what is...? where is...? how can i... WHAT?? why the hell??? (Spotify vs. Deezer)

[Smaidz]

Jesus motherf****** Christ, that's what I'd like to say. Never in my life have I seen a more messed up project than Spotify. I've been using it for about a month now, and still I can't get any wiser beyond the most basic features, although maybe It's because I used Deezer for the better part of a year. Switched carriers, and this one offered a free Spotify Premium trial, so I switched from Deezer to Spotify right off the bat. I opened the website, signed up, and...... what now? "Download spotify app for Windows", I see and think "well screw that completely, it's a cloud streaming service, it MUST have a web player!" Three beers and a Doctors degree later I find out - there's www.spotify, which is used for account control, and PLAY.spotify, which is used for, well, music. It was at that moment that I thought "this is gonna be messed up" (and not far from the truth I was).

So, when i opened Spotify for the first time and played some music,  I was immediately confused by the lack of "like" button. After snooping around for a few minutes I found an option "Add to starred", or something like that. I click it happily, thinking that it adds the song to my favorites, just like that. After all, that's how it's supposed to be, isn't it?

Turns out it isn't. I open up "My music", and see a playlist named "Starred". I open it, waiting to find the song I just "starred", but it's empty. There's nothing. Zero, nil, zip, nada. I "star" another song and repeat the process. Same result. I "star" yet another song and get the same result again. And again. And again. After a long sigh I decided to leave the "starring" alone and continue on with my getting to know the service.

So the next thing i notice is a big, circled "+" sign on the right-hand side in the player, somewhere next to song name (went missing 2 days (or so) after. Found it a week later in the playlists disguised as the song number, although it hasn't moved a pixel on the android app). Wondering what it means I click it, and it turns into a check mark. "So what did THAT do?" I wonder. I open up "My music" again and seeing no changes in the "playlists" tab I switch to "songs" tab, and see the song i just "plussed/checked". "OK, so THAT'S how favorites work" I reckon, "time to check out what this mess looks like on a phone". So I open up Play Store on my SGNote2, install Spotify, launch it, play a song, open the "now playing" screen and I see yet another song rating mechanic, "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" buttons (now missing, too(yes, again(yes, seriously(yeah, i know, right)))). I started to get confused and annoyed by the clear clutter that's going on throughout the whole service. "So what does that mean right now?" I think. "3 ways to favorite a song, only one of which seems to actually work and make sense. A band of baboons would make a better streaming service". (Yes, i was THAT annoyed.)

Things seem to have taken a turn for the better now, though, since the "thumbs up/down" buttons are removed, and I just don't care about (and can't find, either) the "starring" option, effectively leaving only the "check mark" approach to favoriting songs, which already seems closer to Deezer's approach. For those of you who don't know, Deezer has two buttons intended for song rating, the ubiquitous "Like" and "Dislike". If you click on "like" the song gets added to your favorites playlist, and if you click on "dislike" you'll never ever ever hear that song again on the "Flow" (more about "Flow" later on). Seriously. Easy as that. So you can see now, why did I get so confused about Spotify.

Next thing I did was tranfer my playlists from Deezer to Spotify. Having done that I see that there are a few hundred songs less in my Spotify playlists, than my Deezer playlists. Yes, I get that the song libraries for both services are NOT identical, this wouldn't even be worth mentioning as most of those songs I have as MP3 files, but - again - Deezer did it right, and Spotify's doing it wrong. On Deezer, I hit an "Upload MP3" button, browse to the files I want to upload, and in a matter of minutes the songs are uploaded to the cloud, accessible from wherever I can log in. Now, Spotify, on the other hand, as fas as I know, only lets you to choose which files you want to sync across your devices (thus using up memory on my phones and laptop which would add up to quite a bunch, considering my music taste and library), and even then ONLY (correct me if I'm wrong) if you're using Spotify desktop app (which I don't and won't).

Last, but not least - Deezer had a "Flow" function, where it would play random songs across all genres that you may like, based on your favorites. I've found that, if you click "options" on the phone app's "now playing" screen, there's a "Start Song Radio" feature, that seems to make an automatic playlist based on the currently played songs' genre and tempo, but nothing that would base it's choice on my favorites as a whole, like the "Flow" on Deezer. (To be honest, I'm still not even sure what counts as "favorite songs" in Spotify... Are they the "starred" ones, which doesn't even work? The "check-marked"? Or the "thumbs-upped"?)

