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Am I the only one who thinks Spotify's user experience sucks?

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Am I the only one who thinks Spotify's user experience sucks?

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I've been using spotify for over a year now, and I enjoy it just enough to keep using it.

But lately I'm starting to get tired of managing the Queue/Up Next list which makes no sense at all!

Before Spotify I was using Apple music which had a lot of bugs on android and shitty song suggestions, but there the queue was super simple and made perfect sense, you could add songs to the beginning of the queue or the end of the queue.

Those two basic features are nowhere to be found in spotify.

I simply don't understand why when I press 'Play' it doesn't just add to queue?!

Why is Spotify managing two lists - 'Next Up' and 'Next In Queue'?!

How is it any better than the simple 'Add to Start of Queue' and 'Add to End of Queue'?!

 

Is there something I'm not seeing here? Am I the problem?

 

22 Replies

Hi! If I'm understanding your issue with Spotify correctly, you're confused about the two separate lists. I might be able to clear some of that up.

The next-up list just tells you what song will play next (this will be affected if you switch to shuffle play).

The queue list allows you to choose what songs will play next and arrange in any order you want (this won't be affected by the shuffle playlist. The queue list will continue until all songs have been played, in which case it will switch to the next-up list). More information on how to rearrange the songs in the queue list will be at the very bottom.

Let me know if this answers your question! I'd be happy to clear anything else up for you.

 

Managing your queue list:

1. Go to the lists area (screenshot attached)

2. Select the songs you want to add to queue

3. Go to the queue list and use the right hand side (three lines above one another) to slide songs above or below each other.

Screenshot_20181227-022012-01-01.png

Ok we still have a misunderstanding.

I am able to use spotify, and I'm pretty sure I know what every button does.

My problem is that it's in no way better/easier than the simple add-next/add-to-end way.

Doesn't it seem wierd to you that you had to write so much to explain such a simple concept that existed since the invention of the music player? Or that you used the words "what song will play next" to describe both lists? Or that the shuffle affects only one of these lists?

Basically I really don't understand why to reinvent the wheel when having just one queue is so much simpler and requires much less guesswork from users.

 

BTW You still didn't explain how to add an album to the beginning of the queue, In android app I can't even clear the queue so I have to go one by one and remove them

Depressed User,

   My understanding of the Queue on Spotify is that I can place a single/group of songs, that I want to listen to immediatly, in there and listen to them next without having to change the order of my current playlist or just paly one song that I wanted to hear atm and then continue listening to my current playlist.

 The two different listings are ok with me, I know that the queue is for right now and the other is the playlist I was listening to before making queue slections. 

I have an android phone and I have no issues with deleting all of the queue or just one at a time (mine has a circle to the left and I selct one or all, the clear all that exists on the pc would help with this) and I can reorg the queue as I want, using the method previously mentioned. 

I would like the option to add to queue first and last, that would be helpful. 

I'm really confused how come nobody sees how shitty it is.

doesn't it bother you that if you have something in your queue and you didn't notice, then when you'll play an album or a playlist you'll get the first song you wanted to listen to and then the queue will pop in because you didn't clear it.

I'm really confused how is this convoluted way is any better than a simple queue with no other list.

 


@willboyd97 wrote:

Depressed User,

   My understanding of the Queue on Spotify is that I can place a single/group of songs, that I want to listen to immediatly, in there and listen to them next without having to change the order of my current playlist or just paly one song that I wanted to hear atm and then continue listening to my current playlist.


You would get that with the simple "Add to Start" button.

 

I would really like to get a satisfying answer why is this way any better than a simple single queue, I'm honsetly thinking to go back to Apple Music even though their song suggestions are rubbish in my country just to get the better queue experience.

Hey @DepressedUser

 

I used to have that kind of queue in Windows Media Player too, where adding to the beginning and end of the list was possible. It was nice. 🙂

 

Spotify's queue is a bit different. It has two sections:
Next In Queue: click the three dots on any song or album, hit 'Add To Queue' and they will be added to this section. Songs added to this section will be played first.
Next Up: you hit play on any album/artist/radio/anything else and this section shows the upcoming tracks.

 

Next Up is just more detailed playback state showing what is upcoming. On desktop client you can also drop undesired songs off the queue.

 

I used to have trouble too (since WMP had a different kind of queue), I just wanted to listen to what I queued. Sometimes I accidentally hit play on a song, and Spotify played the queued tracks and the rest of that playlist I picked songs from... :')

 

Hope this helps!

SebastySpotify Star
Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution".
If you appreciate my answer, maybe give me a Like.
Note: I'm not a Spotify employee.

I think people don't understand my problem here.

I know how to use spotify. I just don't understand why it's this way. How is it any better than the WMP way, which btw is not special... Every music player in the last fifteen years worked this way.

I'm honestly losing my respect to people who just act as if it's ok that we have to touch our ears with our toes to manage the core feature in spotify.

@DepressedUser

 

Foobar doesn't have a queue as such... What is highlighted, that is played back. I guess some music platforms have a different approach to some features, such as the Queue.

 

It does take a while to get used to that. I was battling with both Foobar and Spotify for quite a while, until I accepted that Foobar is different and will allow me to do other things with music files (conversion is so easy!), but not queuing like that, and that Spotify is also different.

 

I don't normally have anything in the Next in Queue section. I just have something lengthy in the Play Next (I don't even take it as a Queue, it's more like a saved playback state), and if I find an album or something I want to listen right now, I'll queue it, listen to it and then carry on with the lengthy thing, usually a Daily Mix or Station these days.

 

Spotify shows the Queue's contents across all platforms (that have queue support) and it will save playback state. You can add a bunch of stuff to queue, or hit play on something in desktop and you can continue listening to that on mobile or the web player... or resume listening to it tomorrow.

