 (dev preview, but works just fine)

1. Since a couple of updates ago, the battery consumption went sky high, making it impossible to have it opened in background, forcing me to close it and use de WP media controler (volume up) to skip, play or pause.

2. No matter how many times I put for the music quality to be downloaded in the Highest Quality, it always goes back to Normal.

3. Sometimes I have to restart the celphone (not just the app) because It cannot find any playlists

4. I have a Galaxy 3 which I never use, but just for the fun of it I downloaded the Spotify app and it is waaaay different than the WP app. Forget about the platform or the looks, the problem is what you can do or select. For example you can select an Artist stored on your phone insted of having to build a playlist.

5. Search option is disabled when you are on offline mode, what about the files in the phone? Why can't I search those?

6. Sometimes Sync fails and one again, I have to restart the phone, not the app.

If I thought the app has no potential, I wouldn't bother making this post. 

On the other hand, the app on Windows works just fine, but yet I cannot select from what is already on my computer (offline) it always needs to be online to search.

Looking forward for your answer.

Thanks

Juan

[Peter__]

Unfortunately the Windows Phone application has always lagged majorly behind the other apps in terms of polish and basic functionality. There are a whole host of ideas about WP over on the Ideas Exchange but so far Spotify don't seem overly interested to make Windows Phone a main/supported platform.

[juanmaferrari]

Thanks for the quick reply Peter!

So, as I understand, there is no interest for Spotify in developing a stable and polished app for WP.

/Since I have WP and the subscription I bought says that is multi-platform (WP included), unless I have a greatr answer from someone o Spotify, november is going to be my last mouth with you guys.

I find it hard to acept that a software developing company as Spotify is unable to do a WP app.

Is there a legal issue? OS limitation? 

I'd love to get a reply from them (Spotify). It's a shame that all the time and effort applied on bouilding my music library will be lost.

And one more thing I didn t write above, What is that 3333 songs limit? I travel a lot and Im most os my time in offline or EDGE zones.

I ll be looking foward for some answers from Spotify itself, not that Peter wasn't helpfull, he helped me understand the tip of the iceberg.

Thanks

Juan

[Peter__]

Your best bet to get an answer from Spotify is to tweet @SpotifyCares or open a support case here:
https://www.spotify.com/about-us/contact/contact-spotify-support/

Spotify developer posts are pretty rare here on the community sadly. I don't think there are any legal issues with WP, just lack of dedicated resources I guess.

The 3,333 offline track limit is a licensing restriction sadly, that applies across all Spotify platforms.

[juanmaferrari]

Thanks for the answer and sorry for the delay.

So finaly , there is no solution for my problems, therefore I ll leave this topic open.

I'll go to the support site to see if that helps.

To be honest I cheched the competitor (you all know the name) and It has the some issues too. I think is something with WP platform or the lack of users...

Just saying that as a fact, not as a justification for not beeing crossplatform as it is advertised. When I say crossplatform I mean, 100% crossplatform such as having the same functions and capabilities in all devices.

That's why Im not suscribing to the competitor.

EDIT: I no longer have a Dev preview WP8.1, problems persist in the official version 

[Vglotzb]

I feel your pain, I'm looking at buying a new AVR receiver at the moment and I'm wondering if it's any use paying the extra for something that supports spotify connect, since I'm not going to switch to either an operating system I hate or a piece of overpriced bling just for the sake of a streaming service and spotify seems to pay only lip service to windows phone/RT users at the moment.

It really shouldn't be that hard to implement the same functionality that's available in other clients, but so far I'm stuck still using playlists copies of the stuff I want to play on my phone, since the client doesn't support 'your music' yet (it's been how many months now?) and apparently, spotify connect isn't available either.

I guess I'll switch to something that has full windows phone support and buying a seperate streambox that supports that service.

[aarero]

I also cancelled my spotify subscription a while ago, altough I generally preferred the service to alternatives. (love the PC app and discovery features)

For me - the nail in the coffin was the lack of 'run in the bacground' option for the WP8 app.

What I want is to stream Spotify to my car's audio system via bluetooth, and for it to resume playback whenever I return to my car from where it left off.

Deezer can do that. With spotify, I need to dig out my phone from the bag and manually re-start the app every time.

Why?

[juanmaferrari]

LAST UPDATE (actualy may last as in "bye bye Spotify")

So I took my time making a very well explained email which at first was treated as I was not knowing what I was talking about saying I need to propose those IDEAS in the Spotify forum. I think they don't know what crossplatform mean.

Here are the points sent, their answers and replyies. I've ordered it the best way I could.

"XQ" Are my questions

"XA" Spotify's answers

1Q. Since a couple of updates ago, the battery consumption went sky high, making it impossible to have it opened in background, forcing me to close it and use the WP media controller (volume up) to skip, play or pause.  

2Q. No matter how many times I put for the music quality to be downloaded in the Highest Quality, it always goes back to Normal.