Spotify does what it's advertised for, and does it well, but there's a lot of confusion involved for someone who's coming from a different streaming service. The inconsistency across platforms being the most basic example, in the web player the "check mark" button being displayed in the playlist between "SongNumber/PlayButton" and song name, but in the phone app it being displayed on the player screen.

Sorry about the long rant (although it's only a quick comparison of basic features), I just made this post in the hopes that someone would be able to clear some things up for me. And who knows, maybe this post will even help someone in need of comparison.

And, Spotify, PLEASE get your s**t together. Best of wishes - a new user who would like to see how this project develops further down the road. If I may make a suggestion, include a "upload MP3" feature, I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate that one in particular. 🙂

TL;DR - I used Deezer Premium for a year, got a great deal and switched to Spotify Premium a month ago. Spotify has it's issues, and although it's gotten slightly better the last couple of weeks, deep down I still long for Deezer. Help! 😄

[user-removed · Accepted solution]

Hi and welcome to the community! You are really confused right now but don't worry. I'll try to explain things to you.

First, the service has a radio function. It is where you can discover new songs based on a genre, a playlist, an artist, or a song. It's like Flow but it's based on something and not just your history. So, in the radio function, you can like or dislike songs. That's why like and dislike only shows when you are on a radio station. And, the plus is shown if you basically just play any song in a playlist. If you press like, or dislike, Spotify will improve the radio station you are currently playing.

About Starring on desktop, I recommend you to use that plus button instead to add it to your music library. That starring feature is an old feature that is being slowly removed by Spotify on the service so users will just add to "Your Music". So why "Add to your music" and not like/dislike like on deezer? Spotify is about making your own library of music. It doesn't have a Flow feature but it has a discover weekly feature. How do I say it's my favorite? Just play it. Spotify knows you by your history. You can add it to Your Music by checkmarking them or plussing them to be able to find them again later or add them to a playlist. Any playlist.

What's the difference of Starring, checkmarking, and thumbs-upping? Starring is adding to starred songs. Check-marking is adding to Your Music. And, thumbs-upping is liking the song to improve the radio station.

And, I don't think Spotify will stop improving their service. I don't want to share too much information but I think many great new features are coming soon. You might get Flow on Spotify soon. I don't know. Maybe, a different name.

About the Upload to the cloud feature, many Spotify users don't need that. But, you can still submit an idea here if you want too Idea Submissions .

Did this explain everything to you? Hope this helps your problem 🙂 And, please don't say that Spotify is just a project, because I think it fits when it's called a product/service. Many of us love Spotify and it hurts us when you underestimate it. I also hope that your opinions will be changed after that free trial that your carrier gave to you. 🙂

[Smaidz]

Ok, that cleared up a few good things, thanks a lot! 🙂
So the check mark adds the song to "My music" which, as far as i understand, seems to be about the same thing as Favorites in Deezer, and I checked out the radio, took me a while to figure it out, but i guess it works just fine for what it's intended. I Still miss the "Flow" from Deezer though. 😞
I apologize if it seems like I'm underestimating Spotify, that was not my intention at all. It's just that the first experience was very baffling, as Spotify seems to do things pretty different to what I'm used to. Just a matter of time to get used to it, I guess. 🙂
Honestly, from my experience so far, it seems to me that Spotify is for music hoarders, and Deezer is for music listeners, but that's just IMHO. 😄

[user-removed]

If you need more info, just go here Learn more/Guides - Spotify.

Spotify is for everyone. It's not only for music hoarders. It's also for music listeners 😉

[robert_offiziel]

I can only say that i totaly agree that Spotify is only für Music hoarders and Deezer For Music listeners. I missed the Flow so much, that i am over with Spotify For music

[user-removed]

