Spotify Ideas

Before Spotify I had (well still have, but mostly untouched these days) large MP3 collection organized into Artist/Album/Tracks folder structure.  This worked well for me and combined with Playlists meant that I maintained my personal "collection" of "Albums" as well as favourite tracks and Playlists for particular occasions / moods.

What I find these days is that I'm losing track of Albums, I have Spotify Playlists (although the flat Playlist structure tires me), but it's just not the same as having a personalized "Collection" of music.

Spotify needs to add the ability to build your own "Collection" (not Library, which is still track based), this should be organized however you like, but at least providing Artist / Album / Year drill-down structure (folders or not).  It'd be nice to match this against existing MP3 collections and Libraries.  The ability to tag playlists and collections (and/or albums) would also be a bonus.

What I'm getting at here is the missing part (for me) in Spotify is the ability to "virtualize" (cloudize?) my mental image of a music collection, which is shelves of albums sorted into some logical order (years, artists, genre, whatever), but mostly Albums, not just Tracks.

My 2 cents.

UPDATE 21/4/13: I don't seem to be "allowed" to embed images in my posts (sad).  I've recently been using Google Music on a Nexus 10 and I have to say it has almost the perfect Album / Genre / Artist interface.  I particularly love the way that in Artist view you see Albums stacked and they move subtly in 3D as you scroll.  The only thing missing here would be Year and latest-added sort/views.  Anyway here are the screenshots, this is DEFINITELY a better way to "visualize my collection":

http://community.spotify.com/t5/media/gallerypage/user-id/298076/album-id/3824

UPDATE 16/5/13:

Google Play Music All Access does this and more

Sorry Spotify but looks like you were too slow.  Google just ate your lunch, dinner and breakfast for the next 10 years.  Google Play Music All Access has the above functionality (add any album to "my collection") and more, including a MUCH better visualization of your collection, album based browsing and a considerably better radio implementation.

A common problem: How do you know if a song is already in your playlists?

Here's a simple solution:

   1 ) right-click any song

   2 ) show ✔ if that song is already stored in your playlists

Extra features:  Add how many times the song is repeated in a playlist:

This feature could also be a partial solution to the most popular "Way to prevent duplicates in playlists" request.

I am sure this might not be very difficult to implement, as this idea uses the existing right-click menu in Spotify.

More extra features:  Add an icon in any search results that show if that song is already stored in any of your playlists:

Do you like the idea? Give it some kudos so the Spotify team starts implementing it asap! =)

Thanks,

Albert

Original Post - 

Obviously we have launched the new spotify with white artist profiles and album view.

However, the white interface have no ctrl+F function, which means that I can not find a specific song within an album or artist with a search function. This takes us to a world before altavista.

- I dont like

Another problem in this white interface is that we squeezed the track info into a little box. When in album-view, a track with a couple of featured artists will not fit in this box, it is not scrollable, it is simply a secret what the song is called, and who is playing it.

- I dont like

However, the new activity field is awesome, where one can follow people very selectively, and not get music-feed from everyone you know on facebook.

- I DO LIKE!

Dear Spotify --

Meet me: I am a 32-yr old classical musician, and typical of your frustrated (yet somehow still optimistic) classical music listening audience. We need two very specific things from you (at the bottom of this post) in order to fully take part in this awesome community. Please hear me out.

===================================================

First, why should you want more classical music lovers?

1) We pay for the music we love (translation: more paid memberships for Spotify)

2) We passionately share our love for classical music (i.e. more potentially social Spotify users)

3) We teach others about classical music; we are music teachers in schools and universities and conservatories everywhere. We have the power to make Spotify-listening a requirement in our classes (i.e. more new, young users for Spotify)

4) We fight hard for the music we love (this is why we keep writing even after you've determined our posts "case closed")

=========================================================

What you need to know about how classical musicians currently use Spotify:

1) First, we buy memberships immediately (well, immediately after the first symphony we try to play is interrupted by an ad). This is fine! Totally worth it. Incredibly cheap, even. (I donate much more to my local public radio station per year.)

2) Next, we immediately realize we have to search elsewhere for composer/songwriter info -- leaving Spotify and often finding another place to hear what we were searching for (i.e. not returning to Spotify)

3) If we DO come back to Spotify, we discover there's a Classical app called Classify. Classify is cute, but you can't be serious. There are exactly two composers listed in the Contemporary Classical category (Glass and Pärt... good choices, though, I'll give you that).

