The new Library UI signals a shift toward Spotify as a track platform at the expense of albums

[cry_wifi]

As an album listener, the Recently Played list was the aspect of Spotify I used the most. If I discovered a song I liked through a playlist, I'd go through and play the album so that it saved to my Recently Played. This update rolled out on a Monday for me -- meaning I had the immediate effect of losing those albums I liked from last week's Discover Weekly. I have no interest in "liking" songs especially if that function doesn't help me listen to the full albums. 

But more importantly Recently Played was how I maintained my heavy rotation. It was a nice, long list of whole albums I was currently "obsessed" with. Albums would come and go organically as I discovered music through more places than just Discover Weekly and Daily Mixes. 

I know on the Home tab there is the recently played album art panel, but this is much shorter and less user-friendly than the old list of albums. I could never use that panel like I did Recently Played.

Artists can't be happy about this either. If listening to albums gets more difficult, artists get paid less. 

Ultimately, what these changes represent is Spotify shifting to a song based platform, where listening to Spotify is more like listening to the radio. They want you to "like" songs that come up via algorithms or their curated playlists as an inexpensive way to improve their algorithmic and curated playlists. You like more songs and you get more songs. It's not a coincidence that these changes have made keeping a library of albums more difficult. After over two years as a premium subscriber, I simply cannot see myself continuing to pay for a service that makes the way I use it so much less friendly.