I applaud the answer but, it doesn't mention those of us that are using a web player, payig premium, using chrome and still do not have any options on the radio other than a lttle "heart" - a back and forward button and a remove button. I do not have a thumbs up or down. The heart adds a song to somewhere but who the heck knows where? "Track added to your music (or worse, clip board) where ever that is. Then I can click the "remove" button which is supposed to give the option of "don't play this song" or don't play this artist" which would be GREAT - if it only worked. So basically all you can do is click forward if you don't like a song or the artist. Super annoying. As I see it, I have two options - Dump Spotify or put up with the constant format changes (which are usually what I would call a "down grade" ( being nice with that choice of words) not a "format change"! Having said that, I also live by the fact that life is short and somethings are not worth tearing your hair out or ruining your day over. I still pay my premium as I have years worth of playlists I love to listen to - Most of the time I can listen to them. I now HAVE a radio (went years without one on Spotify) though hearing the same 40 or 50 songs on my DAILY Mix is laughable. I do use "discover" alot but have found a little thing called EVERY NOISE (.com) and found a very interesting way to find new music. I'm through trying to get Spotify to listen to "it's community" - Honestly if Spotify really cared about it's community it would have already fixed many of the problems it has had over the years. Read even a small portion the great ideas from the community which are literally ignored. How many times and votes up does a great idea need for Spotify to even take notice? Nope, I am not waiting for Spotify to do anything other than take my money monthly (seems billing has a problem as well, since so many users are charged twice monthly) and continue doing as they have always done. Let's just accept it - It's always about the MONEY, not the community, not the music. If it were about either of those, Spotify would refund or give every premium user a FREE month for the latest mess (and in my opinion the worst "new format" yet!) It will never happen - It should for all of the loyal premium users at the very least! Money - Money -Money - not community - not music. Just another big company that puts the $$$$$ ahead of everything else. There are so many great places to listen to music on and off line now. If I get aggravated with Spotify, I just shut it down and go to any number of great alternatives that play only the music I like and they for whatever reason, (drum roll) ALWAYS work! There is You Tube which is a great alternative - make your own playlists and it's free and with AD BLOCK no Ads. I also use player.fm. I love a podcast called Ambient Sound bath - SO, I still listen to Spotify daily and even though many of the things that should work, most likely never will, I still think paying premium for my playlists is worth it. SO FAR, my playlists work and I only use playlists. I do not save albums or save anything but playlists. I have spent untold hours making those playlists and as long as I do not delete anything before really thinking about it ( since recovering a deleted playlist usually doesn't work either) I'm careful with what I choose to delete. I thought I would share these and a few other alternatives that make my life easier and less stressful hoping it might do the same for some of the struggling Spotify community members as well (which I DO care about) - I think I spent too many hours driving myself nuts trying to control something I honestly have no control over. Spotify is huge. It's like Fakebook. I do not use Fake book for many reasons and I keep paying for Spotify for just as many reasons. Spotify is just money hungry and apathetic many times, BUT, not nefarious. If you do not SAVE anything except playlists, I think you can save as many songs as you want. I combine albums into playlists. The limit on how much you can save is probably my number one gripe as a paying customer. (Although there are so many things to gripe about lately) Along with the above alternatives, I hope other community members find ways to work around all the issues that plague us using Spotify. It will make your music life a lot more varied and enjoyable. If you have never tried everynoise.com give it a try - I think it is one of the best things Spotify has to offer and so few know about it. (I stumbled into it recently, can't remember how) Oh, and there is a great little app called music songs player which is connected up to YouTube - Put in any artist's name and you can choose to listen to that artist only or you can listen to that artist and any similar music. You Tube has a great many music lovers of all types so you can usually find who ever your looking for and listen for hours and hours. It is so simple even those like myself who are "technologically impaired" can use this app easily. Hope this decreases some of the stress we have all been going through with this latest mess Spotify has left us with. Remember folks, life really IS short. So I leave you with this ... "Illegitimi non carborundum" - Loosely interpreted "Don't let the bastards grind you down - bring you down etc - (see The Toasters, Motorhead and U2 in popular culture) Wiki has some interesting @hit on this nice little Latin phrase and maybe someone will make a Spotify T-Shirt with those words on it! Ha ha - Love you Spotify community and hope your day is not full of "Spotify Stress" - There is alot to be angry about in this world, and it gets worse with each passing day. There is also a lot to be thankful for in the bigger picture of life, IF, you're lucky enough and CAN listen to Music, read great Literature - watch amazing Films -Gaze upon beautiful works of Art. It is so easy to lose perspective. So, eat it up with a spoon and I have to add, smile at every one - We all feel invisible at times. Really hopes this helps - Peace to ALL.

[Baba5678]

My musically account is not accessible. I have a different account that is accessible but I want to change that account to my account. How do I change the account to my account?