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Ask HN: How is the Spotify app so bad?

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Re: Ask HN: How is the Spotify app so bad?

#51

Post by arrowsmith »

miningape wrote: post #28
daghamm wrote: post #22

I actually like the Spotify app. For things I am (and maybe most normal users?) interested in, it works really nice: choose a song, listen to it, listen to the bands other songs, listen to their "radio" with similar songs, find new interesting bands, repeat.

Yeah for me this is where spotify shines over their competition - how easy (and accurate) they make discovering new music. But I suppose 1 amazing feature doesn't make up for loads of cruft.

Are we talking about the same app? My experience of Spotify is that it's terrible for discovering new music - "artist radio" just gives me the same few songs and artists over and over, so if it's a genre where I already know most of the big, popular bands then very little of it is new or interesting.

How do you use Spotify to discover new music? What am I doing wrong?

Re: Ask HN: How is the Spotify app so bad?

#52

Post by frizlab »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #42
daghamm wrote: post #22

I actually like the Spotify app. For things I am (and maybe most normal users?) interested in, it works really nice: choose a song, listen to it, listen to the bands other songs, listen to their "radio" with similar songs, find new interesting bands, repeat.

Same. There are a lot of apps way, way worse than Spotify, including Apple Music.

Honestly it works great now and is, I feel, better than Spotify (it was not the case a few months ago; let’s be clear).

Anyway it’s a complicated subject. I read somewhere nobody wants the same out of their music app and that’s why most of the time they end up being weird pieces of software in order to try and satisfy everybody.

Re: Ask HN: How is the Spotify app so bad?

#53

Post by arrowsmith »

al_borland wrote: post #6

I recently moved from Apple Music to Spotify to see what all the fuss is about, thinking it might get me listening to more music, or different stuff than Apple keeps playing. Using it feels like work and I don’t really get the how they expect users to use the app. I’m tempted to go see if there is a video from the designers explaining their vision so I can use it right. As of now it seems like a mess. Also, their AI…

> The worst part about radio is the DJ saying nonsense between songs, and they added AI to say nonsense between songs.

I didn't know Spotify did this. Who on earth would want to listen to that nonsense by choice? That's like making a recipe app that removes all the random pointless SEO filler from before each recipe, but then uses AI to add it back in.

Re: Ask HN: How is the Spotify app so bad?

#55

Post by petargyurov »

onion2k wrote: post #48
petargyurov wrote: post #39

Offline playback: my biggest issue with Spotify. I have my library downloaded, why is the UI "loading" and blocking? It should be instant.

It's could still doing the authentication loop to check that you have the 'right' to access the things you downloaded, depending on how often the app refreshes the token they use to check.

But if I am in Airplane mode (or generally without any signal) why would it bother? Unless it checks a locally stored token for validity, which would be exploitable; but even so, a local check should be near instant.

Re: Ask HN: How is the Spotify app so bad?

#56

Post by SiempreViernes »

lukan wrote: post #50
SiempreViernes wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can turn off autoplay in the settings, it's named something like "automatic play of similar content", it doesn't work for you?

I remember I tried something and it did not work, but now I found 2 different toggles with autoplay. Maybe something changed again? Who knows, now it seems to work, thx for the hint .. Edit: nope, it does not work and just plays on

Weird, maybe you had something in the queue? I think the no autoplay feature works on the level of the queue, meaning it will stop when the queue is empty.

But the rules for when the queue is reset aren't very clear, or at least I frequently end up with more stuff queued up than I though would be on there.

Re: Ask HN: How is the Spotify app so bad?

#57

Post by piva00 »

arrowsmith wrote: post #51
miningape wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah for me this is where spotify shines over their competition - how easy (and accurate) they make discovering new music. But I suppose 1 amazing feature doesn't make up for loads of cruft.

Are we talking about the same app? My experience of Spotify is that it's terrible for discovering new music - "artist radio" just gives me the same few songs and artists over and over, so if it's a genre where I already know most of the big, popular bands then very little of it is new or interesting. How do you use Spotify to discover new music? What am I doing wrong?

I usually do:

1. Start a "song/artist radio" from one I like, listen to the artists I don't recognise.

2. When I find something interesting I add it to a playlist (my playlists are a bit thematic with genre/feeling, if it doesn't fit with any playlist I have an "inbox" one to sort later)

3. When I have collected a few songs (5-15) in a playlist, enable "enhance" and listen to the recommendations from artists I do not recognise (used to do it with "playlist radio" but it's been removed in favour of enhance/smart shuffle).

4. Rinse and repeat with other radios (artist radios for the new artists I found, song radio for some songs/tracks I gelled with).

Been doing that for many years, discovered a lot of music this way.

Re: Ask HN: How is the Spotify app so bad?

#58

Post by yakismugurakis »

It's all about financial performance now more than ever. Crappy electron and whatnot apps that takes GBs of your disk and RAM, firing good people, implementing AI for every shit, just for a manager to have a better quarter and get his bonus, you’re the last of their priorities as long as you’re hooked and pay. Personally, I’m using what gets me a free month or so when possible, and from time to time I pay for Apple Music because of their Lossless and Classical on iOS. For home I’ve built an audio station with a Raspberry Pi 4 and Moode Audio and listen to Radios mostly.

Re: Ask HN: How is the Spotify app so bad?

#59

Post by petercooper »

arrowsmith wrote: post #51
miningape wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah for me this is where spotify shines over their competition - how easy (and accurate) they make discovering new music. But I suppose 1 amazing feature doesn't make up for loads of cruft.

Are we talking about the same app? My experience of Spotify is that it's terrible for discovering new music - "artist radio" just gives me the same few songs and artists over and over, so if it's a genre where I already know most of the big, popular bands then very little of it is new or interesting. How do you use Spotify to discover new music? What am I doing wrong?

Have you got the automatic Discover Weekly playlist? The Daily Mix ones are good and customized to you too, but tend to be things you already know.
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