=========================================================

Why you and I don't know each other yet:

Spotify doesn't yet know how to quantify what I'm listening to, because I'm listening to my favorite composers over and over again, and you don't require your labels to give attribution to the composer. So you have no idea how to predict what I will like.

This has major implications for your "targeted" advertising, featured artists, and email recommendations -- these are never remotely relevant to my musical tastes. I never click them. Which means I'm only coming to Spotify to listen to specific things I already know I love (once I've determined the particular album or performer's name in order to search for it). I listen and I leave.  I'm not exploring Spotify's other artists, not getting involved in the Spotify community, and not using any additional features -- social or otherwise -- that Spotify has to offer. Plus, neither are my classical-music-loving friends, so why bother.

=========================================================

But Classical fans actually really NEED Spotify right now!  Why?

1) To find like-minded fans. Classical music lovers have fewer and fewer places to "geek out" with each other. Our orchestras are going under, our non-profit organizations are seeing diminishing donations, our school programs are being cut... we are aching for a place to share our love for classical music.

2) To keep up with a quickly-changing genre. Classical music is blurring more boundaries than ever. It is being infused with so many rich and exciting influences and cultures. It's changing every day and we desperately need a place to keep up with it.

3) To pay our beloved, favorite artists. With no other alternative, we're uploading our performances (even commercially-released tracks, often illegally) to YouTube, which (unlike Spotify) doesn't pay the artists and is not a sustainable business model for our industry. We're shooting ourselves in the foot providing so much free content there. But, unfortunately, that's where our classical community is listening to music right now.

=========================================================

The Two Things Classical Fans Need Are:

1) Consistently-labeled track titles, particularly for multi-movement compositions like symphonies and operas. We need you to demand that this title metadata be streamlined, organized, and consistent across all your labels so that we can hear multi-movement works the way the composer intended them.

Andy Doe at Naxos has the best description I've found for how classical track labeling should work. Note his asterisked editorial at the bottom of his post:

* Spotify doesn’t show you the composers. Just try to find a specific classical recording on Spotify, and you’ll quickly see how maddening this is: the content is all there. You just can’t sort through it. Spotify is, though, a relatively young company, and I think they’ll probably fix this in time. If you want a really good classical streaming experience, you might prefer to use Naxos Music Library or Classics Online.

2) A designated "Composer/Songwriter" (or Writers) column, and for Spotify to put pressure on your participating labels to use it. This column needs to be:

1. LEGIT and CONSISTENT: It should be implemented without a 'hack' (i.e. without adding composers into the track field or artist field) so that this metadata can be consistent from here on out. And so labels know what Spotify requires so they can submit it properly.
2. TRACK BY TRACK: Must be implemented at the track level (not a composer assigned to the entire album, for obvious reasons.)
3. SEARCHABLE: Searching by composer name should bring up their songs.  I understand horizontal space is at a premium, especially for mobile users, so I wouldn't be surprised if this "composer/songwriter" column is optional to view (which would be fine).  But it still must be searchable data, even if the user has hidden the column.
4.  SORTABLE: Just like the other columns, which are fantastic.
5.  CONNECTED: This is a wish-list item, but it would be the most awesome to click on a composer name and have their info pop up from All Music Guide, or wherever (but All Music Guide is excellent), just like the performing artist does.

=========================================================

How our world changes as soon as you do this:

Not only would these changes drastically improve Spotify's search results, and open up the Spotify experience to an entire music-loving audience (and over five centuries of music!), but these improvements would change the way Spotify is used socially.  For the first time, we music creators ourselves will be able to find and promote our OWN Spotify tracks to our fans.

If that sounds crazy, it is. But because of the way music licensing works, most published classical composers (yes, we're still alive) don't even know our music is on Spotify. To put it in pop-music-speak: all our songs are "covers," so -- since we can't find our names on Spotify as a composer -- we need to search Spotify by title. (Heaven help us if we've written an "Alleluia" or a "Sonata No. 1" or an arrangement of "Joy to the World" with gobs of search results to listen to, just to see if it's the one we wrote!)

