Two Serious Problems with Spotify

MSebring — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 18:36:08 GMT

I have created a collection of 225 playlists that are intended to be a sampler of the history of music.

(If you happen to be interested in these playlists, you can find an explanation of my collection, and

links to all of my playlists here: Moondog Radio.)

I listen to these playlists all of the time when I'm at home, but there are two serious problems that

are always degrading my Spotify playlist listening experience.

1. Songs In Playlists Being Replaced With Alternate Versions

but I never got any response, I think because some administrator provided a non-sensical answer

which had already been accepted as the final solution.

Basically, the problem is: When songs are removed from an album on Spotify, sometimes they are

"greyed out" to let people know that they were removed (and if those songs have been added to

playlists, they are "greyed" out there too, to let the playlist owner know that the song is missing).

But sometimes, instead of being "greyed out", they are replaced (either by whoever removed the

song or by the Spotify AI - I don't know which) with a pointer/link to a different copy/version of the

song from a different album or a different version of the same album. Sometimes the replacement

version of the song sounds exactly the same as the original so the only way you can tell there was

a change is the album cover of the song when you play it may be different from the album cover in

the playlist. But other times, the replacement is a totally different version of the song. (Occasionally,

it's not even the same song.) So you're listening to one of your playlists, and a song you like comes

on, but instead of the original version that you put in your playlist, you hear some inferior remake

from years later.

Here is an example of the problem: The Essential Jerry Lee Lewis

All of the songs from the album "The Essential Jerry Lee Lewis" were removed, but none of them

were "greyed out". Instead, they were all replaced with links to the same songs on different albums.

If you play any of the songs from this album, you will see a different album cover. Many of the songs

that are linked to are the same version that was contained in that album, but not all of them are.

If you play the song "Breathless", instead of the original 1958 Sun single version that appeared in

that album, you hear a version from a 1960s Mercury live album. If you had added that song from

"The Essential Jerry Lee Lewis" album to one of your playlists (as I did), you would now have a

totally different version of the song in your playlist. For people who are actually familiar with music,

imagine the surprise when listening to one of your playlists, and you hear a totally different version

of a song than the one you added. And this is becoming a fairly frequent occurrence.

2. Volume Variation Within The Spotify Database

Some songs within the Spotify database are much louder than other songs. When listening to my

Spotify playlists I find that I need to sit fairly close to my device because I often have to adjust the

volume when a new song starts. When using the Spotify app you have the option to use Spotify's

Volume Normalization feature, but it doesn't work very well. In my opinion, there is still too much

volume variation. And if you listen to Spotify using a different app that connects to Spotify via the

application interface (I usually listen to Spotify on a Sonos speaker using the Sonos app because,

unlike the Spotify app, the Sonos app allows you to play from multiple playlists in shuffle mode),

the problem is worse because Spotify's Volume Normalization is not used at all. (If I had known

about this problem at the time I would have bought the Sonos speaker with the remote control.)

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