Help - Android

[Malone]

I have also cancelled my premium subscription. After nearly two years of paying it is with great frustration, but the Android app just isn't working and I have no idea when a working version will be released.

I will continue with the desktop app for a bit until I find a competing service (with a working Android app) to migrate to.

It's a sad goodbye from me, Spotify, as I've been a loud promoter of the service for a long time now. I just hope, for your sake, that everybody else doesn't come with me.

M

[BBSpeed26]

I feel it necessary to chime in, even though I actually got fed up and cancelled my subscription about a month ago (after dealing with the bugs and lack of features for 6+ months assuming stupidly that fixes/improvements were coming).

My primary reason for paying for Spotify was to get mobile access, and for Android users... calling that app "mobile access" is downright insulting. The Spotify content is great, but an Android app that (sort of, sometimes) provides access to music is not sufficient if the UI is glitchy, unstable, feature-weak garbage.

My complaints include: frequent crashes, inconsistent UI (e.g. long-press functionality varies depending if you search a song explicitly or find it by browsing to an artist/album first or select it from an existing playlist), no library sorting options, no gapless playback on local files, service outages unrelated to mobile coverage - the list goes on. These are ongoing too - updates appear to be minor and in 6+ months have yet to fix core flaws with the app.

As a customer, I feel ignored, as anyone who has had the misfortune of using the Spotify mobile app should. For $10/month, that's not ok. The endless bug list and abhorrent customer service (limited to the occasional forum post of "watch the blog" or "reinstall the app"... is that a joke? It's insulting.) and, let me stress this, a total lack of formal communication from Spotify indicating that they are actively doing anything... is just pathetic. Having a "community manager" occasionally chime in on the support forums is not customer service. It's below the bare minimum, and frankly I'm embarassed that I kept floating Spotify $10/month for as long as I did.

May I also add that in the time since I left Spotify, I have tried several of the primary competitors. Rdio, MOG, and even Grooveshark's Android apps all, in every concievable capacity, all dance circles around the disaster that is the current Spotify Android app. I heartily recommend that those frustrated with the total lack of service do a little comparison shopping.

If Spotify won't listen to us when we speak, maybe they'll listen when we stop sending them money.

[David]

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BBSpeed26 wrote:

a total lack of formal communication from Spotify indicating that they are actively doing anything... 

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We have mentioned that our team are working on improving the Android App here.

[Rankhar]

With all due respect David, that is not really formal communication. It is a message tucked away somewhere within countless pages and threads of people complaining.

A formal communicaiton is a blog post on the Spotify Blog saying that yes, we acknowledge that a lot is wrong with the Android app, we hereby apologise to our paying customers for having to wait so long, our mistake, please hang on a little while longer and we'll give you a very cool revamped and properly working app, and much speedier updates from now on. That's all it takes, and it is kinda baffling for all of us that Spotify doesn't do that.

[Fluffe]

All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaints...

[Rankhar]

+1 Fluffe hahahahaha 

[godofallcows]

I bet the assholes are going to act just like Apple and claim all this positive stuff about the new app and completely disregard all of this and not apologize.

[Rankhar]

Their legal department probably doesn't allow 'sorry', because that would mean acknowledging that there is a problem, which some people might use as a reason to start a lawsuit. Sad that things work that way.

[BBSpeed26]

And with all due respect to David, the sentence immediately following the one from my post that he quoted was "Having a 'community manager' occasionally chime in on the support forums does not constitute customer service."

To me that is about as bare a minimum as I could possibly imagine, and the attitude that, "look, you're wrong, we said something... buried in a private forum... a few weeks ago... and you should think that is sufficient" does nothing but cement my negative perception of Spotify's (lack of) customer service towards their paying Android users.

[Calibrae]

@Fluffe hahaha ! 

@David that's nice to read. I may have a bad eyesight, but even squinting like a sharpshooter I can't read any mention of a roadmap. Usually, when I tell my boss "I'm working on it", what I really mean is "Sorry mate, no can do just yet.." 

there're a few features and bug fixes requests on the forum. List them, get your devs in a scrum session, evaluate complexity of the issues, give them each a resolution schedule - and no, that doesn't mean adding "soon" in the ETR field - then publish the updated list.. And we'll all be the happiest little pigeons you've ever communicated with.