I spend a lot of time doing two things: composing new music, and trying to build a fan base for that music. If composers like me could simply search our own name to find our music on Spotify... wouldn't we (who are increasingly entrepreneurial) and our fans be all over social media, advertising tracks, asking people to listen, and asking friends and fans to join Spotify to share new compositions?

And classical fans are just the tip of the iceberg... wouldn't jazz and folk and musical theater composers & songwriters all immediately change their marketing models when they realize they can search for the music they wrote on Spotify?

We can't hear the music we love, and we can't share the music we love, until we can FIND the music we love.

PLEASE improve track titling, and PLEASE add a Composer/Songwriter (or Writers) column.

And, above all, thank you for Spotify. It's a great concept and I am thrilled that it's available in the USA, and licensing music legally. Now please make it classical-user friendly and let us help you grow your membership even further -- for the benefit of all of us.

You build it, Spotify, and we will come!

Could it be good idea to add a wish box or a button somewhere in Spotify so every time I don't find some record from Spotify I could easily add it to the wish box. Maybe a button next to the search box so after a failed search just clicking the wish box button. Afterwards the Spotify staff and record companies (and users) could see which records are most wanted and use that information for getting the records to the Spotify.

I have big playlists, and would like a built in way to prevent duplicates from occuring in my playlists.  This could be an option to prevent, or select/hide duplicates.

Hello, Spotify Community! 

One of the things I enjoy about Spotify, is that I get to share music I enjoy, with people all around the world. But how great would it be if it was possible to customize your playlists, to make it your very own. And it doesn't necessary need a lot of advanced or fancy stuff, just your picture of choice for the cover (instead of 4 album covers from your tracklist) and a description box, would be enough to make it kind of original (and make it easier for people to know what kind of music the playlist will include/what it's made for etc.). 

Here's an illustration of how I imagine the customization being put to use:

Let me hear what you think of it, and give it some kudos if you feel like doing so. :)

Have a good one, 

- JimmyLQD

Other ideas:

Popularity Bar / Measure in Playlist

http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Ideas/Popularity-Bar-Measure-In-Playlist/idi-p/168774

I believe there should be a way to block or remove people that are following you on Spotify.

This would be standard privacy settings, I would've though :)

Liam

Please kudo this idea if you want to see it Implemented!

I would love to be able to sort my playlists by Artists, then drill down by album so as not to clutter my Spotify. It's pretty hard to organize my playlists the current way. Any ideas on a future iteration that will enable this capability?

Before I made the switch from Rdio to Spotify they (Rdio) came up with a pricing model that allowed families to purchase a slightly discounted subscription.  

$9.99 for single unlimited user

$17.99 for 2 family members (20% discount)

$22.99 for 3 family members (50% discount)

Would love to see a similar pricing model so the rest of the family could get in on the action!

The Library is a really confusing and endless list of songs, especaly on the mobile apps. You can't just click around and just listen to music without knowing what you want to hear.

It would be awesome if there was a possibility to Split the Screen when you're in the library an show a list with Artists, Album and Genre. Like we all know it from iTunes, Winamp, WMP. So you could click on an artist an all titles, albums and genres that aren't realated to him disappear. Just like a predefined Filters for all the artists, genres and albums in your library.

So it would be much easier to search to search for music in your library without knowing exactly what you are searching for.

This is also why a search function can't replace such filters.

There should also be a possibility to edit which details are shown in the library. Things like "year of release", "track number on the album" or just "number on the playlist" are hardly missing.

Why isn't there an option to just repeat a track? I hate having to place a song in a playlist of its own, and then put it on repeat which just repeats the playlist. People have been suggesting you add this feature for years now! EVERY music app should have this feature! This feature should be on all the Spotify apps across all platforms.

Add it to the same button as now with a 3-step repeat mode:

1. Repeat ALL/PLAYLIST
2. Repeat TRACK

3. Repeat OFF

This idea is also "Under Consideration" on GetSatisfaction.

GetSatisfaction Post:
https://getsatisfaction.com/spotify/topics/repeat_a_song_all_the_time_repeat_mode_missing

GetSatisfaction Votes: 160

This idea dates way back to 2009!

My mockup of what this would look like in the iPad app (similar for desktop and other mobile devices):

My Comments:

If Spotify wants to compete with Rdio, they need to add this feature! They could limit the function to unlimited and premium users if that's the current worry limiting the release of this feature. Rdio is PAY ONLY, and Spotify has a FREE option.

