How do I remove a column from the playlist?

[stygian69]

<rant>

Every playlist has a column telling me when I added that song to the playlist.  Of all the Spotify metadata do you know what I absolutely, under no circumstance give two craps about?  That's right!  When I added it to a playlist.  What's worse is that as the window gets smaller, does the app keep the song time visible? Nope, gotta know when I added Monkey Wrench to my Foo Fighters playlist.  Does it keep the album title?  Nope, why would you want to see that but here's when you added Sgt. Baker to your Primus playlist.  In fact, the desktop client on Windows won't allow you to make the window narrow enough to remove that column.  Does Spotify not hire UX people?

</rant>

Sorry.  I feel better.  So seriously how do I remove that pointless column?

[Harlowin]

I would despise it if they removed that column as I use the last added sort more than anything else. What you're really complaining about is how the UX doesn't suit your own personal needs. Which is fine, but don't complain about the UX being terrible because you don't like something.

It would be good to allow users to add/remove sorting columns but that's not supported at the moment so the answer is you can't.

[stygian69]

Okay.  I'll bite.  Why do you care when you added a track to play list?

[Harlowin]

It's the most logical order for me. Older songs are generally songs that I've heard many times and have been on the playlist for quite some time already. It's good to be able to go straight to the new music in a playlist because often the songs I'm currently "in love" with are the songs that are recent additions. Why would I sort by artist name when the only time it's useful is when you're looking for a particular artist (that's what filter is for)?

It's the only meaningful sorting option to me that has any use. I wish we could get the popularity sort back, though. I used that one a lot too.

UX decisions are complicated because different users have very different opinions on good UI. Given that people ask all the time how to sort songs by ascending date added on mobile forums, I'd say I'm not the only one who uses this option.

[stygian69]

Fair enough.  Not the way I need it but I see your point.

We'll just need to agree to disagree on the UX question.  I build enterprise class software for a living and the current Spotify client has all the hallmarks of "mobile first" decision making.  Which inevitably means that mobile client is pretty good and the desktop client is meh at best.  I certainly remember a far more feature rich desktop client back when I was Spotify user a year and half ago.

[stygian69]

Yep and sure enough... a Chromium license notice and... a Windows Template Library??  Wow.  No technical reason for the limitation (both add/remove columns and resize), this is just straight laziness on Spotify's part.  They want to write the client once (for mobile/web) and then just port it to the desktops.  Bad.  Objectively bad.

Hey Spotify please don't turn into Tidal.  I left them because of their desktop client.

[PJEC]

Maybe you should start 'Remove Columns From Playlists' as a new idea in Idea Submissions 

[stygian69]

They already exist.

Besides, voting something up is pretty much meaningless now.  Look at the local FLAC playback.  Been up since 2012, thousands of up votes, still hasn't been implemented.  Same with desktop EQ.  Same with column resize...  Spotify knows they don't really have compitition so for now Spotify gets to crap on it's customers.  If Tidal ever got their crap together I'd go back to them but their desktop client is worse than Spotify's.

[Harlowin]

I agree that it should be an option to change the columns, I was just trying to make the point that what you feel is a good UX decision does not mean it is a good UX decision across the board. I have a lot of particular wants/needs that probably wouldn't fit the wants/needs of the majority. I am also a developer and I have worked on a lot of poorly designed software where people have made this mistake. Opinions are like assholes and it pretty much depends on whose ass is in charge of what feature how things turn out. They do seem to have an impressive number of A/B tests running right now but they won't take user feedback directly.

The old old client (0.8X) did have a lot of really nice features that have since been removed. I think it's totally ridiculous that we have to vote useful features back in. Spotify has definitely been moving towards simplifying its interface at the cost of features since the version 1.0 update.

[quixoticcat]

Oh God. This so much. I've been trying to adapt to it but since they've made it so much more difficult to resize the desktop player (why can't I get rid of the "Find Friends" column?) it's actually making me question why I keep paying for a service that fills my day with petty aggravations. I am totally with you. When I added a song is meaningless when I listen to most of my playlists on shuffle anyway. I would so much rather be able to see the length of a song or the name of the album. It's ridiculous that this has been a problem for so long. 

[dalenerae]

I'm an instructional systems designer, but I worked for a custom software development company for 17 years---you know, programmers, software developers, graphic designers, web developers, UT people, editors, etc. etc.---and UX professionals, too, of course!

So your rant really made me laugh. OUT LOUD! Seriously! I'm a relatively new "serious/daily" Spotify user, and I've been shaking my head in disbelief over the same inanities you mention---and more. Is Spotify in financial trouble or something that prevents them from making some amazing improvements... improvements that would prevent the competition from gaining ground?

And Spotify? If you're listening? This is not rocket science. I can recommend experienced, talented professionals who can take care of all the usability deficiencies your main target audiences are complaining about. They could even work directly with your team to help them make it all happen Wouldn't that be great?  (You know... "Better product = Happy Customers and Better Reputation = Stronger Outcomes = However you define them, for example "More Market Share, Money and Fame!" right?????)

[omenatalo]

@quixoticcat

"why can't I get rid of the "Find Friends" column?"

Go to the View menu and uncheck "Right Sidebar." No more Find Friends column.

[evanhien]

I just want to see the name of the song and who sings it. Length, when I added it and on which album it originally was are of no interest to me. If I could change the width of the columns I could see what I want. But no. What we give you is what you get.

Sorting the playlists by name should be an option too. I have to scroll through it al the time and because it is not in alphabetical order it is not easy to find what I am looking for as I have many playlists... 😞 

It is a good thing that I have more ways to listen to the music I want... Spotify is very low on my to go apps, so if it is not as I would like it I just stop using it when I get fed up with it... And I am almost there now.

[spot117]

I detest the "new" windows desktop version. I had stifled updates to keep the old version until finally spotify did something that hosed my new releases lists. I'm on the new version but i hate it. Can't resize columns? Can't reorder columns? Cmon, Spotify, it's bad business to remove functionality.

[jeannettehoward]

It would be nice to be able to move them to our preferences like I’d like to how long the song is also before when I downloaded it!   Also if the columns were adjustable that would help too 

but thanks for explaining I was also frustrated I lost the time column as well under the friends column that I also like to see!