article The New Desktop App in The Blog Vault

The New Desktop App

dan — Sat, 06 May 2023 06:13:40 GMT

Re: The New Desktop App

MattSuda — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:28:51 GMT

Congrats on the launch! Looking forward to future improvements and updates! 🙂

[Developer] the new spotify update is cute

bopdotcom — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:27:42 GMT

the new update on computer is cute

Re: The New Desktop App

Hubo — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:31:23 GMT

Great news! 🙂

Thanks everyone who shared their feedback in the thread!

Re: The New Desktop App

MateusM — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:33:53 GMT

Wooow! Congrats to the team, you've been made an awesome Desktop improvement!

Re: The New Desktop App

jlp_design — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:36:20 GMT

This desktop app is not ready for a wide launch.

- No discography page with songs listed

- Artists should not be under the song title - put them next to it.

- too much empty space in the app, but some how has huge icons. I have a mouse pointer and don't have to use my finger on a tiny phone.

Re: The New Desktop App

BobbyNL — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:21:03 GMT

Thanks for the update on the desktop app @dan,

I think a lot of us folks that you guys made part of this testing became a bit tired of not being heard on (as you mention here) "a few aspects raised in the community that haven't been fully addressed".

I think your team has done a good job on designing and aligning the desktop app next to the other apps. But when you say, "It's more in line with what users have come to expect from Spotify." You're overlooking the 1000+ frustrated responses of users that didn't want the desktop app to be the same as the mobile app.

Especially since it's such a different experience.
Honest question: when you say: these things "have ultimately been brought closer in line with other Spotify applications". What does that mean? That it's easier to maintain? What about the user needs on desktop and mobile, aren't these way different? And don't even get me started on users that use the webplayer verses the desktop app. I would love to hear more about how the team put all these things next to each other and came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to give them all the same functionality.

I'm still a fan of Spotify, but seeing so many comments of users going out of their way to help each other reinstall older versions (pre-testing fase) or even switching to other tools because of this must say something about the choices.

I totally understand that y'all don't have time to respond to every comment that has been made. But to see you cherrypicking the easy to answer "bug" questions and leave the frustrated users unanswered in a lot of ways was very disappointing.

I'm guessing you won't respond to this comment. But I hope you realize that there is a big group here that doesn't feel like they're part of the users you mention. That group being most of the once's who've engaged in giving feedback on this, and mostly being paid users, frustrated that they're not being heard.

All the best,

Re: The New Desktop App

NickParrotte — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 15:13:28 GMT

Hi Dan

I've been closely monitoring the update since it was first rolled out around 4 months, having posted on page 7, of what is now page 132, of comments about the update. At first I was extremely displeased with what I was forced to be a part of, but now I know it's clear that you just haven't listened to the overwhelmingly large majority of feedback you were given. Whilst the desktop app has come along way from the frankly unusable client we were forced to use, there has still not been enough changes, bug fixes and improvements to make this version suitable for public use. It makes me honestly sad that there have been over a thousand replies, most of which are impartially constructive and helpful, that haven't been addressed at all until now, months later, and even then it doesn't explain enough of the decisions made.

I gave this beta a chance for months and I sincerely regret doing so.

This is goodbye, from both me and the many others who have already left.

Re: The New Desktop App

terioncalling — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 15:45:33 GMT

Well...I guess at least now everyone else who wasn't forced into this beta with the rest of us can now offer their complaints about the changes.

Re: The New Desktop App

RobotWarrior — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 15:52:38 GMT

hey dan,

the page made for you have remaining on the section library.

Re: The New Desktop App

MattSuda — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 16:22:52 GMT

@RobotWarrior

Right now the Made For You page can be found be going to the search, scrolling down, and clicking on the Made For You tile.

Re: The New Desktop App

werepancake — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 16:47:56 GMT

Why did you remove the "Discovered On" feature?? How are independent playlist creators supposed to have their playlists found? All I see on Artist pages is the "Appears On" list which is EXLUSIVELY Spotify playlists. You've removed a huge part of the Spotify community which was a great way to share and find new music.

Also, it seems that the "About" tab has been completely removed for artists that haven't added a description to their page. This means it's no longer possible to see how many followers they have or what cities they're listened to in. Removing the follower count from the "Recently played artists" page also means there's no way to get follower counts at all. This is an important feature for artist-community engagement!

Example: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5FxIHlAwrVLGORZZj7B8sN?si=-kSMoO1STcWZvhiGYpNwrg

Re: The New Desktop App

rpurban — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 16:50:28 GMT

I must have gotten bitten right as this update was happening. I was working on configuring local content on my windows 10 desktop. One minute I was able to point at my extensive iTunes library and then suddenly I have 3 on-off switches under Local Files but only one of them (Downloads) is actually labeled. Wasted 3 hours trying to figure out what went wrong. Looks like it was this update that has left me high and dry.