3Q. Sometimes I have to restart the cellphone (not just the app) because It cannot find any playlists

1,2,3 A. About your questions from 1. to 3. we're working for a new update to continue offering the best Premium experience.

1,2,3Q: 1,2 and 3: When will the update be available? I'd love to have a specific date. Will all of the points be solved?

1,2,3A 1, 2 and 3 ) I'm afraid I cannot give an ETA for when the Windows update will be released. Windows are responsible for the development of the application for Windows smartphones, we have no direct control in terms of the development side of the app.

Bottom Line: Having that and nothing is the same. "There is a solution (on not) and It will be in a future Update, please continue paying the subscription". not a good answer. The key here is "ETA".

4Q. As I said I have a Galaxy 3 (Android OS) which I never use, but just for the fun of it I downloaded the Spotify app and it is waaaay different than the WP app. Forget about the platform or the looks, the problem is what you can do or select. For example you can select an Artist stored on your phone instead of having to build a playlist.
5Q. Search option is disabled when you are on offline mode, what about the files in the phone? Why can't I search those?

4,5,10 A: You can propose these ideas and also topics 4., 5.,10. on our ideas board at: 

http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Ideas/idb-p/ideaexchange

4,5,10 Q: 4,5 - These are not ideas, is a complain. You say you are crossplatform, yet the WP app looks like an alpha version compared to the other platforms. So here is the straight question, are you going to level up this up to be as good as the other platforms? If so, when (date)?

Bottom Line: NO ANSWER WAS GIVEN IN THE LAST EMAIL REGARDING THESE POINTS.

6Q. Sometimes Sync fails and one again, I have to restart the phone, not the app.

6A: 6., 9.  If sync fails or your songs stop playing please perform a clean reinstall. Then resync your playlists here.6., 9.  If sync fails or your songs stop playing please perform a clean reinstall. Then resync your playlists here.

6Q. 6,9 - Ok, I'll try that.

Bottom Line: Won't try it. No more time to waste.

7Q: What is that 3333 songs limit? I travel a lot and Im most of my time in offline or EDGE zones.

7A: You can sync 3333 songs per limit, you can share the idea on our ideas board.

7Q: It is not an "idea", I want to know why is that limit imposed, so I can understand. I searched the web and found no explanation at all, and your competitors have no such limit. If you have a logical reason I'd love to know.

7A: There is no specific reason why that number. 

Bottom Line: It's just because. No technical reason what so ever.

8Q. Why can't I have the files in my computer synced on my cellphone?

8A. To sync local files, please follow the steps here. 

8Q. There is no Windows Phone option available in your link.Another thing is that the question is (more detailed now): why can t I have the mp3 files that are in my PC synced to my phone via Spotify, do I need a third party application to do so? If i do, going back to your link, how can I listen to them via Spotify on my WP phone?

8A. I don't believe there is  3rd party application that enables you to do so. Please note the android and iPhone versions differ greatly from Windows as Windows develop the app separately; which may explain why there's a lot of functional differences between the two. This being said, can you please try the following:
1. Connect your phone to the same wifi network as your computer. Your computer should be connected over wifi, not by a cable.
2. On your computer, click Devices, then select your phone.
3. Choose the playlists you’d like to sync. If you want to sync all local files, mark the Local files check box.

Bottom Line: Tryed it and couldn't get the files in the "Stared" Playlist. Made another playlist, BUT the phone can't see the files.

I guees there is no AC/DC if you have Spotify...

9Q. It stops playing / crashes out of nowhere

9A: Check point "6". Both questions where treated as one.

10Q. Will it have Cortana Integration? Not only to open the app, but to play artist and songs?

10A: Check points 4,5 answer. Was treated as an idea. just in THIS case they could be right, so I ll give them that.

11Q: I have 4 devices and Im adding a tablet next month, so I d love to have them all offline synced... how can I?

11A: You can save offline playists on up to three devices. For example, you could use offline mode on your computer, tablet, and mobile phone at the same time. 
If you use offline mode on more than three devices, the oldest registered device will no longer work offline. 

11:Q Going straight to the point. I want to have more that 3 devices offline synced at the same time, how can I do it? I don't mean them playing at the same time, but synced.

11A: I'm sorry but you cannot have more than 3 offline devices.

Bottom Line: Hard for a mobile app with this limitation if you take in consideration their upload speed is really slow, so syncing oin the go is not an option.

Finally, I'd like to thak who ever helped me or just took the time to read and see I f they could help or relate to my problem. 

The product is not ready for WP and I won't be paying for a service of an unfinished product, as if I'm stock holder.

I'm leaving your comunity happy with myself because I tried to help you fix this giving you detailed information and you chosed to give those answers or skip the difficult issues.

Spotify, feel free to contact me back whenever you fix those problems, because I'm not changing WP for you, It is not fair. I also recomend to take WP from your site or put more detailed information regarding limitations, because "false advertising" is very serious in most of the countries you are selling your product. 

Regards

Juan