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Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

engineering.atspotify.com

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Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#81

Post by TheRealSteel »

shaicoleman wrote: post #70

My off-topic rant: I'd really wish Spotify would focus on improving the core player experience. It has barely seen any improvements in years. * Not overwrite/delete my listening history everytime I switch devices * Allow tabs, or some way to resume what I've been listening to in different contexts * Option to open only one instance, instead of having multiple instances that mess with each other * Playing local files…

I have been begging them for years to add a 'resume playlist' feature but they won't do it.

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#82

Post by sbarre »

iamacyborg wrote: post #5

And they’re still less useful than the data last.fm makes available to you.

Wrapped is a marketing product, not a data product.

Spotify itself is not a data product.

The first rule of avoiding disappointment is managing your own expectations to align with reality.

That said, you can export more granular data Spotify has on you from your settings page[0] if you want to do your own deeper analysis on your trends and usage, etc..

0: https://www.spotify.com/account/privacy/

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#83

Post by pedroaraujo »

johncena33 wrote: post #74
matsemann wrote: post #30

I came here expecting to read about the tech in the article or how others do big data processing stuff. Instead I get off topic Spotify rants.. Did you read the article or just see Spotify in the headline and decided your gripes therefore are relevant?

This has become a huge problem on HN lately. Lots of discussions are nothing but complaining. Now the technical discussions are starting to get infested with off-topic whining. The mods don't do anything about off-topic rants. If you point it out you'll get downvoted [1][2][3]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25839399 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25064636 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=…

Absolutely, there has been a dramatic shift in the type of people who visit HN in the past years.

I used to think that Reddit was bad in this regard but to be honest it mostly affects the big subreddits, the niche and small ones still have a high quality community. HN became pretty much like the biggest subs on Reddit.

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#84

Post by spotyoufi462881 »

88 wrote: post #42
spotyoufi462881 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what relentless back-and-forth made someone realise how much Spotify loves him. https://twitter.com/steipete/status/1025024813889478656

Why create a throwaway account just to post this? I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that Spotify collects telemetry data on its users. The main reason myself (and many others) use Spotify is because they use this data to recommend new music that I will like.

Creating throwaways to post is a feature of HN. I didn't abuse it. I don't have a HN account.

It's not meant as slander. It's just to show others 'here is something that's true that you might not have thought of or have thought of but haven't thought of it in all it's 250 MB glory. Decide for yourself'.

Folks who wanna try something different might like 'Radio Paradise'. It's human curated music. Have wide platforms support [1] but also regular stream URLs [2]

[1] https://radioparadise.com/listen/options [2] https://radioparadise.com/listen/stream-links

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#85

Post by sbarre »

staticelf wrote: post #10

Spotify is a company that feels like they want to be a "big tech company" when in reality they do not need to. All they need to do is provide a great service with as much music as possible.

At some point they need to try to differentiate themselves from Amazon or Apple, who could easily out-spend them on licensing music catalogues.

I think Spotify's "moat" is largely the analysis they've done on all the listening data they have, and their ability to provide that to the music industry as a product.

They share rudimentary summaries with customers via stuff like Wrapped but I have to imagine they have much more detailed and robust data products for the industry...

If they're just a giant Dropbox for MP3s with a music player sitting on top, they don't really stand a chance...

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#86

Post by sbarre »

utucuro wrote: post #7
gripfx wrote: post #3

Yet, I, as a user still cannot see my playcounts via app or API.

That might be explained as guarding their information, yet I still have trouble believing that they are unable to distinguish two artists with the same name from each other. Each week, my Release Radar playlist is basically invaded by 0 listener rappers who "feat" defunct 70s rock bands who do not manage their artist pages... Response from Spotify: please report them individually, from the desktop app.

That's some interesting product hacking in a way.

I've run into artist naming collisions enough to know it's a thing but I've never seen anyone (ab)use it intentionally..

Neat, but still annoying I'm sure. =)

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#87

Post by thejoeflow »

utucuro wrote: post #7
gripfx wrote: post #3

Yet, I, as a user still cannot see my playcounts via app or API.

That might be explained as guarding their information, yet I still have trouble believing that they are unable to distinguish two artists with the same name from each other. Each week, my Release Radar playlist is basically invaded by 0 listener rappers who "feat" defunct 70s rock bands who do not manage their artist pages... Response from Spotify: please report them individually, from the desktop app.

this. They don't even do an exact string match of the artist name, the reason why I can't fathom. I could make a new artist account named "drake" (lowercase d) today and probably show up in a million Release Radar playlists by next week.

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#88

Post by ascar »

sbarre wrote: post #79
paulsutter wrote: post #75

Largest data flow job ever? I’m sure Google would beg to differ. At Quantcast we process 50PB every day, and that’s nothing compared to real scale like Google. And merge joins from sorted data? Joins have been done that way since the punched card days on mainframes (and by any scaled data system)

Surely you read the article before posting, right? From literally the first sentence: > from our largest Dataflow job

Surely you have read the guidlines before posting, right?

> Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

The hackernews title and the article title say "the". Critizing this clickbait is more than warranted.

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#89

Post by [deleted] »

shaicoleman wrote: post #70

My off-topic rant: I'd really wish Spotify would focus on improving the core player experience. It has barely seen any improvements in years. * Not overwrite/delete my listening history everytime I switch devices * Allow tabs, or some way to resume what I've been listening to in different contexts * Option to open only one instance, instead of having multiple instances that mess with each other * Playing local files…

[deleted]

Re: Spotify Optimized the Largest Dataflow Job Ever for Wrapped 2020

#90

Post by krakmh »

shaicoleman wrote: post #70

My off-topic rant: I'd really wish Spotify would focus on improving the core player experience. It has barely seen any improvements in years. * Not overwrite/delete my listening history everytime I switch devices * Allow tabs, or some way to resume what I've been listening to in different contexts * Option to open only one instance, instead of having multiple instances that mess with each other * Playing local files…

You are absolutely right. Even more, people are using it for free using mods like these https://bestforandroid.com/apk/spotify-premium-mod-apk/
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