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[Music] Option to disable Videos in curated Playlists

Status: Case Closed
Submitted by on ‎2017-03-23 08:16 PM

Videos are a great media, however they should not be included in curated playlists. It is distracting to listeners that drive with Spotify, or put it on in the background at work. Also, are these videos downloaded when users make a playlist available offline? If yes, this may take up too much space. If no, this will eat data without an option to avoid them.

Updated on 2021-07-13

Hey folks,

 

Thanks to everyone for their contribution to this idea - We really appreciate it! 

 

This has been discussed internally multiple times now and while we would like to look into this, it's not currently on our radar.

 

That doesn't mean the door is completely closed, though. Even in a Closed state we'll still be tracking this idea and its votes.

 

Should anything change, we will make sure to post an update, but we also want to be transparent about what we are and what we aren't working on.

 

Thanks for understanding, and please keep those ideas and requests coming! Together we can make Spotify the best it can be.

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Comments
smapdi
Music Fan
‎2020-02-25 06:24 PM

I avoid most Spotify playlists to avoid videos. This is literally a feature that makes me use the platform LESS.

Stebulous
Visitor
‎2020-02-28 10:36 PM

ffs spotify we pay for this **bleep** its a data hog and an interruption to our music.

 

You should have plans to remove it.

vincentjr
Regular
‎2020-05-06 05:48 PM

Sending my usual reminder. I solved this by creating a script that removes the video.

 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3HAbgGG3dlUR7XfvavqPp9?si=QPvFqbVdTdqxFpOmfZKWkw

 

 

DrunkenBrad
Newbie
‎2020-08-20 02:36 AM

Please let us disable ANY video. I use Spotify for audio (mostly podcasts) and I can't listen to one now because the video is streaming! I often listen while driving and in a part of town I don't get signal; I noticed the downloaded podcast would buffer. Please please please let us disable it!

Wickwock
Visitor
‎2020-09-01 08:15 PM

For podcasts to disable video, download the podcast then go to offline mode.

a-fky1ryid_6w
Newbie
‎2020-09-03 09:26 AM

Uhm...

"While we don't have plans for disabling video content in playlists, we're marking this as a 'Good Idea'."

This is probably the first thing your team should have thought about. For an app that is primarily used on mobile... a piece of technology which uses mobile data... mobile data which is expensive around 90% of the world... forcing people to stream videos? Most JRE fans LISTEN to the podcast and that can be seen in the difference in numbers when checking Youtube vs other audio-only streaming platforms. My guess is Spotify wants to make it video-only to spam users with adds or some nonsense. Undoubtedly a stupid idea, honestly.

I can guarantee a large portion of people will either stop listening to JRE entirely or find some alternative audio-only platform to follow, including myself.

Fix this.

rexjenkins
Visitor
‎2020-09-17 09:32 PM

This problem hit me hard last night at the gym. I was listening to a downloaded podcast, and the app defaulted to streaming video over mobile connection instead of using the downloaded content. Serious bug that cost me about 1.5GB of data or $15 on Google Fi in an hour. The app should default to playing downloaded content instead of streaming, and it definitely should not play video if the phone is locked and in your pocket. These changes should not be difficult to implement, and greatly improve user satisfaction.

CAlbertSM
Music Fan
‎2020-09-18 02:31 PM

@rexjenkins is a pain that we as users need to find workarounds and "hacks" to issues Spotify refuse to fix for the sake of them caring more about profits than user experience.

 

My recommendation to avoid those issues, is straight go to Settings and put Spotify in Offline Mode to avoid issues, also check if you are allowing Spotify to use data, if not check that setting, and a more extreme way is to go to the app settings of your phone, and block data usage for the app from there.

darthpanfa
Newbie
‎2020-09-18 02:48 PM
Or alternatively, you can just cancel your service like I did. Spotify
doesn't give a **bleep** about its users.
wanderphx
Regular
‎2020-09-22 04:46 PM

There are so many good ideas, thoughtful responses, and, excellent examples of how this feature is a bog on a previously great service. As someone in the UX (actuall UX, not 'market strategy and making things look pretty'), HID and IT field I can tell you there is no good excuse for this.  Usually this type of issue is from poor management or gaining profit.  In this case since the videos are not advertisements it seems like a lose-lose; spotify and the user both use bandwidth for videos which costs money (at more of a determent to Users than spotify) and no big gain is to be had by either. 

 

Besides mismanagement, it may be that spotify is testing a video system to prepare for future features (eg: streaming movie/video content).  Even if this is the case, a simple checkbox to make videos optional would be a win-win (spotify gets to test, users have control over their limited bandwidth).  This seems like freshman year type stuff to me.  No excuse for it.

 

I am currently evaluating other services and will switch once I decide which one has the best UX.  (It is not looking like it will be spotify)