 

I can understand that this system doesn't work for all people. You can create an Idea on this in the Ideas board, so other likeminded users can add votes and Spotify staff can check it out.

 

Have a nice day 🙂

SebastySpotify Star
Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution".
If you appreciate my answer, maybe give me a Like.
Note: I'm not a Spotify employee.

I am reading this a few months later...

It is both fun and telling to see the reactions to your post. It is sad that Spotify is so annoying to use and yet we all just go with it.

 

I haven't made many playlists on spotify despite having it since a few years now (on and off).

But this makes Spotify extremely annoying to use. Of course you can go with daily playlists the AI picks for you or you can listen to other people's and Spotify playlists. Yet I feel making queues, playlists, etc got even harder with time and updates. How can Spotify make it so burdensome for customers to listen to what they want to listen to in the order and at the moment they want to? And features that used to exist just go away with new, seemingly better updates coming?

 

This has been really ...as your name says...depressing. And now I'm going back to listening to "My Summer Rewing" playlist (- Who the h*** wants to listen to the music they were listening to the most, according to spotify, last summer???)

 

Humourously...

 

 

I’m new to Spotify, trying it as moving away from a Deezer subscription that came with my BMW. 

 

Got a family subscription, signed up and invited everyone. 

 

This is where the problems started. First off I had a free subscription that had a random username. Next up when signing up for a family subscription, the first user I allocated *should* have been the family account owner. Fair enough, I assumed as I was logged in it would know I was the account owner, but no, my daughter now has it. Can you change it?!! No. 

 

Next off, one of my children didn’t accept the family invitation until were arrived in Crete. The links to join the family subscription all turned Greek, no way of changing the web ui language. 

 

Irrespective of the music, the dire ui and experience with the confusing experience I will be sacking this off. 

I didn't read the other replies but wanted to comment right away while I have a moment. Spotify hires some exceptional talent and organizes teams to foster the kind of pride in one's work that can only come from real product ownership. Their backend engineering organization is top notch and it shows in the quality of data delivery.

Does all this great backend engineering naturally translate into a fluid and enjoyable UX? **bleep** no.

 

In my personal opinion, Spotify's UX and Product Development is really dragging the whole company down. Their mandate is to get users consuming as much new content as possible, and they're all about the numbers.

I do not work at Spotify but obviously I believe I can shed some light on how most software organizations work.

I honestly believe this could be done on purpose.

 

Since listening to what we want is difficult more people listen to what Spotify chooses for them. This way Spotify has control over what we are listening to and the can capitalize on it by giving use cheaper music to listen to (Some artists get payed more than others) or accepting payment from artists to push their new albums.

 

I hope I'm wrong and Spotify simply has a dimwitted Product department but it's getting really hard to believe.

I've been using spotify for an hour and it's been giving me migranes. However there are other apps out there that are way better. The chinese NetEase is way easier to use and only requires a free vpn that connects to china to use it, (like UfunR). It's free, without audio ads interrupting your music and you can always get a premium (25rmb/month or 3$) for downloading popular tracks.
The UI is so much simpler and is even available in english. Hope this helps

i am developing a web-based, free player in the style of classic winamp.

also a mobile version is planned.

if u are interested take a look here: https://d-amp.net

It's hard to believe but as a long time Spotify user, things have deteriorated. The UX was much better long ago. Deezer's UX is pretty good mind you, just not a fan of the Flash app. Might reconsider them now that Spotify has gone woke with their BLM nonsense. 

I've used Google Play Music for years and now have to switch since they're discontinuing it. YouTube Music is all over the place and glitches out (especially in the car, and I drive long distances every week), so I'm trying Spotify for the first time. For laziness reasons, I'm just gonna copy/paste some of my tweets because I am currently on an unholy rant rampage on Twitter.

 

"so since I'm switching to Spotify because Google Play Music is ending, how do I get it to play the whole artist, not just their more popular songs? I'm already not liking this dumb algorithm." [screenshot of Spotify saying there's no way to shuffle an entire discography]

"And what's with this autoplay into different artists when you're done playing 30 of the current artist's songs?? I turned it off, but still. Shouldn't be a default. Do people actually like this?"

"ESPECIALLY when turning off autoplay in playlists is one of the selling points for getting premium. So you'll make us pay to turn off autoplay in playlists but default non-playlist music to autoplay? Buncha no good *grumbles*"

"Playing ONLY the most popular songs for any artist is stupid because any music lover worth their salt knows that the popular songs get old the fastest and we'd like to be able to pepper the non-singles and niche songs in with the ones we hear all the time" 

 

Your thought of the money making scheme makes SO much sense. I don't like a service that insults my intelligence and takes away the ability to choose.

 

(and here's that screenshot) 

Screenshot 2020-09-06 at 10.58.46 AM.png

"DevilEars 
 Roadie
 ‎2020-06-19 01:36 PM

It's hard to believe but as a long time Spotify user, things have deteriorated. The UX was much better long ago. Deezer's UX is pretty good mind you, just not a fan of the Flash app. Might reconsider them now that Spotify has gone woke with their BLM nonsense."

 

Black Lives Matter whether you like it or not. 

I am in complete agreement with you. It is 2020 and the spotify app is still terrible. I get frustrated that people don't seem to want to demand a better user experience.

I've had no problems with it. Sure there's guidelines you.must follow, but is that any different than any other sharing app ? Patience my friends

Why do i need a sidebar navigation on a tablet? Before it was a navbar at bottom (better solutionin my opinion). Startpage content is now truncated at right border. (Before it could use whole screen width)
I am afraid to update spotify app becouse i do not know which UX Failures are occuring with every update - i lost faith in spotify app updates due to lack of information about it.

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