Re: The New Desktop App

seantnichols — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 17:21:48 GMT

While I am for future proofing software, this release has not been fleshed out. As many others have mentioned, there are several things missing that we previously had (and what made desktop so incredibly useful).

Playlists:

- Artist column is gone. Why? This is a basic function of any music player. Additionally having the artist name below the song title is cluttered IMO.

- Date Added column is gone. While many people may not use this, I use it constantly. It helps me keep track of when playlists have been updated, I also use it all the time for building my own playlists.

Solution: Put in an option to add/modify columns. Yes I am aware of the sort drop down, no it doesn't help me.

A long standing issue I've had with Spotify on mobile particularly, which I hope hasn't carried over to desktop, is that Shuffle on an artist page is broken.

When I go to an artist page and shuffle play, 9 times out of 10 it only shuffles their Popular tracks, not their entire discography.

Way back in the day you could view all songs from an artist and shuffle them, now the best you get is a discography page where you can shuffle individual albums.

What this means is that I have to manually build a playlist for every artist with their discography so I can manually shuffle it.

Solution: Simple, either bring back a full track listing page for artists OR fix shuffle so it actually shuffles all their songs and not just the Popular tracks.

What I would love to see right now is the ability to roll back to the previous UI while the new UI gets a little more polishing done.

Installed today’s new update, and interface looks like the old version.

daaveh — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 18:42:12 GMT

Hi.

So I read this morning about the new updates (desktop/web). I launched the app, did not see the little blue update dot in the corner, so I downloaded an installer from the site. Launched after installation and it looks exactly like the old version. Went to the web player and can see the new interface there, but not on this MacOS Mojave desktop.

Uninstalled using AppCleaner, reinstalled, changed nothing.

I suppose if I don’t even see the new interface then the new features are also lacking? How can I remedy this?

Thanks.

Re: The New Desktop App

17341057 — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 18:46:17 GMT

Hi Dan,

As many above I'm constantly using Spotify and the new updates have unfortunately made accessibility and efficiency a lot worse.
-The removal of the search bar from the top page now requires an extra click to the search page, which sounds like not much but for how often it's used this is impossibly inconvenient.
-Removing the artist column and putting it under the track name clutters the screen and makes navigating music a lot less convenient and straight forward. Also that crucial column's space has just been spread out across the row with no function, I guess to reduce the clutter from putting the artist under the track name.
-Rows now have a unnecessary amount of empty space around them, which means more scrolling and more empty space. The previous design was much more efficient, organised and navigatable.
- It seems everything is blown up in a similar way to large text mode on iPhone which is great if the person using it is elderly and can't see very well or have trouble pressing the right spot on the screen, but this is not necessary and shouldn't be addressed across all users on a desktop version of the app.

Very disappointed, like the majority it seems.

Re: The New Desktop App

captainjman2 — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 20:55:48 GMT

OH man, this update is bad, real bad. The UI is hot garbage. I'm really wishing I didn't just move everything from YouTube Music.

Re: Installed today’s new update, and interface looks like the old version.

MarceloAvalos — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 22:51:46 GMT

The announcement says "rolling out to all users globally over the coming weeks" so it will be turned on server-side.

Re: The New Desktop App

robni7 — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 23:25:52 GMT

I think ignoring the 1000+ constructive comments that users have made on the beta-version and still pushing this majorly inferior UX is utterly distasteful and disrespectful towards your user base.

Remember that your users are not your enemies — like Spotify and all its developers and employees, they share the desire for the app to be as good as possible, and they have provided more than enough feedback to make clear their wants and needs. Your users, your customers, are what gives your service right of existence. So don't alienate them.

If you need more development time to make the new modern-technology-based desktop app as excellent as the previous version, no problem! We will wait and we will not mind. We do mind, however, being pushed to use a new desktop app that is not quite done yet and does not provide the functionality and accessibility we need. Isn't it tragic how @NickParotte passionately expressed his excellent feedback, but in vain? Congratulations, you have lost a previously loyal customer. I'll be re-evaluating my subscription, too, as soon as I'm plagued by the new update.

Cheers, Rob

New Spotify PC Interface kinda blows.

Raxater — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 23:54:12 GMT

So eum.

My spotify ravinshingly updated itself following a restart as it stopped responding spontaneously. I've now seen the new interface and allow me to ask,

Are we just gonna:
- Remove the search bar at the top and put it in its own separate menu?
- Split albums in their own dedicated pages rather than simply scrolling down on the artist's page?
- Eradicate the 'Made for you', 'Recently played', 'Podcasts', 'Albums' and all other useful links from the left column?

Tell me there's an option to customize the interface I've missed out on. There's no way they just rolled out such a downgrade to dab on us (unless those options have now been converted to premium as a way of 'blackmailing' free users into buying premium).

I know it sounds like a lot of drama for no reason, but we lost so much fluidity from the previous version where you would just take 0.5 seconds off work to search tunes you just heard of, navigate through a newly discovered artist's library or find the history of what you previously listened to in one click.

What are your thoughts?