It worries me that Spotify hasn't implemented this popular simple idea from 4 years ago, but instead they implement more complex newer ideas.

If you ask some people -- this has been a request since the launch of Spotify.

I love Spotify, but it hurts that a simple feature like this gets passed up every time new features are rolled out.

I feel like I'm living in the 1990s with no repeat track mode anywhere to be found within Spotify.

This is a basic feature and it's being looked at like a grain of salt. 

I comb through Twitter search every day and a lot of people are very confused on how the repeat mode works so I link them to this idea.

I've referred 50+ people now to the link... some didn't know that it only repeated the playlist.

This is very confusing for a lot of people, especially newcomers.

Remember... this has been a request dating back to 2009 and even to the launch of Spotify is some cases.

Oh and look at all of these confused people:

https://www.google.com/search?q=repeat+song+%20spotify

https://www.google.com/search?q=repeat+track+%20spotify

https://www.google.com/search?q=repeat+spotify

News articles that agree:

http://mashable.com/2013/03/01/spotify-changes/ 

http://www.complex.com/music/2013/01/11-things-spotify-needs-to-win-the-online-music-war/repeat

Hello,

It could be great to be able to remote control my computer Spotify app from the Spotify mobile device app. (iPhone un my case)

For ipod touch there is a huge need for eq because Spotify bypasses the regular Apple Sound Settings.

I use high end headphones but need to be able to fintune the settings so I can enjoy my music and tech equally.

So please, please make an EQ for the spotify app

The biggest problem in Spotify is those cover bands. Show those after originals or add another column in search for tribute etc. bands.

I see cover bands and some karaoke **bleep**, but really, where are original tracks?

Do something toprioritise down in search those "cover bands and karaoke bands or tribute bands" and get original tracks instead to top. There should be option to get those tracks down in search results or to add some filter to settings (by default off). I think almost no one want to listen karaoke or cover band / tribute songs.

Search for Modjo - Lady and go to listen those covers and karaokes, there is no original tracks at all.

Sometimes when I search tracks, the cover bands are more popular than original one, is this not possible to get real music (original track) up in search catalogue? Also if there is no original track, I would like to see some information about it because I don't want to search from cover and karaoke bands list forever just to find nothing.

Enjoy your music. Best regards, Spotify!

There is no need to cover bands or karaoke verisons, just original one!

Thanks!

I would be so great to have DLNA support in Spotify, both in the desktop and mobile versions.

There should be a simple "Play To" feature so music can be played on the living room stereo and controlled from a mobile device without the use of a combination of desktop computer, JamCast, 2Player, WD TV live box ect.

It could be combined with AirPlay support, but I'm using a Windows/Android setup myself.

Hope people (and Spotify) will support this feature soon - it would really take Spotify to the next level at home!

Due to having a conservative bent about mobile bandwidth, I do all my music discovery, starring and playlist editing at the computer, then sync to mobile everything starred and a subset of playlists. Once truly mobile (i.e. away from WiFi, away from PC) I don't download any music. None. Zilch. The offline play is a HUGE feature to me.

So - why so hard to search for a song that's already on the iPhone?  If all I wanted was blind random shuffle, guess what I'd buy? An iPod shuffle (and I don't want one).

No sort-by-artist. No sort-by-title. I need to the ability to search within what's already on the iPhone, NOT what's on the internet.

You've made it rather difficult to find and play what I've already decided to sync-to-mobile. Please make it easy.

Add a button that controls whether Explicit songs are played or not.  When it is off and you're listening to an album or playlist, the explicit songs are skipped. That way you can still listen to your favorite album or playlist when more impressionable members of the family (kids / parents) are around.

hi

I am a new user to Spotify from NZ and the first thing I miss having moved from iphone's built in music player is the sleep timer. I understand this feature stopped working in one of the recent versions of spotify App. If it is a compatibility issue partly related to iOS 5, may I suggest that you build a sleep timer into the App itself? 

Also, as suggest by one other Spotify user, Nyx, it would be even better if you could include an alarm featuer so we can all wake up to our favourite playlists within Spotify.

Thanks again for all the great work you guys are doing and we really hope you would consider this new idea.

Cheers